Diocletianic persecution. The Melitians sided with Arius, thus strengthening his moral
authority.
To sum up, Christianity had become stronger during the third century, the num-
ber of adherents growing significantly. They were well educated and well organized,
but exactly those factors caused heavy disputes because they forced the Christians
to develop clearer criteria for the adherence to their churches. Rifts occurred,
schisms which weakened the Christian communities to a certain degree, but did not
lead to a complete disintegration of Christianity.
There was still space for a new religion: Manicheism. Its Persian founder Mani
(216 – c. 276), being influenced by Christian-Gnostic and Persian (Zoroastrian) tradi-
tions alike, perhaps also by Buddhism, had developed a religious system to which
the idea of a conflict between good and bad was central. This dualism and the
rigorous norms applied to the way of life to be led by believers contributed to
the appeal which the new religion had for many people. Although Mani at first
had demonstrated his loyalty toward the Persian king, he was persecuted in Persia
and finally killed. Nevertheless, his ideas survived, spreading at home and across
the Roman empire. For traditional Romans this new religion was barely distinguish-
able from Christianity, whereas Christians struggled to show their difference from
this cult.Imperial Intervention I: Reshaping Paganism
More than every other inhabitant of the Roman empire, the emperor was obliged
to ensure the peace of the gods, and all of them strove to show their endeavors.
Philip the Arab (244 –9) celebrated the thousandth birthday of Rome on April 21,
248, with splendid games, commemorating the long tradition of Rome (only to
lose his reign and life a year later). On the other hand, his benevolence toward
Christianity – reminiscent of some Severan emperors or empresses – was so striking
as to give to some later Christian authors the certainly false impression that he was
a Christian himself.
The reign of Decius (249–51), who had come to the throne as a usurper, resulted
in a break with tolerance. He energetically tried to renew Roman traditions.
Obviously, his main concern was to make clear that only the traditional gods could
grant the well-being of the empire and to show his piety by a supplicatio, a special
kind of religious sacrifice to be made in difficult times.
The relevant edict is not preserved, but its outlines can be reconstructed on the
basis of a variety of sources (namely Eus. HE6.41.9 –13; Cyprianus, Epist.5 – 43):
Decius apparently commanded every inhabitant of the Roman empire to sacrifice,
to taste the sacrificial meal, and to swear that they had always sacrificed. The most
unusual element was that special commissions, consisting of local magistrates, super-
vised the sacrifices and made written confirmation of every perpetrator, in so-called
libelli. Several of them have been found on Egyptian papyri (for example Papyrus
Oxyrhynchos4.658). Those refusing could be fined, apparently not by the commissions,
100 Hartmut Leppin