Posted on 02/26/2019 9:51:03 AM PST by Antoninus
In AD 303 on February 23, the Christian church of Nicomedia in Roman Bithynia was utterly destroyed. In this case, by “church” I am referring to the physical building as opposed to the human beings of Nicomedia who professed the Christian faith. Their destruction would come later.
The pulling down of the church of Nicomedia marked the beginning of a violent, Roman Empire-wide repression of Christianity known to future generations as the Great Persecution. This state-sponsored attack would be the most violent, wide-ranging, and longest-lasting effort of the Roman government to wipe out the hated Christian sect. It would also be the last. The campaign was sparked by the emperor Diocletian, who was himself instigated by his Caesar (or junior emperor), Galerius.
We have two ancient accounts of this event. The first is a brief notice in the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius:
"It was the nineteenth year of Diocletian's reign [AD 303] and the month Dystrus, called March by the Romans, and the festival of the Savior's Passion was approaching, when an imperial decree was published everywhere, ordering the churches to be razed to the ground and the Scriptures destroyed by fire, and giving notice that those in places of honor would lose their places, and domestic staff, if they continued to profess Christianity, would be deprived of their liberty. Such was the first edict against us. Soon afterwards other decrees arrived in rapid succession, ordering that the presidents of the churches in every place should all be first committed to prison and then coerced by every possible means into offering sacrifice." [Eccelsiastical History of Eusebius, Book VIII, Chapter 2]The second source is a much more detailed account from a very well educated Latin-speaking Roman named Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius. Known to later history simply as Lactantius....
(Excerpt) Read more at gloriaromanorum.blogspot.com ...
This article includes long passages from Lactantius, so I'm excerpting. Lactantius was an eye-witness to the events and later the tutor of Constantine the Great's son, Crispus.
Sarmatians?
Sarmatian, member of a people originally of Iranian stock who migrated from Central Asia to the Ural Mountains between the 6th and 4th century BC and eventually settled in most of southern European Russia and the eastern Balkans.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sarmatian
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarmatians
Definitely not related to the Samaritan’s of northern Israel.
Thank you. One has learned something today.
Catholic ping
You’re welcome.
Ancient History Ping.
The Sarmatians were distant kin of the much earlier Scythians. After a period of contention with the Roman Empire, they were defeated and their highly effective cavalry were press-ganged into service as auxiliaries to the Roman army -- but in far-flung areas, out of contact with the rest of their people, who were resettled in places. The Sarmatian cavalry saw most of its service in Britain, and some attribute the practice of the medieval jousts to the Sarmatian roots (I doubt this, btw). Ethnically and linguistically, they effectively ceased to exist by the time the Empire fell apart in the west. Another related people were the Alans.
And to walk down “historical movie road” the Sarmatian cavalry played a major part in the movie “King Arthur” that stared Clive Owen as Arturius, a Roman cavalry commander.
Lancelot: [voiceover] By 300 AD, the Roman Empire extended from Arabia to Britain. But they wanted more. More land. More peoples loyal and subservient to Rome. But no people so important as the powerful Sarmatians to the east. Thousands died on that field. And when the smoke cleared on the fourth day, the only Sarmatian soldiers left alive were members of the decimated but legendary cavalry. The Romans, impressed by their bravery and horsemanship, spared their lives. In exchange, these ...
See: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0349683/?ref_=nv_sr_2
Ping
:^) Yeah, I'd seen that view (Artorius as Arthur) presented as history, as well. There was some sort of post-Roman Romano-British successor state -- it built the Wansdyke across its southern boundary, had control of the Cornish peninsula (indeed, probably persiisted there the longest; it wasn't added to the Anglo-Saxon realms until Aethelstan), built so-called Offa's Dyke (the RC dating of the facing, much smaller barrier, Wat's Dyke, came back centuries older than Offa, and finally someone took the time to get a real dating for Offa's Dyke, it was also centuries older), relied on Hadrian's Wall for its northern boundary, and possibly relied on the density of population and cavalry for their eastern boundaries. The Car Dyke, a 2nd c Roman canal, remains in use today, and probably indicates a Roman-era population shift to the midlands.
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