The Edict of Galerius of 311 as the first legal act on the legalization of Christianity in the Roman Empire (For the 1710th anniversary of the Edict of Milan)

Abstract

Since ancient times the famous Milan Edict of 313 has been considered a milestone separating the era of persecution of Christianity from the era of the triumph of this religion, which since the time of St Constantine the Great occupied a dominant position in the Roman Empire. However, such a scheme is an obvious simplification, convenient only for reference books and general courses, but not for a deep historical analysis of the process of Christianization of the Roman state and society. From a formal point of view, the first official act that legalized Christianity and introduced it into the public legal field of the Empire was the edict of Galerius (311). This article provides a new translation of it, accompanied by a commentary, as well as by its Latin and Greek texts.