Trajan Decius 249AD Rhasaena Mesopotamia PRIEST PLOWING OXEN Roman Coin i56371

Gaius Messius Quintus Decius (ca. 201- June 251) was 

the

Emperor of Rome

from 249 to 251. In the last year of his reign, he co-ruled 

with his son

Herennius Etruscus

until both of them were killed in the

Battle of Abrittus

.

//

 Early 

life and rise to power

Decius, who was born at

Budalia

, now

Martinci
,

Serbia
near

Sirmium
(Sremska 

Mitrovica), in

Lower Pannonia

was one of the first among a long succession of future Roman 

Emperors to originate from the provinces of

Illyria
in 

the Danube.^[1]. 

Unlike some of his immediate imperial predecessors such as Philip the Arab or

Maximinus

, Decius was a distinguished senator who had served as

consul
in 232, 

had been governor of

Moesia
and

Germania Inferior

soon afterwards, served as governor of

Hispania Tarraconensis

between 235-238, and was

urban prefect

of Rome during the early reign of Emperor

Philip the Arab

(Marcus Iulius Phillipus).

Around 245, Emperor Philip entrusted Decius with an important 

command on the Danube

. By the end of 248 or 249, Decius was sent to quell the revolt of

Pacatianus
 

and his troops in Moesia and Pannonia^[3]; 

the soldiers were enraged because of the peace treaty signed between Philip and 

the

Sassanids

. Once arrived, the troops forced Decius to assume the imperial 

dignity himself instead. Decius still protested his loyalty to Philip, but the 

latter advanced against him and was killed near

Verona
,

Italy
. The

Senate
 

then recognized Decius as Emperor, giving him the attribute Traianus as a 

reference to the good emperor

Trajan
. As the 

Byzantine historian

Zosimus
later 

noted:

Decius was therefore clothed in purple and forced to 

undertake the [burdens of] government, despite his reluctance and 

unwillingness.

 Political 

and monumental initiatives

Decius’ political program was focused on the restoration of 

the strength of the State, both military opposing the external threats, and 

restoring the public piety

with a program of renovation of the

State religion

.

Either as a concession to the Senate, or perhaps with the 

idea of improving public morality, Decius endeavoured to revive the separate 

office and authority of the

censor

. The choice was left to the Senate, who unanimously selected

Valerian

(afterwards emperor). But Valerian, well aware of the dangers and 

difficulties attaching to the office at such a time, declined the 

responsibility. The invasion of the

Goths

and Decius’ death put an end to the abortive attempt.

During his reign, he proceeded to construct several building 

projects in Rome “including the Thermae Deciane or Baths of Decius on the 

Aventine” which was completed in 252 and still survived through to the

16th 

century
; Decius also acted to repair the Colosseum, which had been damaged 

by lightning strikes.

 Persecution 

of Christians

In January 250, Decius issued an edict for the suppression of

Christianity

. The edict itself was fairly clear:

All the inhabitants of the empire were required to 

sacrifice before the magistrates of their community ‘for the safety of the 

empire’ by a certain day (the date would vary from place to place and the 

order may have been that the sacrifice had to be completed within a 

specified period after a community received the edict). When they sacrificed 

they would obtain a certificate (libellus) recording the fact that they had 

complied with the order.

While Decius himself may have intended the edict as a way to 

reaffirm his conservative vision of the Pax Romana and to reassure Rome’s 

citizens that the empire was still secure, it nevertheless sparked a “terrible 

crisis of authority as various [Christian] bishops and their flocks reacted to 

it in different ways.” Measures were first taken demanding that the bishops 
and officers of the church make a sacrifice for the Emperor, 

a matter of an oath of allegiance that Christians considered offensive. 

Certificates were issued to those who satisfied the

pagan
 

commissioners during the persecution of Christians under Decius. Forty-six such 

certificates have been published, all dating from 250, four of them from

Oxyrhynchus

. 

Christian followers who refused to offer a pagan sacrifice for the Emperor and 

the Empire’s well-being by a specified date risked torture and execution. 

A number of prominent Christians did, in fact, refuse to make a sacrifice and 

were killed in the process including

Pope 

Fabian
himself in 250 and “anti-Christian feeling[s] led to pogroms at 

Carthage and Alexandria.” 

In reality, however, towards the end of the second year of Decius’ reign, “the 

ferocity of the [anti-Christian] persecution had eased off, and the earlier 

tradition of tolerance had begun to reassert itself.” 

The Christian church though never forgot the reign of Decius whom they labelled 

as that “fierce tyrant”.

At this time, there was a second outbreak of the

Antonine Plague

, which at its height in 251 to 266 took the lives of 5,000 a 

day in Rome. This outbreak is referred to as the “Plague of

Cyprian
” (the 

bishop of Carthage

), where both the plague and the

persecution of Christians

were especially severe. Cyprian’s biographer

Pontius

gave a vivid picture of the demoralizing effects of the plague  

and Cyprian moralized the event in his essay De mortalitate. In Carthage 

the “Decian persecution” unleashed at the onset of the plague sought out 

Christian scapegoats. Decius’ edicts were renewed under Valerius in 253 and 

repealed under his son,

Gallienus
, 

in 260-1.

 Military 

actions and death

The

barbarian
 

incursions into the Empire were becoming more and more daring and frequent 

whereas the Empire was facing a serious economic crisis in Decius’ time. During 

his brief reign, Decius engaged in important operations against the

Goths
, who 

crossed the Danube to raid districts of Moesia and

Thrace
. This is 

the first considerable occasion the Goths — who would later come to play such an 

important role — appear in the historical record. The Goths under King

Cniva
were 

surprised by the emperor while besieging

Nicopolis

on the Danube; the Goths fled through the difficult terrain of the

Balkans
, but 

then doubled back and surprised the Romans near Beroë (modern

Stara 

Zagora
), sacking their camp and dispersing the Roman troops. It was the 

first time a Roman emperor fled in the face of Barbarians. The Goths then moved 

to

Philippopolis attack

(modern

Plovdiv
), 

which fell into their hands. The governor of Thrace,

Titus Julius Priscus

, declared himself Emperor under Gothic protection in 

opposition to Decius but Priscus’s challenge was rendered moot when he was 

killed soon afterwards.

The siege of Philippopolis had so exhausted the numbers and 

resources of the Goths that they offered to surrender their treasure and 

prisoners, on condition of being allowed to retire.^[ 

neededcitation] Decius, who had succeeded in surrounding them and hoped to 

cut off their retreat, refused to entertain their proposals. The final 

engagement, in which the Goths fought with the courage of despair, under the 

command of Cniva, took place during the second week of June 251 on swampy ground 

in the Ludogorie

(region in northeastern Bulgaria which merges with Dobruja plateau 

and the Danube Plain to the north) near the small settlement of Abrittus or

Forum Terebronii (modern

Razgrad
): see

Battle of Abrittus

.

Jordanes
 

records that Decius’ son

Herennius Etruscus

was killed by an arrow early in the battle, and to cheer 

his men Decius exclaimed, “Let no one mourn; the death of one soldier is not a 

great loss to the republic.” Nevertheless, Decius’ army was entangled in the 

swamp and annihilated in this battle, while he himself was killed on the field 

of battle. 

As the historian

Aurelius Victor

relates:

The Decii (ie. Decius), while pursuing the 

barbarians across the Danube, died through treachery at Abrittus after 

reigning two years….Very many report that the son had fallen in battle 

while pressing an attack too boldly; that the father however, has 

strenuously asserted that the loss of one soldier seemed to him too little 

to matter. And so he resumed the war and died in a similar manner while 

fighting vigorously.

One literary tradition claims that Decius was betrayed by his 

successor

Trebonianus Gallus

, who was involved in a secret alliance with the Goths but 

this cannot be substantiated and was most likely a later invention since Gallus 

felt compelled to adopt Decius’ younger son, Gaius Valens Hostilianus, as joint 

emperor even though the latter was too young to rule in his own right. 

It is also unlikely that the shattered Roman legions would proclaim as emperor a 

traitor who was responsible for the loss of so many soldiers from their ranks. 

Decius was the first Roman emperor to die in battle against a foreign enemy

<span class="mw-headline" id="Conflict_in_the_Balkans_and_EgyptConflict 

in the Balkans and Egypt

<span class="mw-headline" id="Invasion.2C_counterinvasionInvasion, 

counterinvasion