On The Death Of The Persecutors is the english translation for the latin work entitled De Mortibus Prosecutorum by Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius. It is a work of great antiquity, lost for centuries until its discovery in a 17th century convent library in Moissac, France. In the 4th century, Jerome mentioned this work which records the Roman persecution of Christians and God’s subsequent judgement upon the persecutors.

Lactantius probably grew up during the reign and persecutions of Decius and Valerian of the 250s, although he was still a pagan at the time. He lived through the great persecutions of Diocletian and Galerius, providing eyewitness testimony and apparently becoming a Christian during that time. Lactantius is the author of several other works defending Christianity, several of which are lost to history. In On The Death Of The Persecutors, Lactantius argues from history that God ultimately destroys those who actively oppose his divine will. He writes,

“Of the end of those men I have thought good to publish a narrative, that all who are afar off, and all who shall arise hereafter, may learn how the Almighty manifested His power and sovereign greatness in rooting out and utterly destroying the enemies of His name.”

Lactantius utilizes his literary gift to provide a vivid insider’s account of how the persecuting emperors ruled, drawing a straight line between their brutal acts against the empire’s Christian minority, and the pathetic or horrifying ends they later endured.

David Dalrymple (Lord Hailes) translated this work of Lactantius and writes,

“Like Decius and Valerian before them, Diocletian and Galerius came to view the Christians as an internal fifth column—an organized, disloyal institution operating in the shadows but with increasing boldness. Worse, because they refused to worship the cult of the Roman state, Christians were viewed as angering the very gods who protected the empire and defended the emperors. It was believed by many that Roman peace and tranquility could only be maintained if the traditional Roman pantheon was worshipped correctly. Spurred on by court philosophers as mentioned above, and especially by the insistent cajolery of his colleague, Galerius, Diocletian would embark upon the most violent, systematic, wide-ranging, and brutal persecution of Christians that the Roman Empire had ever attempted . . . [it] climaxes with Lactantius’s horrifying account of the death of the prime motivator of the Great Persecution, Galerius, who ruled the East as Augustus following the resignation of Diocletian. Lactantius covers the gruesome sickness and death of Galerius in macabre detail, reminiscent of the death of Antiochus IV as recorded in 2 Maccabees 9 and Herod Agrippa in Acts 12:23.“

In Ps 73, the author wrestles with the arrogance and prosperity of the wicked until he recognizes their end, writing in v. 16-19:

But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!

We live in a time of proliferating evil. But Scripture repeatedly exhorts us to not fret because of evildoers (i.e., Ps 37:1). We must recognize that God is patient, continually extending his offer of redemption . . . until his patience is finally exhausted and divine judgment falls with terrifying ferocity and finality. Such is the end of all as exemplified by the end of Decius, Domitian, Valerian, Galerius and others as recounted by Lantantius. While presenting the truth of Christianity, Lactantius also reminds us of the horrific destiny of those who futilely seek to destroy the church.