The Great Persecution: A Box of Three Coins
This collection brings together three coins struck during the final and most severe persecution of early Christians—the Great Persecution (AD 303–311). Ordered under Emperor Diocletian, who had ruled successfully for two decades, this persecution marked the climax of centuries of tension between Rome and the growing Christian faith.
Although Christianity had been largely tolerated for much of Diocletian’s reign, his co-emperors in the Tetrarchy—Galerius in the East and Maximian in the West—pushed for harsher measures. Beginning in AD 303, edicts were issued to destroy churches, confiscate scriptures, and compel sacrifices to the Roman gods. The crackdown lasted seven years, extending beyond Diocletian’s abdication, and cost thousands of lives.
Yet the martyrs’ deaths were not in vain. Within a single generation, under Constantine the Great, Christianity would triumph—first protected, then embraced, and ultimately enshrined as the religion of the Roman Empire.
This set of three coins provides a tangible connection to that dramatic turning point in history, struck in the very years when the faith was tested by fire but destined to prevail.
The Great Persecution: A Box of Three Coins
This collection brings together three coins struck during the final and most severe persecution of early Christians—the Great Persecution (AD 303–311). Ordered under Emperor Diocletian, who had ruled successfully for two decades, this persecution marked the climax of centuries of tension between Rome and the growing Christian faith.
Although Christianity had been largely tolerated for much of Diocletian’s reign, his co-emperors in the Tetrarchy—Galerius in the East and Maximian in the West—pushed for harsher measures. Beginning in AD 303, edicts were issued to destroy churches, confiscate scriptures, and compel sacrifices to the Roman gods. The crackdown lasted seven years, extending beyond Diocletian’s abdication, and cost thousands of lives.
Yet the martyrs’ deaths were not in vain. Within a single generation, under Constantine the Great, Christianity would triumph—first protected, then embraced, and ultimately enshrined as the religion of the Roman Empire.
This set of three coins provides a tangible connection to that dramatic turning point in history, struck in the very years when the faith was tested by fire but destined to prevail.
