Decius, in full Gaius Messius Quintus Decius (born c. 201, Budalia, Pannonia Inferior [near modern Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia]—died June 251, Abrittus, Moesia [modern Razgrad, Bulgaria]), Roman emperor (249–251) who fought the Gothic invasion of Moesia and instituted the first organized persecution of Christians throughout the empire.
Although Decius’s origins are not known, it is certain that he was a senator and a consul before acceding to the throne. About 245 the emperor Philip the Arabian entrusted him with a command on the Danube; there, in 249, Decius was proclaimed emperor, allegedly against his will. After killing Philip in battle near Verona, Decius took the field against the Goths, who had crossed the Danube and overrun Moesia and Thrace. The final engagement in this campaign, which took place on swampy ground at Abrittus in the Dobruja, in June 251, ended in the defeat and death of Decius and his son, Herennius. Evidently, while absent from Rome, Decius had selected the future emperor Valerian to direct the government, but Gallus (251–253) was his immediate successor.
Before Decius’s reign, persecution of the Christians in the empire had been sporadic and local, but about the beginning of January 250 he issued an edict ordering all citizens to perform a religious sacrifice in the presence of commissioners. A large number of Christians defied the government, for which the bishops of Rome, Jerusalem, and Antioch lost their lives and many others were arrested.
The suppression strengthened rather than weakened the Christian movement, for public opinion condemned the government’s violence and applauded the passive resistance of the martyrs. Decius provided the model for a more thorough persecution of Christians, which began in 303 under Diocletian’s reign. Early in 251, a few months before Decius’s death, the persecution of Christians ceased.