Book contents
- Christianizing Asia Minor
- Christianizing Asia Minor
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Abbreviations
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Phrygia in the New Testament
- 2 Hierapolis (Pamukkale)
- 3 Teachers of Asia: Ignatius, Polycarp, Paul and Thecla
- 4 Montanism Part 1: The Origins of the New Prophecy
- 5 Montanism Part 2: Pepuza and Tymion
- 6 Aberkios of Hierapolis (Koçhisar) and His Gravestone
- 7 Aberkios and the Vita Abercii
- 8 Apollonia (Uluborlu): Curiales and Their Families
- 9 Eumeneia (Işıklı) and the Eumeneian Formula
- 10 Christians for Christians
- 11 The Great Persecution and the Phrygian Fourth Century
- Book part
- Bibliography
- Index
11 - The Great Persecution and the Phrygian Fourth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2019
- Christianizing Asia Minor
- Christianizing Asia Minor
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Abbreviations
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Phrygia in the New Testament
- 2 Hierapolis (Pamukkale)
- 3 Teachers of Asia: Ignatius, Polycarp, Paul and Thecla
- 4 Montanism Part 1: The Origins of the New Prophecy
- 5 Montanism Part 2: Pepuza and Tymion
- 6 Aberkios of Hierapolis (Koçhisar) and His Gravestone
- 7 Aberkios and the Vita Abercii
- 8 Apollonia (Uluborlu): Curiales and Their Families
- 9 Eumeneia (Işıklı) and the Eumeneian Formula
- 10 Christians for Christians
- 11 The Great Persecution and the Phrygian Fourth Century
- Book part
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
By the end of the third century, in Asia Minor and beyond, the churches had some institutional heft. Conflict with the non-Christian majority stayed below the surface, but it was a phoney peace. The Emperor Diocletian, blaming Christians for difficulties in divination, commenced action, demolishing the church in Nicomedia. In a small town in Phrygia, the Roman army burnt a church down with the congregation inside. Valerius Diogenes, governor of Pisidia, constructed facilities for the imperial cult and dedicated an altar to ‘the pietas of our emperors’. Markos Ioulios Eugenios was tortured then discharged from the army; afterwards, about 315, as bishop of Burnt Laodicea (Ladik) he rebuilt the church, with ‘cloisters, antechambers, murals, mosaics, water fountain, entrance porch … and everything else’. Eugenios and his flock were Novatians: their church and the Montanist church were linked. The Emperor Constantine funded construction of churches in provincial capitals, including Laodicea on the Lycus. Gothic settlers came to Phrygia, including the father of Selenas, bishop of the Goths. Phrygia, still remote from the metropolitan milieu, moved beneath a Christian sacred canopy.
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- Information
- Christianizing Asia MinorConversion, Communities, and Social Change in the Pre-Constantinian Era, pp. 246 - 262Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019