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Gaius Messius Quintus Trajanus Decius ( 201June 251), known as Trajan Decius or simply Decius (), was Roman emperor from 249 to 251.
A distinguished politician during the reign of Philip the Arab, Decius was proclaimed emperor by his troops after putting down a rebellion in Moesia. In 249, he defeated and killed Philip near Verona and was recognized as emperor by the Roman Senate afterwards. During his reign, he attempted to strengthen the Roman state and its religion, leading to the Decian persecution, where a number of prominent Christians (including Pope Fabian) were put to death. In the last year of his reign, Decius co-ruled with his son Herennius Etruscus, until they were both killed by the Goths in the Battle of Abritus.
Around 245, Philip entrusted Decius with an important command on the Danube. By the end of 248 or 249, Decius was sent to quell the revolt of Pacatian and his troops in Moesia and Pannonia; some modern historians see this rebellion as a reflection of emerging Balkan separatism.Potter 2004, pp. 634–35, n. 106 After the collapse of the revolt, Decius let the troops proclaim him emperor. Philip advanced against him and was killed at Verona, Italy, in September 249.Potter 2004, pp. 240–41 The Roman Senate then recognized Decius as emperor, giving him the attribute Traianus in reference to Emperor Trajan. According to the Byzantine historian Zosimus, Decius was clothed in purple and forced to undertake the burdens government, despite his reluctance and unwillingness.Zosimus, New History I.22
According to D. S. Potter, Decius did not try to impose the superiority of the Roman pantheon over any other gods. It is very probable that the edict was an attempt to legitimize his position and to respond to a general unease provoked by the passing of the Roman millennium.Potter 2004, p. 243 While Decius himself may have intended the edict as a way to reaffirm his conservative vision of the Pax Romana and to reassure Rome's citizens that the empire was still secure, it nevertheless sparked a "terrible crisis of authority as various Christian bishops and their flocks reacted to it in different ways." Decius: 249–251 AD University of Michigan. Retrieved 30 March 2011 Measures were first taken demanding that the and officers of the church make a sacrifice for the emperor. The sacrifice was "on behalf of" (Latin pro) the emperor, not to the emperor, since a living emperor was not considered divus. Certificates were issued to those who satisfied the commissioners during the persecution of Christians under Decius. Forty-six libellus have been published, all dating from 250, four of them from Oxyrhynchus. Anyone, including Christian followers, who refused to offer a sacrifice for the emperor and the Empire's well-being by a specified date risked torture and execution.Scarre 1995, p. 170 A number of prominent Christians did, in fact, refuse to make a sacrifice and were killed in the process, including Pope Fabian himself in 250, and "anti-Christian feelings led to killings at Carthage and Alexandria." However, towards the end of the second year of Decius' reign, "the ferocity of the anti-Christian persecution had eased off, and the earlier tradition of tolerance had begun to reassert itself." Christians bore the brunt of the persecution and never forgot the reign of Decius, whom they remembered as "that fierce tyrant". In June 251 Decius died alongside his co-emperor Herennius Etruscus in the Battle Abrittus against the Goths; their successors Trebonianus Gallus and Hostilian rescinded Decius' decree, ending the persecution after approximately eighteen months.
At this time, there was a second outbreak of the Antonine Plague, which at its height from 251 to 266, took the lives of 5,000 daily in Rome. This outbreak is referred to as the "Plague of Cyprian" (Cyprian was the bishop of Carthage, where both the plague and the persecution of Christians were especially severe). Cyprian's biographer Pontius gave a vivid picture of the demoralizing effects of the plague and Cyprian moralized the event in his essay De mortalitate. In Carthage, the "Decian persecution", unleashed at the onset of the plague, sought out Christian scapegoats. Decius' edicts were renewed under Valerian in 253 and repealed under his son, Gallienus, in 260–261.
One literary tradition claims that Decius was betrayed by his successor, Trebonianus Gallus, who was involved in a secret alliance with the Goths, but this cannot be substantiated and was most likely a later invention since Gallus felt compelled to adopt Decius' younger son, Gaius Valens Hostilianus, as joint emperor even though the latter was too young to rule in his own right.Scarre 1995, pp. 168–69Southern 2001, p. 308 It is also unlikely that the shattered Roman legions would proclaim as emperor a traitor who was responsible for the loss of so many soldiers from their ranks.Potter 2004, p. 247 Decius was the first Roman emperor to die in battle against a foreign enemy.
The later telling of the Seven Sleepers, about seven Christian youths from Ephesus who fled the Decian persecution by hiding in a cave (walled up by Decius) and sleeping for almost 300 years, emerged. The Quranic account, captured in Al-Kahf ("The Cave") surah (chapter), has led to the Persian saying of ahd-e daqyānus ("age of Decius") or daqyānus referring to ancient times or a person with outdated views. When something is old and outdated, people say, "this belongs to the age of Decius."
Fighting the Goths and death
The Goths enter the Balkans
The barbarian incursions into the Empire were becoming more daring and frequent whereas the Empire was facing a serious economic crisis in Decius' time. During his brief reign, Decius engaged in important operations against the Goths, who crossed the Danube to raid districts of Moesia and Thrace. This is the first considerable occasion that the Goths who would later come to play such an important role appear in the historical record. The Goths under King Cniva were surprised by the emperor while besieging Nicopolis on the Danube; the Goths fled through the difficult terrain of the Balkans, but then doubled back and surprised the Romans near Beroë (modern Stara Zagora), sacking their camp and dispersing the Roman troops (Battle of Beroe). The Goths then moved to attack Philippopolis (modern Plovdiv), which fell into their hands. The governor of Thrace, Titus Julius Priscus, declared himself emperor under Gothic protection in opposition to Decius but Priscus' challenge was rendered moot when he was killed soon afterwards. Then the invaders began returning to their homeland, laden with booty and captives, among them many of senatorial rank.Wolfram 1988, p. 46
Battle of Abritus
In the meantime, Decius had returned with his re-organized army, accompanied by his son Herennius Etruscus and the general Trebonianus Gallus, intending to defeat the invaders and recover the booty. The final engagement, the battle of Abritus, in which the Goths fought with the courage of despair, under the command of Cniva, took place during the second week of June 251 on swampy ground in the Ludogorie (region in northeastern Bulgaria which merges with Dobruja plateau and the Danube Plain to the north) near the small settlement of Abritus or Forum Terebronii (modern Razgrad). Jordanes records that Decius' son Herennius Etruscus was killed by an arrow early in the battle, and to cheer his men Decius exclaimed, "Let no one mourn; the death of one soldier is not a great loss to the republic." Nevertheless, Decius' army was entangled in the swamp and annihilated in this battle, while he himself was killed on the field of battle. As the historian Aurelius Victor relates:
Legacy
The Decian persecution was the first organized persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire and served as the basis for the Diocletianic Persecution, the last major persecution of Christians in the Empire.
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Categories: 200s Births, 251 Deaths, 3rd-century Roman Emperors, Decian Dynasty, Decii, Deified Roman Emperors, 3rd-century Roman Consuls, Messii, Roman Emperors Killed In Battle, Romans From Moesia, Romans From Pannonia, Roman Governors Of Germania Inferior, Roman Pharaohs, Illyrian Emperors, Damnatio Memoriae
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