Persepolis, Susa, and Ecbatana (such as the Jews or the pagans) Nero (54–68) and Domitian (81–96) were known to have blamed Christians for problems of their own administration The legal basis for these persecutions is known from the correspondence between Pliny and the emperor Trajan around 110: If a resident did not make offerings to the Roman gods, he or she could be executed However, the Christians were not sought out by prosecutors, and emperors did not make it their business to conduct widespread campaigns against them Later persecutions occurred when specific charges were filed: Polycarp of Smyrna (156), the Lyons martyrs (177), the Scillitan martyrs in Carthage (180), Felicity and Perpetua (203) Nonetheless, the persecutions were sporadic and local The first empire-wide persecution broke out in 249, when Emperor Decius tried to restore traditional values to the Roman state He ordered that the annual Roman sacrifices be mandatory in various cities, and that prominent Christian leaders in those places be arrested and executed Local commissions were set up to enforce these decrees Only Decius’s death in 251 cut short the serious threat to the church The second big persecution was initiated by Valerius in 257 Initially, the decrees seemed to be motivated by a desire for church wealth, but a year later executions and cruel forms of punishment went beyond confiscations Valerius would condemn Christians to the mines, beat them with whips, and shave their heads as runaway slaves and criminals Eventually, the Roman Empire backed away from its anti-Christian position, and the church began to go public After 40 years of relative calm, the empire under Diocletian returned to its hostility against the church Diocletian’s major goal was to unify and rejuvenate the moribund empire, and the Christians were viewed as uncooperative For nine years (303–312) the government pursued a program against the Christians, banning all scriptures, tearing down churches, prohibiting meetings, and stripping Christians of legal rights At first Diocletian did not kill Christians, for he did not want martyrs, but later his deputies carried out massive executions, especially in North Africa When Diocletian retired in 305, persecution died out in the West but continued in the East Later, when paganism did not revive and Christianity only grew, grudging official acceptance of Christianity was given in 311–312 The empire had little to gain by crushing the church See also Christianity, early; Constantine the Great; Rome: government 345 Further reading: Fox, Robin Lane Pagans and Christians San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1986; Gonzalez, Justo L The Story of Christianity New York: HarperCollins, 1984 Mark F Whitters Persepolis, Susa, and Ecbatana Persepolis, literally “the City of the Persians,” was founded by Darius I the Great, the third king of the Achaemenid, or Persian, Empire (539–331 b.c.e.) Work on the city began around 518 b.c.e but was not completed until about 100 years later by King Artaxerxes I It was conceived of as a royal city in Pars, the heartland of Persia, the central-southern province of modern-day Iran, and Darius’s refuge away from the summer heat of the Mesopotamian plain It is located just 25 miles southwest of Pasargadae, the historical capital of the Achaemenids, where the Persian Empire’s founder, Cyrus II, was buried Unlike the other capital cities of the empire— Ecbatana, Susa, and Babylon—Persepolis was never designed to be a populous city, rather a ceremonial city The Greek writer Herodotus (c 480–c 429 b.c.e.) tells us that the city was not much lived in by the kings, who moved between the other capitals Persepolis had one key purpose and that was as a location for the celebration of the New Year festival Even today Iran has a totally different New Year from that observed in the West, a year that begins at the equinox on March 21 In ancient Persia, as in much of the ancient Near East, the New Year was a time when the gods were especially appeased, and therefore its ceremonies were the most important of the year At New Year, delegations from all the satrapies (or regions) of the empire would come to Persepolis not only to pay homage to the emperor, bringing tribute, but also entering into the festivities The ruins of the city, visible today, are filled with friezes that enact the arrival of the ambassadors from all over the empire, each one wearing national dress, and all overseen by the Immortals, the elite personal guard of the emperor Persepolis was partially destroyed by Alexander the Great when he ended the Persian Empire in 331 b.c.e., and according to the Roman author Plutarch, its vast treasures were carried away on 20,000 mules and 5,000 camels However, the remoteness of the location and its mystique have meant much of the ancient city was preserved Unlike Persepolis, Susa and Ecbatana were working cities and capitals in their own right before the advent