Editing Decius (section)

==Persecution of Christians==
{{Main article|Decian persecution}}
{{further|Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire#Decius}}
[[File:Decius dressed as Hercules.jpg|alt=A marble statue of Emperor Decius dressed as Hercules, discovered 25 January 2023 during sewer repair works in Rome.|thumb|A marble statue of Emperor Decius dressed as Hercules discovered on 25 January 2023 during sewer repair works in Rome.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.livescience.com/statue-of-slain-roman-emperor-dressed-as-hercules-found-near-sewer-in-rome|title=Statue of slain Roman emperor dressed as Hercules found near sewer in Rome|author1=Owen Jarus|date=6 February 2023|website=livescience.com}}</ref>]]

In late 249, Decius had issued one of the most remarkable Roman imperial edicts. From the numerous surviving texts from Egypt, recording the act of sacrifice, it appears that the edict itself was fairly clear:<ref name=Potter241>Potter 2004, p. 241</ref>

{{blockquote|text=All the inhabitants of the empire were required to sacrifice before the magistrates of their community "for the safety of the empire" by a certain day (the date would vary from place to place and the order may have been that the sacrifice had to be completed within a specified period after a community received the edict). When they sacrificed they would obtain a certificate ([[libellus]]) recording the fact that they had complied with the order. That is, the certificate would testify the sacrificant's loyalty to the ancestral gods and to the consumption of sacrificial food and drink as well as the names of the officials who were overseeing the sacrifice.<ref name=Potter241/>|author=D. S. Potter|title=''The Roman Empire at Bay AD 180–395''}}

According to D. S. Potter, Decius did not try to impose the superiority of the Roman pantheon over any other gods. It is very probable that the edict was an attempt to legitimize his position and to respond to a general unease provoked by the passing of the Roman millennium.<ref name=Potter243>Potter 2004, p. 243</ref> While Decius himself may have intended the edict as a way to reaffirm his conservative vision of the Pax Romana and to reassure Rome's citizens that the empire was still secure, it nevertheless sparked a "terrible crisis of authority as various Christian bishops and their flocks reacted to it in different ways."<ref name="Decius: 249 - 251 AD">[https://web.archive.org/web/20110330183455/http://www.umich.edu/~classics/programs/class/cc/372/sibyl/en/Decius.html Decius: 249–251 AD] University of Michigan. Retrieved 30 March 2011</ref> Measures were first taken demanding that the [[bishop]]s and officers of the church make a sacrifice for the emperor. The sacrifice was "on behalf of" (Latin ''pro'') the emperor, not ''to'' the emperor, since a living emperor was not considered [[divus|divine]]. Certificates were issued to those who satisfied the commissioners during the persecution of Christians under Decius. Forty-six [[libellus|such certificates]] have been published, all dating from 250, four of them from [[Oxyrhynchus]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/250sacrificecert.html |title=Ancient History Sourcebook |access-date=26 September 2006 |archive-date=16 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141116082120/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/250sacrificecert.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Anyone, including Christian followers, who refused to offer a sacrifice for the emperor and the Empire's well-being by a specified date risked torture and execution.<ref name = Scarre170>Scarre 1995, p. 170</ref> A number of prominent Christians did, in fact, refuse to make a sacrifice and were killed in the process, including [[Pope Fabian]] himself in 250, and "anti-Christian feeling[s] led to killings at Carthage and Alexandria."<ref name = Scarre170/> However, towards the end of the second year of Decius' reign, "the ferocity of the [anti-Christian] persecution had eased off, and the earlier tradition of tolerance had begun to reassert itself."<ref name = Scarre170/>  Christians bore the brunt of the persecution and never forgot the reign of Decius, whom they remembered as "that fierce tyrant".<ref name = Scarre170/> In June 251 Decius died alongside his co-emperor [[Herennius Etruscus]] in the [[Battle of Abritus|Battle Abrittus]] against the Goths; their successors [[Trebonianus Gallus]] and [[Hostilian]] rescinded Decius' decree, ending the persecution after approximately eighteen months.

[[File:Busto del emperador Decio encontrado en Sarmizegetusa (3).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Bronze head of Decius from the former [[Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa|Colonia Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa]]. [[National Museum of Romanian History]], Bucharest.]]

At this time, there was a second outbreak of the [[Antonine Plague]], which at its height from 251 to 266, took the lives of 5,000 daily in Rome. This outbreak is referred to as the "[[Plague of Cyprian]]" ([[Cyprian]] was the bishop of [[Carthage]], where both the plague and the persecution of Christians were especially severe). Cyprian's biographer [[Pontius of Carthage|Pontius]] gave a vivid picture of the demoralizing effects of the plague and Cyprian moralized the event in his essay ''De mortalitate''. In Carthage, the "Decian persecution", unleashed at the onset of the plague, sought out Christian scapegoats. Decius' edicts were renewed under Valerian in 253 and repealed under his son, [[Gallienus]], in 260–261.