Dr. David Gwynn

That's what the Tetrarchs are trying to do.

Where there's a real difference is because there are four Tetrarchs, there's no guarantee they all actually thought the same.

Constantius Chlorus, so the Caesar in the West, is claimed in our sources to have done basically nothing.

Now, he's Constantine's father, and they all wrote under Constantine after Constantine's conversion.

So we'll always be slightly suspect.

On the other hand, Constantius is in Britain, and that's one of the least Christian areas.

I mean, to say Christians are 10% of the population does not, of course, mean they're 10% everywhere.

In some places, it's more.

In Britain, it's quite definitely less.

So Constantius probably didn't see much need to act.

Maximian in the West, far as we can tell, the Great Persecution hit hardest on the city of Rome itself and North Africa, where it will trigger a major schism known as the Donatus Schism.

Whereas we've got much more detailed evidence for what happened in Syria and Egypt, but that's because that's where Eusebius is.

But it does look like the Tetrarchs differ slightly, at least in execution.

None of them seem to object to it on a matter of principle.

And trying to weigh up the great persecution's implications has always been a challenge.

After all, Eusebius is specifically trying to describe the terrors that were inflicted.

and therefore probably does exaggerate the actual level of physical harm.

The Great Persecution wasn't aiming to kill Christians.

Its first aim is to actually get them to stop being Christian, get them to reintegrate.

They tried to pass edicts like, we will imprison people who won't sacrifice.