The Great Persecution of Christians began under Emperor Diocletian from 303 and lasted until 311 in the eastern empire, but only until 305 in the west. Yet it is the western empire that eventually failed in 476 CE.

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Some say that although the empire was already in decline, Constantine hastened that decline. However there is no evidence that Constantine became emperor as a result of the Great Persecution. Nor is there any evidence that the unsustainable financial patronage that he gave to Christianity was a direct response to the Great Persecution.

The one tenuous link between the persecution of Christians and the fall of the western empire is that the policy of persecution and the culture of book burning that took place under the Christian emperors might have been a robust response to the period known as the Great Persecution, since these factors contributed to the advent of the Dark Ages. Apart from this, it is difficult to find any link between the persecution of Christians and the failure of the Roman Empire.

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