Beautiful Egypt 28 – Divide and Rule – November, 3, 2013

   In the previous article, we tackled the onset of the rule of the military emperors; Gordian III, Philip the Arab, then Decius who embarked on the first persecution against the Christians; among whom is martyr Philopater Mercurius Abu Sifein, the Roman commander who was severely tortured.

   Mercurius was born in nearly 224 AD, his father Gordianus was a Roman officer, who believed in Christianity after coming back from a hunting trip in which God had saved him from two beasts. When the news of the family baptizing spread and reached the prince, he summoned him and his family, and threw them all to the beasts. However, the Lord delivered them and they were not harmed, so everyone was astonished!

   The prince appointed him as the commander of soldiers, when the war was raged against the Romans, Gordianus fought the enemies bravely, yet he was captivated for a year and five months, before going back to his city and family again, then he died. King Decius appointed his son Mercurius instead of his father, thus, he led the imperial army against the enemies, achieving victory with the power of God. After the victory was achieved, Decius’ heart was filled with evil, he issued a decree to be applied to the whole empire, it said:

   “From Decius, the Emperor of Rome to all over the empire: let it be known that the gods of fathers and grandfathers destined us to victory, so everyone has to prostrate to them. I have issued my orders to all to burn incense for them. Who obeys my orders will receive honor, but whoever violates my orders will be tortured and killed by the sword.”

   Decius noticed the absence of Mercurius from the ceremony of offering the thankfulness sacrifices to the gods, and when he summoned him to inquire about the reason, Mercurius confessed his Christian faith, so Decius ordered him to be arrested and tortured in prison; he had his body torn with sharp pins and blades, he was laid on fire in order to be burnt alive! He bore severe pains and God had healed him of all of them.

   Decius feared the rage of the Roman people as they loved commander Mercurius; so he sent him to Caesarea of Cappadocia where he was beheaded after being scourged. His case was written as so: “As Prince Mercurius – the commander of the armies – denied the honorable gods and refused to obey the great royal orders, we order him to be sent to Caesarea of Cappadocia where he should be beheaded by sword.” Hence, he was martyred there. In Misr al Qadima, Cairo, a famous monastery is established on his name.

   About the incidents in Egypt, one of the historians said: “Egypt had witnessed persecution against Christians through torture, crucifixion and murder that no survivors were left except those who fled to the desserts or to the graves and caves”. Pope Dionysius I, the Patriarch of Alexandria, described these events in his message to Fabian, the Bishop of Antioch about the period of Decius’ rule, it reads:

   “No sooner did we breathe a sigh of relief than we were pervaded with fear and danger, when the king – who had been more gentle and of less evil than others – was replaced with another king, who, upon sitting on the kingdom, turned his eyes to us and worked on our persecution. Our conjecture came true and what we thought about turned out to be real, when a tough order against Christians was issued – just as our Savior, glory be to Him, told us – including phrases that made people quake in their boots, even the chosen ones were about to stumble and fall, and everyone got very terrified. Many of the celebrities turned to flee, and every Christian got fired from the government whatever his intelligence and understanding was. Any Christian – that was detected and guided by one of the pagans – was brought hastily and summoned by his name until he would advance to the temple of idols, and would be asked to offer the pagan sacrifice. The punishment of him who refuses to offer the sacrifice to the gods was to be offered himself as a sacrifice to the gods, after others strive to convince him by all means of intimidation and terrorism, while a crowd of pagans ridiculed and mocked every Christian who would whether deny faith and offer sacrifices to the idols, or choose death which is the end of all human beings… and others were arrested and put in prison, bound with shackles and chains”. Although some had weakened, many have remained steadfast in their faith despite the difficult cruel torture! Pope Dionysius I presented a model of a man named Julianus, saying: “In the forefront of these pious men, there was a man named Julianus who had suffered from gout and had no ability to walk or to get up from his place. They brought him to trial carried by two men on their shoulders. When these two men stood before the court, one of them denied his faith, while the other, whose name was Cronion and nicknamed Enos, explicitly confessed his faith as Julianus also did. So they placed them on two camels that toured Alexandria, while they both were being scourged violently, and finally they were thrown into the fire until they turned into ashes!

   In Egypt, a man calling upon the Egyptians to leave Christianity and return to idolatry emerged, causing great controversy and strife between Christians and pagans; the pagans went out to exterminate Christians, looted their homes everywhere; and in Alexandria in particular. Then sedition aroused more until shedding the Christians’ blood became a matter of fulfilling religious duties! Pagans chased Christians everywhere until they fled to the deserts. The Roman government at that time was trying to make strife among the people of Egypt continuous and set on fire relentlessly. But rather it attempted to confirm enmity between people of different religions in every way possible; to achieve its goals in getting the people of Egypt preoccupied by civil wars and made up clashes, and indifferent to their main enemy, which was invading their country; thus, the empire would maintain its domination over the country, imposing an iron handed rule.

   As for political matters and governance in Egypt, Decius appointed a prince to manage the army, another prince of an Egyptian origin to manage the political affairs of the country without interfering in the affairs of the army. In those days, strife, internal wars, disturbances, epidemics and drought spread in the country that many Egyptians were perished. Decius died in his wars after falling into the hands of his enemies, and Emperor Gallus succeeded him in the rule.

Gallus Caesar 251 – 253 AD)

   He was born in Italy of a noble family, became a commander and was promoted to senior posts due to his activity, zeal and excellence, which made him trusted by Emperor Decius. Upon the death of Decius and his son in wars, soldiers proclaimed Gallus an emperor, so he participated in the rule with Hostilian, the younger son of Decius, and he entrusted his son Volusianus to be his successor. After a little while, it was rumored that Hostilian died of an epidemic spread in Rome then. Yet some historians mentioned that Gallus murdered Hostilian, and then spread rumors of his death of the plague epidemic which had killed many people then, while some other historians confirm his death to be caused by the plague.

   His ruling period was not a smooth one; as revolts were raged against him in the east, so he sent his armies to fight the Persians who had invaded Armenia and destroyed the Roman armies. Uranius Antoninus – a descendant priest of the royal family of Emesa – had curbed the Persian invasion, coerced their king to retract, and then he proclaimed himself an emperor.

   In 253 AD, Moesia (the main part of central Serbia and Bulgaria) was raided, the commander of the armies then was Emilianus who managed to confront the enemies and defeat them crushingly. As a result of this victory, soldiers, in the battlefield, proclaimed Emilianus an emperor of the country instead of Gallus.

   No sooner had Gallus heard this news of crowning Emilianus on the throne of Rome, than he prepared his armies to fight him. He asked the aid of Valerian who prepared an army as well, the armies of Gallus and Emilianus fought each other, yet sedition sneaked amidst the soldiers of Gallus, and they killed him and his son.

   Emilianus’ rule of Rome was about to settle, yet Valerian reached with his armies, fought Emilianus, defeated him and murdered him and his son after a few month ruling period, then he assumed the power of the country.

   During the reign of Gallus, Egypt was abandoned and isolated from the Roman Empire and its states; when he assumed the power of Rome, Egypt knew about the news in the next year! This refers to the trade stagnation and political weakness between the empire and Egypt which…

Stories about it never end!

The General Bishop

Head of Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center