VALERIAN, va-li'ri-an, PUBLIUS LICINIUS: Roman emperor 253-260. Valerian came of distinguished family, and was trained in both military and civil functions. He came to the purple during the bloody times which closed the usurpation of lEmilian, being made emperor in Rhxtia by the army in 253. He attempted to meet the difficult situation at home and the warlike conditions on the borders, but his age (sixty years) did not permit the employment of the necessary energy. The result was insecurity and hesitation in the face of foreign influences.

[Valerian had been nominated censor by Decius, who wished to revive this important office in the empire, and the choice was ratified by the Roman senate. But Valerian declined a position which carried with it really imperial power on the ground that the functions belonged to the emperor (Gibbon, Decline and Fall, i. 247-248).] In the matter of Christianity Valerian had occupied such a position under Decius that Christian tradition rightly saw in him the instigator of the Decian persecution (see Decius, Caius Messius Quintus Trajanus). But he broke away from that policy and gave to Christians unwonted signs of favor; at his court Christians were so numerous that the court seemed like " a church of God " (Dionysius, in Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VII., x. 3; NPNF, 2 ser., i. 298). This situation resembles that in the reign of Diocletian, and the development was similar; in both cases an antichristian party gained the ear of the emperor. The antichristian leader was the General Marcus Fulvius Macrianus, a man of great military reputation, and a leader in the Egyptian mysteries, which explains his attitude. His political reasons are in doubt; he may have aimed at the purple, and perhaps attempted to carry out his plans by causing political unrest. At any rate, he induced the emperor to issue a rescript in 257 which forbade the Christians to hold assemblies and to use the cemeteries, also sending the clergy into banishment. Macrianus was evidently aiming at the Christian organization; the heads-the clergy-were to be removed while the rank and file were not to meet. How the emperor was won over by the heathen party is not known; but the terms of the edict, comparatively mild, reveals the emperor's earlier good-will for the Christians.

In 258 a new rescript was issued: bishops, presbyters, and deacons were at once to be executed; Christians of senatorial or equestrian rank were to be degraded and their property confiscated, and, if still contumacious, were to suffer death; women were threatened with confiscation of property and banishment; the Christians of the court were to be put in chains at forced servitude on the imperial domains. As a result the two great Christian communities at Rome and Carthage lost their leader. Bishop Sixtus of Rome fled to the catacombs, but was captured and executed (see Sixtus, II.); and Cyprian also lost his life the same year. Rome also suffered loss in the death of Saint Laurence (q.v.). The Spanish church lost Bishop Fructuosus of Tarragona (q.v.), and both his deacons. In the part of the empire under Gallienus the persecution spread and was thought of as general. As a matter of fact, persecution broke out only in limited foci of action, and there did not destroy Christianity; for a united and general persecution there was neither time nor strength. Perhaps Valerian did not stand forcefully behind the rescript. Yet none of the persecutions of the Christians has rained so many unanswered questions as this.

Valerian fell into the hands of the Persian king, by whom he was held a prisoner till his death. The two sons of Macrianus attempted to seize the throne, but he and they soon fell. Gallienus caused the persecutions to cease.

(Victor Schultze.)

Bibliography: Sources are: Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VII., x.-xi., Eng. transl. in NPNF, 2 ser., i. 298-302; and the Acts proeonauZaria, in Cyprisn, Opera, ed. Hartel, ii. 839, in CSEL. Consult: L. S. Le Nain de Tillemont, Hist. den empereura, vol. iii., 8 vols., Paris, 1720-38; H. Schil ler, Geachdchte der römischen Kaiaerzeit, i. 2, pp. Sll sqq., Gotha, 1883; W. Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, iii. 1218-17, London, 1890; P. J. Healy, The Valerian Persecution, ib. 1905; Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chaps. x., xvi.; Schaff, Christian Church. I'i. 82; Neander, Christian Church, i. 136-140 et passim; DCB, iv. 1100-02; the literature under CrFRIeN; 3nc- TBB II.; and Persecutions of Christians.,