Decius wrote:

Jello wrote:

Persecutions of Christians

Seeing it as a disruptive force, early in 250 Decius issued the edict for the suppression of Christianity. Exploiting popular hostility as a means of unifying the Empire, the "Decian persecution" famous to Christians began. Another motive for this persecution may have been Decius' religious views and pride in his Empire. He was a Roman of the old style who wished to restore Rome to its ancient glory. However, there were several factors eclipsing this glory: barbarian incursions into the Empire were becoming more and more daring, the ancient traditions were being forgotten, and the Empire was facing a serious economic crisis. To a traditionalist such as Decius, it would seem obvious that these problems were partly caused by the people neglecting the ancient gods. For Rome's ancient glory to return, she would need to return to her ancient religion. Therefore, Decius may have tried to stamp out the Christians because they were daily turning more and more people away from the traditional practices of worship and therefore, according to Decius' religious views, daily turning the gods away from Rome.

Not sure if your posting of this has any relationship to my handle but its probably worth pointing out that I didn't choose this handle because of the emperor, but rather because of Decius Wadsworth.

I knew you weren't named after the guy, but found this humorous as I was reading through emperors beginning with Julius Ceaser after watching Rome Season 2.

RE: Decius (emperor) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia