Editing Galerius (section)

==Persecution of Christians==
{{Main|Diocletian Persecution}}
[[File:Thessaloniki-Arch of Galerius (detail).jpg|thumb|right| Detail of the [[Arch and Tomb of Galerius|Arch of Galerius]] in [[Thessaloniki]].]]

Christians had lived pleasantly during most of the rule of Diocletian. The persecutions that began with an edict of 24 February 303, were credited by Christians to Galerius' work, as he was a fierce advocate of the old ways and old gods. Christian houses of assembly were destroyed, for fear of sedition in secret gatherings. [[Diocletian]] was not anti-Christian during the first part of his reign, and historians have claimed that Galerius decided to prod him into persecuting them by secretly burning the Imperial Palace and blaming it on Christian saboteurs. Regardless of who was at fault for the fire, Diocletian's rage was aroused and he began one of the last and greatest Christian persecutions in the history of the [[Roman Empire]].{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}

It was at the insistence of Galerius that the last edicts of persecution against the [[Christians]] were published, beginning in 303, and this policy of repression was maintained by him until the appearance of the general edict of toleration, issued in [[Serdica]]<ref>{{cite book |first=Edward |last=Gibbon |author-link=Edward Gibbon |title=The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pksA7j6ZXLgC&pg=PA132 |year= 2008 |publisher=Cosimo, Inc. |isbn=978-1-60520-122-1 |page=132}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=Ramsay |last1=MacMullen |author-link=Ramsay MacMullen |first2=Eugene |last2=Lane |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q_lvnk-z5QUC&pg=PA219 |title=Paganism and Christianity, 100–425 C.E.: A Sourcebook |publisher=[[Fortress Press]] |date= 1992 |page=219 |isbn=9781451407853}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=Sarolta Anna |last1=Takacs |first2=Eric H. |last2=Cline |author2-link=Eric H. Cline |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SPcvCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA202 |title=The Ancient World |publisher=[[Routledge]] |date=2015 |page=202 |isbn=9781317458395}}</ref> in April 311, apparently during his last bout of illness (see ''[[Edict of Toleration by Galerius]]''). Galerius's last request was that Christians should pray for him as he suffered with a painful and fatal illness.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oOMkBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA338 |title=Birth of the Church: From Jesus to Constantine, AD 30–312 |first=J. |last=Davidson |publisher=Monarch Books |year=2005 |isbn=978-1854246585}}</ref>

Initially one of the leading figures in the persecutions, Galerius later admitted that the policy of trying to eradicate Christianity had failed, saying:  "wherefore, for this our indulgence, they ought to pray to their God for our safety, for that of the republic, and for their own, that the republic may continue uninjured on every side, and that they may be able to live securely in their homes."  [[Lactantius]] gives the text of the edict in his moralized chronicle of the bad ends to which all the persecutors came, ''De Mortibus Persecutorum''.<ref>{{citation | last = Lactantius | title = De Mortibus Persecutorum |trans-title=On the Deaths of the Persecutors | chapter = 34, 35}}</ref> This marked the end of official persecution of Christians, which was officially legalized two years later by Constantine and [[Licinius]] in the [[Edict of Milan]].