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The supreme irony. The octagonal mausoleum Diocletian built for himself was converted into the Cathedral of St Domnius. When Diocletian seized the throne in 285 the Roman Empire had been descending into anarchy and chaos for almost 75 years. Diocletian re-organised the government, disciplined the army and replaced the old faux-republican Empire with an "oriental" absolute despotism. The emperor was no longer first amongst equals, the emperor was the physical incarnation of the Gods on earth. Christian belief was inimicable to this end and so Diocletian ordered a persecution of Christians. The Christian polemicists and subsequent historians have tended to focus on these events as part of a clash of religious beliefs. It was really nothing of the sort. The persecution of Christians was the politically motivated act of a statist polity.
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Eastern Europe
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