This is an occasional series of readings from and brief notes and commentary upon Eusebius of Caesarea’s The Ecclesiastical History: Book 9, chapter 2-4.
Notes and Commentary:
These chapters describe a renewal
of persecution which took place at the instigation of Maximin, the tyrant of
the East.
Chapter 2 reports that Maximin, hater
of the good and plotter against virtuous men, attempted various devises to
overturn the peace and tolerance extended to the Christians. He attempted to
bar Christians from gathering in cemeteries, where they were apparently
assembling to commemorate the martyrs. He also tried to stir up resistance to
Christians in Antioch, along with the curator Theotecnus (whose name ironically
means “child of God”). Eusebius describes him as “a clever cheat, and an evil
man, quite unlike his name.”
Chapter 3 describes Theoctenus’s
anti-Christian efforts in Antioch. He erected there a statue to Zeus, “the Befriender”,
in an apparent effort to defend or restore paganism, as well as to court the
favor of Maximin, and made use of various occult means to declare that this god
had ordered the removal of Christians from the city and its borders.
Chapter 4 adds that when other
governors saw that this was pleasing to the tyrant, they followed suit, and persecution
was rekindled. Maximin appointed priests to and high priests to serve with great
zeal the images erected in each city.
Conclusion:
These chapters tell us how
resistance to the Christian movement continued under the tyrant Maximin and
under local rulers, like Theotecnus of Antioch, even after the official end of
the Diocletian persecution. These descriptions
are particularly interesting in that they seem to reflect an effort by the devotees
of the pagan religions to reassert their dominance and win back the populace
from the appeal of the Christian sect.
JTR
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