Lactantius 'Deaths Of The Persecutors'

Ben Poon

920677791

CLA004 A04

Late Antiquity Week 6 Essay Lactantius’, “On the Deaths of the Persecutors'' is a heavily biased account of the lives and deaths of the Roman emperor Diocletian who persecuted Christians. What I believe to be fact within Lactantius' work is the atrocities committed against Christians by Diocletian he writes about. The part of Lactantius’ work that is interpretation is the way he portrayed the Diocletian and the Christians he was writing about. Lactantius was a devout Christian and as such he displayed a clear hatred for the emperor who persecuted his people. That is why he portrayed Diocletian as being evil, while the Christians were portrayed as virtuous and righteous. Lactantius’ method of interpretation can

He writes with a historical background, but is heavily influenced by his Christian beliefs. Lactantius’ account provides numerous factual recollections about Diocletian, who persecuted Christians during their reigns as the heads of the Roman empire. Examples of this in our selection of “On the Deaths of the Persecutors” can be seen in the sections written about Justinian and Diocletian. For example, Lactantius writes that “[Diocletian] appointed three men to share his rule, dividing the world into four parts and multiplying the armies” (Lactantius 11). This is historically accurate as Diocletian is known for creating the Tetrarchy. The reason for this is that the Roman Empire had grown far too large for just one person to manage it. As such, he divided it into four different regions to be ruled by four different people. Relieving himself of some of the burden he would have had if he was ruling over the entire empire. Another example of Lactantius historic accuracy is when he continues to write about Diocletian. He states

In the paragraph before the selection of Lactantius’ “On the Deaths of the Persecutors'' it even states, “Obvious hatred of Diocletian distorts Lactantius’ account, which should not be accepted uncritically” (Lactantius 11). This clearly shows that Lactantius interprets Diocletian’s actions much more critically than the average person would. His interpretation is so biased that there needed to be a warning included before the excerpt from Lactantius’ writing. One quote from Lactantius’ writing that shows his interpretation is when he writes, “Diocletian was an author of crimes and a deviser of evils” (Lactantius 11). This quote shows Lactantius’ hate for Diocletian as he portrays him as an evildoer who can by no means, do anything justifiable. He continues to use words like “terror” and “condemnation” (Lactantius 12), to portray Diocletian and his regime as evil. He portrays Diocletian as a battle between good, Christianity and evil, Diocletian. He states that Diocletian has “insatiable greed” (Lactantius 12), which makes Diocletian out to be an evil emperor who is trying to unjustifiably wrong his subjects. The reason Lactantius does this is because he despises him for his persecution of Christians during his rule in the early 4th century. The historical view of Diocletian cannot be limited to Lactantius’ portrayal of him. Using some of the