The joint rule of Maxentius and Maximian in Rome was tested further when Galerius himself marched to Italy in the summer of 307 with an even larger army.

There is no firm evidence for Sergius and Bacchus ' schola gentilium having been used by Galerius or any other emperor before Constantine I, and given that persecution of Christians had begun in the army considerably before the overall persecutions of the early 4th century, it is very unlikely that even secret Christians could have risen through the ranks of the imperial bodyguard.

In 293, feeling more focus was needed on both civic and military problems, Diocletian, with Maximian's consent, expanded the imperial college by appointing two Caesars ( one responsible to each Augustus ) — Galerius and Constantius Chlorus.

In the East, the arrangements between the Augustus Diocletian and his Caesar, Galerius, were much more flexible.

The first book sketches briefly the history of the early Roman emperors from Augustus to Diocletian ( 305 ); the second, third and fourth deal more fully with the period from the accession of Constantius Chlorus and Galerius to the death of Theodosius I ; the fifth and sixth, the most useful for historians, cover the period between 395 and 410, when Priscus Attalus was deposed ; for this period, he is the most important surviving non-ecclesiastical source.

Constantius was the more senior of the two Caesars, and on official documents he always took precedence, being mentioned before Galerius.

It was expected that Maxentius would try the same strategy as against Severus and Galerius earlier ; that is, remaining in the well-defended city of Rome, and sit out a siege which would cost his enemy much more.

In Gaul, Spain, and Britain, moreover, Christians already had far more than Galerius was offering to Eastern Christians.

Galerius, by contrast, was a devoted and passionate pagan.

By 308 there were therefore no fewer than four claimants to the rank of Augustus ( Galerius, Constantine, Maximian and Maxentius ), and only one to that of Caesar ( Maximinus ).

Historian David Woods further notes that Zosimus ' Historia Nova includes a description of Julian punishing cavalry deserters in just such a manner, further strengthening the argument that the author of The Passion of Sergius and Bacchus took material from the stories of martyrs of Julian's time rather than that of Galerius.

The Edict of Milan went a step further than the earlier Edict of Toleration by Galerius in 311, returning confiscated Church property.

Eusebius also attributes the initiative for the purge to Galerius, rather than Diocletian.

Newly prestigious and influential after his victories in the Persian war, Galerius might have wished to compensate for a previous humiliation at Antioch, when Diocletian had forced him to walk at the front of the imperial caravan, rather than inside it.

A further massive transfer of Bastarnae was carried out by emperor Diocletian ( ruled 284-305 ) after he and his colleague Galerius defeated a coalition of Bastarnae and Carpi in 299.

Diocletian delegated further on 1 March 293, appointing Galerius and Constantius as Caesars, junior co-emperors.

Galerius, aided by Diocletian, campaigned successfully against Sassanid Persia, the Empire's traditional enemy.

In the spring of 293, in either Philippopolis ( Plovdiv, Bulgaria ) or Sirmium, Diocletian would do the same for Galerius, husband to Diocletian's daughter Valeria, and perhaps Diocletian's praetorian prefect.

Galerius and Constantius would become Augusti after Diocletian and Maximian's departure.

Diocletian spent the spring of 293 traveling with Galerius from Sirmium ( Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia ) to Byzantium ( Istanbul, Turkey ).

Afterwards, during 299 and 302, as Diocletian was then residing in the East, it was Galerius ' turn to campaign victoriously on the Danube.

In a public ceremony at Antioch, the official version of events was clear: Galerius was responsible for the defeat ; Diocletian was not.

Diocletian publicly humiliated Galerius, forcing him to walk for a mile at the head of the Imperial caravan, still clad in the purple robes of the Emperor.

Diocletian and Galerius ' magister memoriae ( secretary ) Sicorius Probus were sent to Narseh to present terms.

At the conclusion of the peace, Diocletian and Galerius returned to Syrian Antioch.

Diocletian was conservative in matters of religion, a man faithful to the traditional Roman pantheon and understanding of demands for religious purification, but Eusebius, Lactantius and Constantine state that it was Galerius, not Diocletian, who was the prime supporter of the purge, and its greatest beneficiary.

Diocletian believed that Romanus of Caesarea was arrogant, and he left the city for Nicomedia in the winter, accompanied by Galerius.

According to Lactantius, Diocletian and Galerius entered into an argument over imperial policy towards Christians while wintering at Nicomedia in 302.

Diocletian argued that forbidding Christians from the bureaucracy and military would be sufficient to appease the gods, but Galerius pushed for extermination.

Galerius convinced Diocletian that the culprits were Christians, conspirators who had plotted with the eunuchs of the palace.

Galerius assumed the consular fasces in 308 with Diocletian as his colleague.

In the autumn of 308, Galerius again conferred with Diocletian at Carnuntum ( Petronell-Carnuntum, Austria ).

Diocletian and Maximian were both present on 11 November 308, to see Galerius appoint Licinius to be Augustus in place of Severus, who had died at the hands of Maxentius.

Compendium extract: Diocletian to the Death of Galerius: 284 – 311

Afterward, the persecutions under Diocletian and Galerius directed his attention to the martyrs of his own time and the past, and this led him to the history of the whole Church and finally to the history of the world, which, to him, was only a preparation for ecclesiastical history.

The point of the work is to describe the deaths of the persecutors of Christians: Nero, Domitian, Decius, Valerian, Aurelian, and the contemporaries of Lactantius himself, Diocletian, Maximian, Galerius, and Maximinus.

* 293 – Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian appoint Galerius as Caesar to Diocletian, beginning the period of four rulers known as the Tetrarchy.

Instituted by Diocletian, it was avidly pursued by Galerius who noticed that Constantius was well disposed towards the Christians, and saw it as a method of advancing his career prospects with the aging Diocletian.

The city subsequently expanded for a century and a half, it became a significant political and economical centre, moreso — it became one of the first Roman cities where Christianity was recognized as an official religion ( Еmperor Galerius ).

By the middle of 310 Galerius had become too ill to involve himself in imperial politics.

Galerius rescinded the edict in 311, announcing that the persecution had failed to bring Christians back to traditional religion.

* Hierocles, proconsul of Bithynia who instigated the persecution of the Christians under Galerius

Hierocles is said to have been the instigator of the fierce persecution of the Christians under Galerius.

* February 24 – Galerius publishes his edict that begins the persecution of Christians in his portion of the Empire.

* May 5 – Emperor Galerius declares on his deathbed religious freedom and issues his Edict of Toleration, ending persecution of Christians in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire.

Maximinus has a bad name in Christian annals, as having renewed persecution after the publication of the toleration edict of Galerius ( see Edict of Toleration by Galerius ), acting outwardly as responding to the demands of various urban authorities asking for the expelling of Christians.

According to Lactantius, " That /> Galerius might urge /> Diocletian to excess of cruelty in persecution, he employed private emissaries to set the palace on fire ; and some part of it having been burnt, the blame was laid on the Christians as public enemies ; and the very appellation of Christian grew odious on account of that fire.

Having received the emperor Galerius ' instruction to repeal the persecution in 311, Maximinus had instructed his subordinates to desist, but had not released Christians from prisons or virtual death-sentences in the mines, as Constantine and Licinius had both done in the West.

* 311 – The Edict of Toleration by Galerius was issued in 311 by the Roman Tetrarchy of Galerius, Constantine and Licinius, officially ending the Diocletian persecution of Christianity.

Her home was at Neocaesarea in Pontus and during the persecution of Christians under Galerius, Macrina supposedly fled with her husband to the shores of the Black Sea.

In the winter of 302, Galerius urged Diocletian to begin a general persecution of the Christians.

Galerius ended the persecution in the East in 311, but it was resumed in Egypt, Palestine, and Asia Minor by his successor, Maximinus.

In this " Second Tetrarchy ", it seems that only the Eastern emperors, Galerius and Maximinus, continued with the persecution.

Eusebius accuses Galerius of pressing on with the persecution as well.

Galerius does nothing to violate the spirit of the persecution — Christians are still admonished for their nonconformity and foolish practices — Galerius never admits that he did anything wrong.