ep impression of terror and hatred in the mind of Diocletian.

His fears were soon alarmed by the view of a danger from which he very
narrowly escaped. Within fifteen days the palace of Nicomedia, and even
the bed-chamber of Diocletian, were twice in flames; and though both
times they were extinguished without any material damage, the singular
repetition of the fire was justly considered as an evident proof that it
had not been the effect of chance or negligence. The suspicion naturally
fell on the Christians; and it was suggested, with some degree of
probability, that those desperate fanatics, provoked by their present
sufferings, and apprehensive of impending calamities, had entered into
a conspiracy with their faithful brethren, the eunuchs of the
palace, against the lives of two emperors, whom they detested as the
irreconcilable enemies of the church of God. Jealousy and resentment
prevailed in every breast, but especially in that of Diocletian. A great
number of persons, distinguished either by the offices which they had
filled, or by the favor which they had enjoyed, were thrown into prison.
Every mode of torture was put in practice, and the court, as well as
city, was polluted with many bloody executions. But as it was found
impossible to extort any discovery of this mysterious transaction, it
seems incumbent on us either to presume the innocence, or to admire the
resolution, of the sufferers. A few days afterwards Galerius hastily
withdrew himself from Nicomedia, declaring, that if he delayed his
departure from that devoted palace, he should fall a sacrifice to the
rage of the Christians. The ecclesiastical historians, from whom alone
we derive a partial and imperfect knowledge of this persecution, are at
a loss how to account for the fears and dangers of the emperors. Two
of these writers, a prince and a rhetorician, were eye-witnesses of
the fire of Nicomedia. The one ascribes it to lightning, and the divine
wrath; the other affirms, that it was kindled by the malice of Galerius
himself.

As the edict against the Christians was designed for a general law of
the whole empire, and as Diocletian and Galerius, though they might not
wait for the consent, were assured of the concurrence, of the Western
princes, it would appear more consonant to our ideas of policy, that the
governors of all the provinces should have received secret instructions
to publish, on one and the same day, this declaration of war within
the