# Later persecution edicts demand universal sacrifice, with torture and killing of refusers as received

Date: 304

## The fact

Through 303–304 further edicts, as Eusebius and Lactantius print them, ordered arrest of clergy and then general sacrifice, with prison, torture, and execution of refusers. [Diocletian](/people/diocletian)’s college issued; Galerius pushed; implementation varied.

It is one event.

## Context

This is not a tax. It is coercive cult with bodily harm. Christian sources inflate in places; they are not therefore empty. Split Constantius’s lighter West as a different tetrarch’s row in Constantine’s catalog.

Diocletian’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below. Sharing a field with them is not a reason to drop a documented act, and it is not a reason to assign later consequences done in the name after death.

Named person as heading of the dated public instrument. Later editors, museums, printers, or offices share publication. Complex where later carriers date the row.

## Evidence and sources

Eusebius Church History and Britannica independently describe escalating edicts; Lactantius assigns motive-colour that remains partisan.

Official or archival record: Eusebius, Church History — New Advent (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2501.htm; New Advent).

## Significance

Universal-sacrifice orders with torture are a humanitarian-harm path.

A martyr act is not the Price Edict. Keep theatres.

Universal-sacrifice orders with torture are a humanitarian-harm path.

## What is established and what is not

Established: received escalating edicts 303–304. Not established: that every martyr act is a court minute.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Established here: a sourced, dated public instrument with a named contribution by Diocletian.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date, signatory, or non-occurrence; a demonstrated forgery; or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of other causes.

Contribution type is direct. They are not a public rating.

## People

- Diocletian: https://factrail.ai/people/diocletian

## Drivers

- Humanitarian Access: https://factrail.ai/drivers/humanitarian-access

## Sources

- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Great-Persecution
- https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2501.htm

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/di-later-edicts-sacrifice