Chapter 8, Diocletian to Maximian Summary and Analysis

Eusebius opens by heaping praise on his contemporaries and then describes the destruction of the churches of his day. In the nineteenth year Diocletian was Emperor, the persecutions began and he ordered Christian churches to be razed and the Scriptures destroyed. Christians must be imprisoned or killed. Eusebius lists various martyrs, including those in Nicomedia, imperial palaces, Phoenicia, Thebais, among others. Eusebius prints Phileas the martyr's written account of the persecution in Alexandria. The martyrs in Phrygia are covered and next Eusebius lists various Church leaders who were martyred, such as the Bishop of Nicomedia, Anthimus among many, many others. Peter, the Bishop of Alexandria, was martyred as well. But things changed for the better at the end of the tenth year. The rulers and persecutors changed their minds towards Christians and ended the persecutions...