if any impact (Humphries forthcoming c). Perhaps the most telling
indication of the limits of persecution is the most obvious: it did
not work (Frend 1959; Drake forthcoming).
A major difficulty in trying to see the persecutions as histor-
ical events arises from our almost total dependence on Christian
sources (for an exception, see the case study at the end of this
chapter). In some cases, such as Eusebius and Lactantius, they
quote decrees of individual emperors. Interestingly, however,
such quotations are mainly drawn from imperial proclamations
bringing persecutions to an end, not from those that ushered them
in (we have not a single word, for example, of any of Diocletian’s
four persecution edicts of 303–4). The result is that we rely on
Christian sources not only for quotations from and summaries of
imperial documents, but also for the historical framework within
which to interpret them. Through their scrutiny of such texts,
modern scholars generally agree that there was no universal
edict against the Christians before the middle of the third century,
even if local persecutions were quite common (Ste Croix 1963;
Barnes 1968).
A major change in Roman policy occurred with the
accession of the emperor Decius in 249. Christian sources give
the impression that Decius compelled Christians throughout the
empire to offer sacrifice (e.g. Passion of Pionius 3.1). Other
contemporary Christian accounts, such as those preserved in
the correspondence of Cyprian of Carthage or Dionysius of
Alexandria (quoted by Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History6.40–2),
indicate that considerable disruption and hardship was unleashed
upon the church. There also survive some forty-four papyrus
certificates from Egypt that record sacrifices offered by individ-
uals in accordance with Decius’ orders. Some of these, however,
suggest that sacrifices were demanded of the empire’s population
generally – one records the sacrifices offered by a pagan priestess- and not just the Christians. Although this Egyptian evidence is
the most voluminous non-Christian record of religious affairs
under Decius, there are hints from elsewhere in the empire of
similar activities. For instance, an inscription from Aphrodisias
EARLY CHRISTIANITY AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE
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