THE CHRISTIAN WIVES OF THE PERSECURORS OF CHRISTIANITY

 

The Rotunda was built in 306 AD on the orders of the tetrarch Galerius, who was thought to have intended it to be his mausoleum.

The ruins of Diocletian's palace in Nicomedia.

Nicomedia (today Izmit) was founded in 712 BC by the Megarians (and so was the town of Byzantium) and its original name was Astakos. It was completely destroyed by Lysimachus, a successor of Alexander the Great and rebuilt in 264 BC by Nicomedes I, the Philhellene, local ruler of Mysia. Nicomedes was probably the king who tried to buy from the city of Cnidus the famous statue of Aphrodite, made by Praxiteles, proposing in exchange to relieve the city of its public debt.

Η χριστιανή συζυγος του Διοκλητιανού Prisca 

During Roman rule, and especially during the rule of Diocletian, Christianity was already peacefully spread. Even the Emperor's wife, Prisca was a Christian  as well as her daughter of Valeria Maximilla, Emperor's Galerius Valerius Maximianus wife. The one who had the Rotunda, the Arch that bears his name and the Palaces of Thessaloniki built. He is also the one who had the patron saint of Thessalonica, Demetrios, executed. Both women were executed for being Christians by the claimant to the throne Licinius, in the Roman Agora of Thessaloniki, and their bodies were thrown in Thermaikos gulf. 

THE BEGINNING OF THE PROSECUTIONS OF 303 Α.D.

The embrace of the two tyrants, Diocletian and Galerius, father-in-law and son-in-law, in Nicomedia.

The culmination of the persecutions had to do with worship events during the feast of Terminalia, ie on the eve of the Roman New Year, which was the end of February (hence September is called the Seventh / sept or the Tenth of December. Even centuries later there were Christian Dioceses in France. celebrating the New Year in March).

Galeria Valeria.
Diocletian's daughter
and Galerius' wife,

Diocletian was superstitious and had was followed by pagan priests and omenoscopes. His anxiety for right decisions was passed to the pagan clergy, which in its turn claimed that they could not get a proper "prophecy" from the "gods" because they were hindered by the worship of Christians. As a result, Diocletian ordered the leveling of the newly built Christian church of Nicomedia and the burning of those inside. The Orthodox Church states that the date of martyrdom is December 28, the Christmas period.

The tyrant's horrible crime resulted in the revolt of part of the population. A fire broke out and burned part of the Palace. Of course, the Christians were considered guilty, as well as some palace eunuchs and others from the palace staff, who were executed. 16 days later a new fire broke out in Nicomedia. Diocletian abandons it as an unsafe city for Rome. But the massacre of tens of thousands of Christian citizens on the altar of superstition had begun.

The Galerian Coplex in Thessalonica