Donatus, bishop of Arezzo, and Hilarinus, a hermit, suffered about the same time; also Gordian, a Roman magistrate. Artemius, commander in chief of the Roman forces in Egypt, being a christian, was deprived of his commission, then of his estate, and lastly of his head.
The persecution raged dreadfully about the latter end of the year 363; but, as many of the particulars have not been handed down to us, it is necessary to remark in general, that in Palestine many were burnt alive, others were dragged by their feet through the streets naked till they expired; some were scalded to death, many stoned, and great numbers had their brains beaten out with clubs. In Alexandria, innumerable were the martyrs who suffered by the sword, burning, crucifixion, and being stoned. In Arethusa, several were ripped open, and corn being put into their bellies, swine were brought to feed therein, which, in devouring the grain, likewise devoured the entrails of the martyrs, and, in Thrace, Emilianus was burnt at a stake; and Domitius murdered in a cave, whither he had fled for refuge.
The emperor, Julian the apostate, died of a wound which he received in his Persian expedition, A. D. 363, and even while expiring, uttered the most horrid blasphemies. He was succeeded by Jovian, who restored peace to the church.
After the decease of Jovian, Valentinian succeeded to the empire, and associated to himself Valens, who had the command in the east, and was an Arian, of an unrelenting and persecuting disposition.
_Persecution of the Christians by the Goths and Vandals._
Many Scythian Goths having embraced Christianity about the time of Constantine the Great, the light of the gospel spread itself considerably in Scythia, though the two kings who ruled that country, and the majority of the people continued pagans. Fritegern, king of the West Goths, was an ally to the Romans, but Athanarick, king of the East Goths, was at war with them. The christians, in the dominions of the former, lived unmolested, but the latter, having been defeated by the Romans, wreaked his vengeance on his christian subjects, commencing his pagan injunctions in the year 370.
Eusebius, bishop of Samosata, makes a most distinguished figure in the ecclesiastical history, and was one of the most eminent champions of Christ against the Arian heresy. Eusebius, after being driven from his church, and wandering about through Syria and Palestine, encouraging the orthodox, was restored with other orthodox prelates to his see, which however he did not long enjoy, for an Arian woman threw a tile at him from the top of a house, which fractured his skull, and terminated his life in the year 380.
The Vandals passing from Spain to Africa in the fifth century, under their leader Genseric, committed the most unheard-of cruelties. They persecuted the christians wherever they came, and even laid waste the country as they passed, that the christians left behind, who had escaped them, might not be able to subsist. Sometimes they freighted a vessel with martyrs, let it drift out to sea, or set fire to it, with the sufferers shackled on the decks.
Having seized and plundered the city of Carthage, they put the bishop, and the clergy, into a leaky ship, and committed it to the mercy of the waves, thinking that they must all perish of course; but providentially the vessel arrived safe at Naples. Innumerable orthodox christians were beaten, scourged, and banished to Capsur, where it pleased God to make them the means of converting many of the Moors to christianity; but this coming to the ears of Genseric, he sent orders that they and their new converts should be tied by the feet to chariots, and dragged about until they were dashed to pieces Pampinian, the bishop of Mansuetes, was tortured to death with plates of hot iron; the bishop of Urice was burnt, and the bishop of Habensa was banished, for refusing to deliver up the sacred books which were in his possession.