<P> The Diocletianic or Great Persecution was the last and most severe persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire . In 303 , the Emperors Diocletian , Maximian , Galerius , and Constantius issued a series of edicts rescinding the legal rights of Christians and demanding that they comply with traditional Roman religious practices . Later edicts targeted the clergy and ordered all inhabitants to sacrifice to the Roman gods ( a policy known as universal sacrifice ) . The persecution varied in intensity across the empire -- weakest in Gaul and Britain , where only the first edict was applied , and strongest in the Eastern provinces . Persecutory laws were nullified by different emperors at different times , but Constantine and Licinius 's Edict of Milan ( 313 ) has traditionally marked the end of the persecution . </P>
<P> The Diocletianic or Great Persecution was the last and most severe persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire . In 303 , the Emperors Diocletian , Maximian , Galerius , and Constantius issued a series of edicts rescinding the legal rights of Christians and demanding that they comply with traditional Roman religious practices . Later edicts targeted the clergy and ordered all inhabitants to sacrifice to the Roman gods ( a policy known as universal sacrifice ) . The persecution varied in intensity across the empire -- weakest in Gaul and Britain , where only the first edict was applied , and strongest in the Eastern provinces . Persecutory laws were nullified by different emperors at different times , but Constantine and Licinius 's Edict of Milan ( 313 ) has traditionally marked the end of the persecution . </P>
who was targeted in the great persecution that began in 303
who was targeted in the great persecution that began in 303
Christians
Christians