By Bart D. Ehrman, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Diocletian was one of the greatest emperors in the entire history of the Roman Empire, ruling from 284 to 305 CE. He also brought with him the biggest persecution that Christians had faced. Not surprisingly then, he is best remembered by the Roman historians throughout Christian history for inaugurating what is called ‘The Great Persecution of the Church’.
Diocletian’s Administrative Accomplishments
Diocletian is also acknowledged for his great administrative accomplishments, putting an end to the crisis of the 3rd century and reintroducing stability to the empire. Unfortunately, however, one of the ways he did so had an enormous effect on the future of Christianity.
By the time Diocletian assumed the imperial mantle, there was still a good bit of internal chaos. Diocletian’s eight immediate predecessors on the imperial throne had all been murdered, some of them within weeks or even days of taking office. However, he himself was to enjoy a reign of over 20 years making him the first Roman emperor ever to abdicate voluntarily.
About halfway through his reign, in 293 CE, Diocletian completely overhauled the structure of imperial rule. He had come to think as others may well have done before, that the empire was simply too massive to be ruled by just one person. Thus, he reorganized the imperial office. Instead of having himself as the sole ruler, Diocletian devised a system that is known as the tetrarchy, the rule of the four.
Tetrarchy
Tetrarchy may seem a bit complicated at first, but it was administratively rather simple. There would be four emperors, a senior and a junior one for the western part of the empire and a senior and a junior one for the east. Even though it sounds like they each got a portion of the empire, all four of them were to work together for the entire empire as a unit.
The virtue of the system was not just that the workload suddenly became more manageable, it was also, because, in theory at least, could guarantee perpetual stability. Diocletian introduced succession, based on merit and not because of blood relationship.
When one of the two senior emperors died, the one who had been his junior would assume the senior position. The successor to the junior position would then be chosen by one of the other emperors explicitly not because he was a relative, but because he was the most skilled and capable.
It was a stroke of brilliance, but in the long run, it didn’t work.
This article comes directly from content in the video series The Triumph of Christianity. Watch it now, on Wondrium.
The Great Persecution of the Church
When the tetrarchy was set up, Diocletian was to be the senior emperor in the east with his junior colleague, a man named Galerius. Intriguingly, it was a full decade after he had established the tetrarchy, and very near the end of his long and successful reign before Diocletian engaged in his best remembered policy, the ‘Great Persecution of The Church’.
It’s not clear if Diocletian himself was particularly concerned with the Christians, but Galerius almost certainly was. This was because the church was now gaining members’ hand over feast and traditional pagans felt that it had to be stopped. And yet, it was Diocletian who issued the decrees that led to the massive persecution which lasted 10 long years.
The decrees had four edicts in all. In the first, made in February 303, Diocletian ordered all Christian meetings illegal. Christian places of worship were to be destroyed. Christian scriptures were to be confiscated. Christians of high status were to be deprived of their rank. It was one thing though to illegalize the Christian faith and try to destroy it, and another thing to enforce the orders. As there was no imperial police force, enforcement was left to the local municipalities, some of which followed orders and some did not.
Galerius’s Anti-Christian Stand
Strangely, when one of the imperial palaces caught fire, not once but twice, Christians were suspected of arson. This led to a second decree. All Christian clergy were now to be arrested. A third decree followed which allowed the clergy to be released if they sacrificed to the gods. However, it was the fourth decree, issued in the spring of 304 that was the most severe. Everyone in the empire was required to participate in public sacrifices. Those who refused were to be executed.
As was the case with the first decree, the other three were not rigorously enforced everywhere. They had very little effect in the western part of the empire, and only spotty enforcement in the east, but those spots were hotspots indeed. There were multiple arrests, trials, and executions. Even though Diocletian himself abdicated for reasons of health in 305 CE, the persecution lived on. His successor in the east, Galerius was even more virulently anti-Christian and worked very hard to wipe out the church. But of course, he didn’t succeed.
Ironically, in one of the great reversals of history, it was precisely during the course of this Great Persecution that one of the emperors himself converted to Christianity. This marks one of the greatest turning points in Christian history, indeed in the history of the West. Clearly, Christianity was set to take over the Roman world. And it began with the conversion of Constantine himself!
Common Questions about Diocletian and the Great Persecution of the Church
Diocletian reorganized the imperial office. Instead of having himself as the sole ruler, he devised a system that is known as the tetrarchy, the rule of the four.
It was a full decade after he had established the tetrarchy, and very near the end of his long and successful reign before Diocletian engaged in the ‘Great Persecution of The Church’.
When one of the imperial palaces caught fire, not once but twice, Christians were suspected of arson. This led to a second decree. All Christian clergy were now to be arrested.
