VALERIAN (Publius Licinius Valerianus Augustus), Roman Emperor. — Born c. 200, died c. 260. Scarce and uncertain are the details of both his private and political life.
Descended from a noble family, he was consul before 238, during the persecution under Decius, and it seems he presided over trials in Rome: a vague report links him with the two emperors in some Passiones. In 253 he was in Raetia gathering soldiers on behalf of Trebonianus against the usurper Aemilianus when he was acclaimed emperor. Recognized by the Senate (August 253), he associated his son Gallienus, entrusting him with the task of fighting the barbarians pressing on the western frontiers and raiding Gaul, Spain, and the Balkan peninsula. Valerian himself went to the East against the Persians, where, after fluctuating fortunes, he was captured by Shapur and died amid humiliations and torments.
He has passed into history as one of the most ferocious persecutors of Christianity. Initially he had shown himself very favorable, so much so that Dionysius of Alexandria could write that the imperial palace itself seemed like a church (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VII, 10). Suddenly, however, in August 257—perhaps under the influence of his finance minister, the Egyptian Macrianus—he issued an edict ordering ecclesiastics to sacrifice under penalty of exile; laypersons were liable to capital punishment, and all were forbidden to enter cemeteries or hold liturgical assemblies; church property was confiscated (ibid., VII, 11; Acta s. Cypriani, in R. Knopf-G. Krüger, Ausgewählte Märtyrerakten, Tübingen 1929, pp. 62–64). Many bishops, priests, and deacons, including Cyprian of Carthage and Dionysius of Alexandria, were sent into exile or condemned to the mines (s. Cyprian, Ep., 76–79 in CSEL, 3, 2, pp. 827–39). A second, even more severe edict was promulgated the following year: clerics were punished with death; noble laypersons were stripped of rank and property, and if they persisted in the faith were executed; noblewomen were sent into exile; Caesareans were condemned to hard labor (s. Cyprian, Ep., 80, in CSEL, 3, 2, pp. 839 ff.).
At Rome, Pope Sixtus II fell victim in the cemetery of Callistus together with four deacons (ibid.), and shortly afterward the remaining three deacons were massacred (A. Ferrua, Epigrammata Damasiana, Città del Vaticano 1942, pp. 120, 123–26, 152–56, 167). St Cyprian, recalled from exile, was beheaded in the district of Sextus near Carthage; in the Lucius (v.), James (v.), perished along with many others; in Spain Frumentius of Tarragona died; vast numbers perished in Egypt (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VII, 11); in Palestine, Priscus, Malchus, and Alexander (ibid., 12). With Valerian’s disappearance the persecution also ceased, since his son Gallienus promptly restored to the Church its freedom and confiscated property (ibid., 13).