Description
Roman Empire. Third Century Crisis. Trajan Decius (r. 249-251) AR (Silver) antoninianus. Mint of Rome; struck 249-250 AD. Choice VF. Decius led a major persecution of the Christians and died in battle fighting the Goths at Abritus.
Design: Radiate and cuirassed bust of Decius right / Victory advancing left, raising wreath and holding palm
Reference: RIC IV 29c. Cohen 113.
Dimensions: 22 mm / 3.71 gm
Condition: Choice VF.
Decius is one of the more well-known rulers of the Crisis of the Third Century (235-284 AD), the period in which the Roman state nearly disintegrated amid civil war, external invasions, and rampant inflation. His reign of just two years, standard in this chaotic era of coups and wars, is best remembered for his short-lived (and short-sighted, as we shall see) persecution of the Christians. The first persecution of the faith had occurred under Nero (r. 54-68), when there were very few Christians in the empire. The Decian Persecution, two centuries later, was different.
Decius sought to restore Roman values of days gone by – indeed, he adopted the name of the popular military ruler Trajan (r. 98-117 AD) – and saw Christianity as subversive both to Roman religious practices and to citizens’ loyalty to the state. The emperor issued an edict in 250 forcing all Christians to swear a loyalty oath, which somewhat ambiguously carried the connotation of “worshipping” him alongside the gods of the Roman state. Most Roman Christians were indeed loyal to the state – thousands by now served in the Roman army. But Decius wanted them to go further – to worship him and the gods. Christians, fierce monotheists, objected. The famous and heroic martyr stories of Christians being “thrown to the lions” in the Colosseum, steadfastly maintaining their faith to their deaths, were not merely apocryphal and date to this period.
In a great irony, the Decian Persecution was the first time a wider Roman audience became interested in Christianity – the exact opposite of what the emperor had intended. In the first and second centuries, Christianity was an underground, somewhat secretive sect – believers met in caves, rarely discussed their faith in public, and were mysterious to most. The persecutions brought the faith into the open, and many Romans were struck by what they saw. In their amphitheaters, watching Christians burned alive or torn limb from limb by wild beasts, Romans saw shades of the same discipline, stoicism, and courage that they valued in their own ancestors. Curiosity about the religion and its values grew.
