Hello, and welcome to the history of Rome, Episode 128, The Great Persecution.

As we've seen over the course of the past few episodes, the first 15 years of Diocletian's

reign represented a sea change for the Roman Empire.

Some of the reforms he initiated were embraced as long overdue, while others were fought

tooth and nail every step of the way.

For example, the uprisings in Egypt triggered by the crackdown on taxivators.

Some of his reforms did not outlast his reign, while others became the entrenched status quo

for a thousand years or more, while others, like the price-edict, never even got off the

ground.

But all in all, there is no question that Diocletian had taken an empire that was adrift

and placed it back on solid ground.

And impressively, he had done all this with a minimum of ill-advised screw-ups.

That is, Diocletian sometimes pursued policies that were disruptive, and sometimes he pursued

policies that wound up producing no tangible benefits, but he almost never pursued policies

that were both at the same time.

I think it's fair to say that this week, we will see him pursue a policy that was both

in spades.

And ironically, for all that Diocletian did right, it was this thing he did wrong that

wound up changing the world more than anything else.

The trouble started in 299 AD, not long after Galerius returned to Antioch and Triumph, having

just defeated the Sassanids.

Diocletian and Galerius were together in the imperial residence and decided to have some

...