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Before Galerius' edict of toleration[edit]

Date Deaths
303–305
13
306–310
34
310–311
44
Palestinian martyrs recorded
in the Martyrs of Palestine.
After Clarke, 657–58.

Palestine is the only region for which an extended local perspective of the persecution exists, in the form of Eusebius' Martyrs of Palestine. Eusebius was resident in Caesarea, the capital of Palestine, for the duration of the persecution, although he also traveled to Phoenicia and Egypt, and perhaps Arabia as well.[1] Eusebius' account is imperfect. It focuses on martyrs that were his personal friends before the persecutions began, and includes martyrs that took place outside of Palestine.[2] His coverage is uneven: He provides only bare generalities at the bloody end of the persecutions, for example.[3] Eusebius recognizes some of his faults. At the outset of his account of the general persecution in the Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius laments the incompleteness of his reportage: "how could one number the multitude of martyrs in each province, and especially those in Africa and Mauretania, and in Thebaid and Egypt?"[4]

Since no one below the status of governor held the legal power to enforce capital punishment, most recalcitrant Christians would have been sent to Caesarea to await punishment.[5] The first martyr, Procopius, was sent to Caesarea from Scythopolis (Beit She'an, Israel), where he had been a reader and an exorcist. He was brought before the governor on June 7, 303, and asked to sacrifice to the gods, and to pour a libation for the emperors. Procopius responded by quoting Homer: "the lordship of many is not a good thing; let there be one ruler, one king". The governor beheaded the man at once.[6]

Further martyrdoms followed in the months thereafter,[7] increasing in the next spring, when the new governor, Urbanus, published the fourth edict.[8] Eusebius probably does not list a complete account of all those executed under the fourth edict—he alludes in passing to others imprisoned with Thecla, for example, though he does not name them.[9]

Maximinus, Caesar of Palestine, Syria, and Egypt from 305 to 312

The bulk of Eusebius' account deals with Maximinus.[10] Maximinus took up the office of emperor in Nicomedia on May 1, 305, and immediately thereafter left the city for Caesarea (hurrying, Lactantius alleges, so as to oppress and trample the diocese of Oriens).[11] Initially, Maximinus governed only Egypt and the Levant. He issued his own persecutionary edict in the spring of 306, ordering general sacrifice.[12] The edict of 304 had been difficult to enforce, since the Imperial government had no record of city-dwelling subjects who held no agricultural land.[13] Galerius solved this problem in 306 by running another census. This contained the names of all urban heads of household and the number of their dependents (past censuses had only listed persons paying tax on land, such as landowners and tenants).[14] Using lists drawn up by the civil service, Maximinus ordered his heralds to call all men, women, and children down to the temples. There, after tribunes called everyone by name, everyone sacrificed.[15]

Eusebius characterizes Urbanus as a man who enjoyed some variety in his punishments. One day, shortly after Easter 307, he ordered the virgin Theodosia from Tyre (Ṣūr, Lebanon) thrown to the sea for conversing with Christians attending trial (and refusing sacrifice, of course); the Christians in court, meanwhile, were sent to Phaeno.[16] On November 2, 307, Urbanus sentenced Domninus to be burned alive, three youths to fight as gladiators, a priest to be exposed to a beast, Silvanus, bishop of the churches around Gaza, and his thirty-nine companions to work in the coppermines (Silvanus was later beheaded[17]), and a number of others (including Pamphilus of Caesarea, a priest, scholar, and defender of the theologian Origen), to prison. He also ordered some young men to be castrated, and sent three maidens to brothels.[18] Urbanus, however, was soon dead. For unknown reasons, Urbanus was stripped of his rank, imprisoned, tried, and executed, all in one day of expedited proceedings.[19] His replacement, Firmilianus, was one of Maximinus' trusted confidants and a veteran soldier.[20]

At some point after the publication of Maximinus' first edict, perhaps in 307, Maximinus changed the penalty for transgressions. Instead of receiving the death penalty, Christians would now be mutilated and condemned to labor in state-owned mines.[21] Since Egyptian mines were overstaffed (mostly due to the influx of Christian prisoners), Egyptian penitents were increasingly sent to the copper mines at Phaeno in Palestine and Cilicia in Asia Minor. At Diocaesarea (Tzippori, Israel) in the spring of 308, 97 Christian confessors were received by Firmilianus from the porphyry mines in the Thebaid. Firmilianus cut the tendons on their left feet, blinded their right eyes, and sent them to the mines of Palestine.[22] On another occasion, 130 others received the same punishment. Some were sent to Phaeno, and some to Cilicia.[23]

Eusebius notes that this event marked the beginning of a temporary respite from persecution.[24] Although the precise dating of this respite is not specifically noted by Eusebius, the text of the Martyrs records no Palestinian martyrs between July 25, 308 and November 13, 309.[25] The political climate impinges on persecutionary policy here: This was the period of the conference of Carnuntum, which met in November 308. Maximinus probably spent the next few months in discussion with Galerius over his role in the imperial college.[26]

In the autumn 309,[27] Maximinus resumed persecution by issuing letters to provincial governors and his praetorian prefect, demanding that Christians conform to pagan customs. His new legislation called for another general sacrifice, coupled with a general offering of libations. It was even more systematic than the first, allowing no exceptions for infants or servants. Logistai (curatores), strategoi, duumviri, and tabularii, who kept the records, saw to it that there were no evasions. This edict also required food sold in the marketplaces to be covered in libation, and set sentries to stand guard over bathhouses to ensure that all customers sacrificed.[28] Maximinus also demanded that vigorous restoration work be done on decaying temples within his domain.[29]

The next few months saw the worst extremes of the persecution.[30] On December 13, 309, Firmilianus condemned some Egyptians arrested at Ascalon (Ashkelon, Israel) on their way to visit the confessors in Cilicia. Three were beheaded; the rest lost their left feet and right eyes. On January 10, 310, Peter and the Marcionite bishop Asclepius, both from Anaia, near (Eleutheropolis, Israel), were burned alive.[31] On February 16, Pamphilus and his six companions were executed. In the aftermath, four more members of Pamphilus' household were martyred for their displays of sympathy for the condemned. The last martyrs before Galerius' edict of toleration were executed on March 5 and 7.[32] At once, the executions stop. Eusebius does not explain this sudden stop, but it coincides with the replacement of Firmilianus with Valentinianus, a man appointed at some time before Galerius' death.[33] The replacement is only attested to via epigraphic remains; Eusebius does not mention Valentinianus anywhere in his writings.[34]

After Galerius' edict of toleration[edit]

After Galerius' death, Maximinus seized Asia Minor.[35] Even after Galerius' edict of toleration in 311, Maximinus continued to persecute.[36] His name is absent from the list of emperors publishing Galerius' edict of toleration (perhaps through later suppression).[37] Eusebius states that Maximinus complied with its provisions only reluctantly.[38] Maximinus told his praetorian prefect Sabinus to write to provincial governors, requesting that they and their subordinates ignore "that letter" (Galerius' edict).[39] Christians were to go free from molestation, and their mere Christianity would not leave them open to criminal charges. Unlike Galerius' edict, however, Maximinus' letter made no provisions for Christian assembly, nor did he suggest that Christians build more churches.[40]

Maximinus issued orders forbidding Christians to congregate in cemeteries in Autumn 311.[41] After issuing these orders, he was approached by embassies from cities within his domain, demanding he begin a general persecution. Lactantius and Eusebius state that these petitions were not voluntary, but had been made at Maximinus' behest.[42] Maximinus began persecuting Church leaders before the end of 311. Peter of Alexandria was beheaded on November 26, 311.[43] Lucian of Antioch was executed in Nicomedia on January 7, 312.[44] Many other Egyptian bishops, according to Eusebius, suffered the same fate.[45] According to Lactantius, Maximinus ordered confessors to have "their eyes gouged out, their hands cut off, their feet amputated, their noses or ears severed".[46] Antioch asked Maximinus if it could forbid Christians from living in the city.[47] In response to this request, Maximinus issued a rescript encouraging every city to expel its Christians. This rescript was published in Sardis on April 6, 312, and in Tyre by May or June.[48] There are three surviving copies of Maximinus' rescript, in Tyre, Arycanda (Aykiriçay, Turkey), and Colbasa. They are all essentially identical.[49]

When Maximinus received notice that Constantine had succeeded in his campaign against Maxentius, he issued a new letter restoring Christians their former liberties.[50] The text of this letter (preserved in Eusebius' Historia Ecclesiastica), however, was such as to suggest that the initiative was Maximinus' alone, and not that of Constantine or Licinius. It is also the only passage in the ancient sources providing Maximinus' rationale for his actions, without the hostility of Lactantius and Eusebius. Maximinus states that he supported Diocletian and Galerius' early legislation but, upon being made Caesar, came to realize the drain such policies would have on his labor force, and began to employ persuasion without coercion.[51] He goes on to assert that he resisted petitions from Nicomedians to forbid Christians from their city (an event Eusebius does not otherwise record),[52] and that when he accepted the demands of deputations from other cities he was only following imperial custom.[53] Maximinus concludes his letter by referencing the letter he wrote after Galerius' edict, asking that his subordinates be lenient. He does not refer to his early letters, which encouraged avid persecution.[54]

In the early spring of 313, as Licinius advanced against Maximinus, the latter resorted to savagery in his dealings with his own citizens, and his Christians in particular.[55] In May 313,[56] Maximinus issued one more edict of toleration, hoping to persuade Licinius to stop advancing, and win more public support. For the first time, Maximinus issued a law which offered comprehensive toleration and the means to effectively secure it. Like in his last letter, Maximinus is apologetic but one-sided.[57] Maximinus absolves himself for all the failings of his policy, locating fault with local judges and enforcers instead.[58] He frames the new universal toleration as a means of removing all ambiguity and extortion. Maximinus then declares full freedom of religious practice, encourages Christians to rebuild their churches, and pledges to restore Christian property lost in the persecution.[59] The edict changed little: Licinius defeated Maximinus at the Battle of Adrianople on April 30, 313.[60] Maximinus committed suicide at Tarsus in the summer of 313. On June 13, Licinius published the "Edict of Milan" in Nicomedia.[61]

  1. ^ Barnes, CE, 148–50.
  2. ^ Barnes, CE, 154–55.
  3. ^ Eusebius HE 8.7ff; Kersetzes, 389.
  4. ^ Eusebius, HE 8.6.10, qtd. and tr. in Kersetzes, 389.
  5. ^ Barnes, CE, 150.
  6. ^ Eusebius, MP (L) 1.1ff; Barnes, CE, 150–51.
  7. ^ Eusebius, MP (L) 1.5; Barnes, CE, 151.
  8. ^ Eusebius, MP 3.1; Barnes, CE, 151, 356 n.27.
  9. ^ Eusebius, MP (L) 3.2; Barnes, CE, 151.
  10. ^ Kersetzes, 389.
  11. ^ Lactantius, DMP 19.1; Barnes, CE, 151.
  12. ^ Eusebius, MP 4.8; Kersetzes, 384.
  13. ^ de Ste Croix, "Aspects", 97, 113; Barnes, CE, 153.
  14. ^ Lactantius, DMP 23.1ff; Barnes, CE, 151–52.
  15. ^ Eusebius, MP 4.8; Barnes, CE, 152; Kersetzes, 384; Mitchell, 112.
  16. ^ Eusebius, MP 7.1f; Barnes, CE, 152.
  17. ^ Eusebius, HE 8.13.5; MP 13; Kersetzes, 388.
  18. ^ Eusebius, HE 8.13.5; MP 7.3ff; 13; Barnes, CE, 152–53; Kersetzes, 388.
  19. ^ Eusebius, MP 7.3ff; 13; Barnes, CE, 153.
  20. ^ Eusebius, MP (L) 8.1; (S) 11.31; Barnes, CE, 153.
  21. ^ Eusebius, MP 7.1–4; Kersetzes, 388. On Christian condemnation to the mines in general, see J.G. Davies, "Condemnation to the Mines: A Neglected Chapter in the History of the Persecutions," University of Birmingham Historical Journal 6 (1958), 99–107. The same punishment was later used on Christian heretics, on which see Mark Gustafson, "Condemnation to the Mines in the Later Roman Empire," Harvard Theological Review 87:4 (1994), 421–33.
  22. ^ Eusebius, MP 8.1–4; Barnes, CE, 153; Kersetzes, 388. S. Lieberman, in the Annuaire de l'Institut de Philologie et d'Histoire Orientales et Slaves 7 (1939–44), 410ff, located this event at Lydda (Lod, Israel). Barnes (CE, 357 n.39) contests this identification, arguing that since Eusebius specifically identifies the city as wholly Jewish, it is unlikely to have been Lydda, which had a Christian bishop by 325. Diocaesarea, however, was noted for its Jewishness long thereafter.
  23. ^ Eusebius, MP 8.13; Barnes, CE, 153; Kersetzes, 388.
  24. ^ Eusebius, MP 9.1; Barnes, CE, 153.
  25. ^ G.M. Richardson, "The Chronology of Eusebius: Reply," The Classical Quarterly 19:2 (1925), 100, cited in Barnes, CE, 153, 357 n.42.
  26. ^ Barnes, CE, 153.
  27. ^ Barnes, CE, 153.
  28. ^ Eusebius, MP 9.2; Barnes, CE, 153; Kersetzes, 384; Mitchell, 112.
  29. ^ Mitchell, 112.
  30. ^ Barnes, CE, 154.
  31. ^ Eusebius, MP 10.1ff; Barnes, CE, 154.
  32. ^ Eusebius, MP 11.1ff; Barnes, CE, 154.
  33. ^ L'Année Épigraphique 1964.198: Scythopolis, cited in Barnes, CE, 154, 357 n.49.
  34. ^ Barnes, CE, 357 n.49.
  35. ^ Mitchell, 113.
  36. ^ Clarke, 660; Mitchell, 113.
  37. ^ Barnes, NE, 22–23; Michell, 113 n.21.
  38. ^ Eusebius, HE 9.1.1; Mitchell, 113.
  39. ^ Eusebius, HE 9.1.2, 9.1.3–6; Mitchell, 113.
  40. ^ Mitchell, 113.
  41. ^ Eusebius, HE 9.2.1; Clarke, 660; Mitchell, 114.
  42. ^ Eusebius, HE 9.2; Lactantius, DMP 36.3; Mitchell, 114.
  43. ^ Eusebius, HE 9.6.2; Clarke, 660.
  44. ^ Eusebius, HE 9.6.3; Clarke, 660.
  45. ^ Eusebius, HE 9.6.2; Clarke, 660.
  46. ^ Lactantius, DMP 36.7, qtd. and tr. in Clarke, 660.
  47. ^ Eusebius, HE 9.7.3–14; Mitchell, 114.
  48. ^ Mitchell, 114.
  49. ^ Mitchell, 117.
  50. ^ Eusebius, HE 9.9a.4–9; Mitchell, 114.
  51. ^ Eusebius, HE 9.9a.2–3; Mitchell, 114.
  52. ^ Eusebius, HE 9.9a.4; Mitchell, 114.
  53. ^ Eusebius, HE 9.9a.5–6; Mitchell, 114.
  54. ^ Eusebius, HE 9.9a.7–9; Mitchell, 114–15.
  55. ^ Eusebius, HE 9.10.1–2; Lactantius, DMP 37.3–42; Mitchell, 115.
  56. ^ Barnes, NE, 68; Mitchell, 115.
  57. ^ Mitchell, 115.
  58. ^ Eusebius, HE 9.10.8–9; Mitchell, 115.
  59. ^ Eusebius, HE 9.10.10–11; Mitchell, 115.
  60. ^ Lactantius, DMP 46.8–9; Mitchell, 115.
  61. ^ Mitchell, 116.
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