On this date in 303: Diocletian orders the elimination of Christianity

On February 23, 303 the Roman Emperor Diocletian issued the first of several edicts in which he and his fellow co-emperors attempted to eliminate Christianity from the face of the Earth – they failed.

From its very beginning, Christianity was viewed a threat to the Roman state. Romans were very religious. The Romans believed in many gods and goddesses. They readily adopted Greek gods and embraced them as their own mythology. Assyrians gods, Egyptian gods all had their cults in Rome. Christianity, like Judaism and Zoroastrianism before it was different. It was a monotheistic religion. Christians believed in one God and unlike pagans they did not worship the gods of a new town or province alongside their home gods.

The First Commandment was clear: "I am the Lord thy God: thou shalt not have strange gods before me." As Rome transitioned from Republic to Empire, emperors adopted the Egyptian custom of claiming to be divine. Citizens of Rome were expected to offer sacrifices to the gods and recognize Caesar as emperor. They would not and that disturbed some in authority.

Some emperors tolerated Christians and more or less ignored the Church as it grew. Others including Nero, Vespasian, Domitian, Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Decius, and Valerian all persecuted the Church to one degree or another – believing that Christianity undermined the traditional Roman values; but most persecutions did not last long or were localized. Diocletian's persecution is "The Great Persecution" because of the sheer numbers of Christians killed, mutilated, enslaved, and made homeless and how widespread it was. While 19th Century historians (most notably Gibbons) dismiss the persecutions' severity, modern estimates are that at least 23,000 Christians died at the hands of the Empire between 303 and 311.

Diocletian was one of several third century a Roman general who was vnot Roman – but actually of barbarian Balkan heritage (something their contemporary biographers often worked to cover up). The third century was chaotic with dozens of emperors, revolts, famines, plagues, and invading barbarians. In 284 Diocletian seized power. The empire that Diocletian seized was much weaker and more divided than the one Marcus Aurelius left to his son 150 years earlier. Diocletian sought to restore the might and glory of Rome, and he had incredible success in doing that. Believing that the Empire had grown too big for one man he divided the empire into four each ruled by a co-emperor. He reformed the military, architecture, and the courts and did much to reunify Roman civilization; but he was perplexed with what to do with Christianity. He was a conservative who associated himself with the god Jupiter. Christianity was now a much larger and more visible presence than it was in the Pax Romana. By the late Third Century, there were Christians in every province and every social class in the empire from slave to even some of the very wealthy. There were Christians in the military and even in the royal court.

The co-emperor Galerius urged Diocletian to issue a broad general persecution of the Christians in 302. Diocletian hesitated. He consulted the Pagan Oracle at Didyma. The Oracle issued a cryptic message suggesting that Christians practicing their faith was making it difficult to commune with the Roman gods.

There has not been a persecution of Christianity in 40 years – not since Valerian's reign. Large Christian Churches were built in this time period including one overlooking the imperial palace in Nicomedia. That church was the first Church targeted.

On February 23, 303, Diocletian issued an edict closing the Churchy at Nicomedia. It was the first but not the last. Diocletian ordered Christian churches closed throughout the Empire and scriptures burned. Christians who would not renounce their faith by sacrificing to Jupiter were slowly boiled to death. Christians were castrated and sent into slavery. Christian virgins were sent to brothels. Christians' property was seized and them and their families sold into slavey

This was the fourth century and not the second, by this time 10% of the Empire was Christian and it was much higher than that in the cities. Everybody knew, were related to, and did business with Christians. This persecution was very unpopular with the people who sympathized more with the Christians being tortured and removed from their homes than the aging emperor. Worse the very tetrarchy that Diocletian had created to govern the empire worked against Diocletian. While he and Galerius ruthlessly carried out these persecutions in their territories; Maximian was less active in pursuing these policies. Constantius, who ruled in modern England, France, Holland, and west Germany followed the first edict to close the churches and seize scriptures. He ignored Diocletian's calls for a general sacrifice to Jupiter and the other edicts with the mass executions. In 306, his son, Constantine, assumed the throne. Constantine reopened most of the Churches and even restored property that had been taken from Christians in his domain. In 306 Maxentius overthrew Severus (who was Maximian's successor) and declared religious tolerance and freedom in Italy.

Diocletian retired for the last time in 311. Galerius halted his persecutions with the Edict of Serdica realizing that he had made a terrible strategic mistake in the game of thrones that was now underway. Constantine and Licinius (who had succeeded Diocletian issued the' Edict of Milan in 313 promising religious tolerance throughout the empire. In the civil wars that followed, Christians flocked to Constantine's banner. By 324 Constantine had eliminated his three rivals and had all the power to himself. Christian Bishops and theologians were soon dinner guests of the emperor, and he was sponsoring new Churches. The Christian Church was clearly in the ascendancy. His successors would close the centuries old pagan temples the state maintained and make Christianity the official religion of the Empire.

Diocletian's persecutions were intended to destroy Christianity; ultimately resulted in the death of the Greco-Roman religion in the decades after his death.