Decius

And you see sacrifices, or, or persecutions, I'm sorry, after the fire of Rome in 64 AD under Nero.

You see them again in the 250s when Emperor Trajan Decius is trying to handle climate change, borders, and, um, money debasement, and he thinks he can handle it with sacrificing Christians.

You also see this under Diocletian in, in the late th- the late 200s, early 300s, and a lot of people in Central Europe tend to call this the time of the martyrs because Diocletian was so severe on Christianity.

So I think the thing to understand about Rome is for the most part, it was very permissive of other religions, and they'd often pull in religious traditions of other places.

Uh, the Nile was a lot more fertile, the Nile Delta, so a lot of that grain would be grown there and then brought from the port in Alexandria into Rome.

The Nile River would flood every single year, and that would actually make the Nile Delta extremely fertile.

And this is actually, I talked earlier about, uh, Decius Trajan and one of the, the famous Christian persecutions.

He's also dealing with climate change.

In 250, the Goths, who in their migrations had come in contact with the Huns and had fled before them, were becoming dangerous on the Danube.

A Roman emperor, Decius, was defeated and slain by them.

During the whole of the third century, the confederacy then known as that of the Alamani was putting to the severest strain the efforts of emperors like Maximin, Claudius, Aurelian, and Probus to keep them from the Upper Rhine, and they ended by establishing themselves there in spite of the victories in the following century of Julian and Gratian.

In the year 240, the Germans of the Lower Rhine, no more known as the Chatti, Camavi, Buchtari, and only in rhetoric as Zegambrians, appear for the first time as the Franks, more furious, more enterprising, and more terrible in their ravages in Gaul than even the Alamani.

The reason why novels about Ancient Rome were so popular was because it was easy to draw a parallel between the imperialistic, urbanized world of the 19th century, where so many opinions were bandied about freely, and the decadent world of Ancient Rome.

And Cardinal Newman decided to write a novel about a young lady named Callista and her struggles to keep her Catholic faith during the persecutions of the Roman Emperor Decius.

Now, of course, Newman was writing this as a bit of a code.

The trials and tribulations of the Christian characters in this ancient Roman novel were to expose the treatment given to Catholics in the Protestant England of the 19th century.

Those being kings from the south.

And begin the fourth with the reign of Decius, and continue until the reign of Diocletian.

For the fourth horseman sat upon a pale horse, and his name was Death, and Hell followed with him, and power was given them to kill unto the fourth part of the earth with the sword, and with famine, and with the plague, and with the beasts of the earth.

Or armies of invaders and rebels.

In 250 the Goths, who in their migrations had come in contact with the Huns and had fled before them, were becoming dangerous on the Danube.

A Roman emperor, Decius, was defeated and slain by them.

During the whole of the third century the confederacy then known as that of the Alamani was putting to the severest strain the efforts of emperors like Maximin, Claudius, Aurelian, and Probus to keep them from the Upper Rhine, and they ended by establishing themselves there in spite of the victories in the following century of Julian and Gratian.

In the year 240 the Germans of the Lower Rhine, no more known as the Chatti, Camavi, Buchtari, and only in rhetoric as the Gaembrians, appear for the first time as the Franks, more furious, more enterprising, and more terrible in their ravages in Gaul than even the Alamani.

The horns are the same with those of Daniel's fourth beast described above.

The four horsemen which appear at the opening of the first four seals have been well explained by Mr. Mead, excepting that I had rather continue the third to the end of the reign of the three Gordians and Philip the Arabian, those being kings from the south, and begin the fourth with the reign of Decius, and continue until the reign of Diocletian.

For the fourth horseman sat upon a pale horse, and his name was Death.

And hell followed with him, and power was given them to kill unto the fourth part of the earth, with the sword, and with famine, and with the plague, and with the beasts of the earth.

The horns are the same with those of Daniel's fourth beast described above.

The four horsemen which appear at the opening of the first four seals are have been well explained by Mr. Mead, excepting that I had rather continue the third, to the end of the reign of the three Gordians, and Philip the Arabian, those being kings from the south, and begin the fourth with the reign of Decius, and continue until the reign of Diocletian.

For the fourth horseman

sat upon a pale horse, and his name was Death, and hell followed with him and power was given them to kill unto the fourth part of the earth with the sword and with famine and with the plague and with the beasts of the earth

Maximin, indeed, broke it in 235, but otherwise it extended from the beginning of the young manhood of Cyprian till he was of an age of between 55 and 60 years.

When the persecution began again in 249 in the region of Decius, Cyprian himself had become a Christian.

He had first chosen the profession of the law and attained a wide reputation for his eloquence and had become a senator.

He was rich both by his own efforts and by his family inheritance and lived handsomely in a great house in the midst of extensive grounds.

Thus he became, as the title ran, the Pope of Carthage.

Then arose the Decian persecution.

The thousandth year of the history of Rome had been celebrated with triumphal games, and the Emperor Decius was resolved to make the empire great again as it had been of old.

But two things were necessary.