DECIUS (Messius Caius Traianus Decius), Roman Emperor. - Born in Pannonia around 200, died in 251. Sent in 249 to Moesia by the emperor Philip to quell a revolt of the legions, he was elected emperor by them. Having defeated Philip at Verona, he succeeded him on the throne. A rigid conservative, he sought to bring Romanitas back to the ancient traditions in every field: in order to uproot Christianity, which he judged politically dangerous, he engaged in a systematic struggle, on the basis of an edict that called upon every subject to perform acts of homage to the official divinities of the State, in the presence of the local authority and of specially constituted commissions. Threats, imprisonment, tortures, and confiscations were to force the recalcitrant into apostasy: the death penalty was applied especially against bishops.

Among the best-known victims of the Decian persecution were Pope Fabian and the priest Moses in Rome, Mappalicus and Paul at Carthage, the bishops Alexander of Jerusalem, Babylas of Antioch, Nestor of Magydus, and the priest Pionius of Smyrna. The bishops Cyprian of Carthage, Dionysius of Alexandria, and Gregory of Neocaesarea fled in order to continue directing their persecuted communities from afar. Origen was imprisoned and tortured. Alongside the numerous, heroic confessors of the faith, many, in order to save their lives, submitted to the idolatrous sacrifice either immediately or after imprisonment and tortures (v. LAPSI); others, without sacrificing, found a way to buy from the authorities the necessary certificates. But the persecution on the whole succeeded in strengthening Christian society. Toward the end of 250 it lost intensity, and after the death of D., in 251, in an unfortunate expedition against the Goths in Moesia, it ceased altogether.

Bibliography9 works

BIBL.: Sources: Atti dei martiri, in A. Harnack, Geschichte der altchristl. Literatur, I, Leipzig 1893, p. 819 ff.; St. Cyprian, Epistolae (especially VIII, XXV, XXXIV, LI, LVII) and the treatise De Lapsis; Eusebius, Hist. ecl., VI, 40, 48; VII, 9, 20. Literature: G. Costa, Decius, in Dizion. epigr. by E. De Ruggiero, II, p. 1490 ff.; P. Franchi de' Cavalieri, A proposito dei sacrifici ordinati da D. in Roma nell'a. 250, in Note agiografiche, fasc. III (Studi e Testi, 22), Rome 1900, pp. 77-87; J. P. Kirsch, Kirchengeschichte, I, Freiburg im Breisgau 1930, pp. 294-95 (bibliography relating to pp. 800-801); A. Bludau, Die ägyptischen Libelli und die Christenverfolgung des Kaiser Decius, in Römische Quartalschrift, 27th suppl. (1931); R. Paribeni, L'Italia imperiale da Ottosiano a Teodosio, Milan 1938, pp. 480-82; Fliche-Martin-Frutsz, II, pp. 141-47.

Laura Olivieri San Giacomo

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Decius (Messius Caius Traianus Decius), Roman Emperor

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