For a brief two years, Trajan Decius (AD 201—251) was emperor of the Roman Empire, and he was no friend of Christians. In AD 250, the former senator, consul, and governor of Illyricum (modern-day Serbia) further distinguished himself by leading his troops to victory over an army of Balkan rebels under the command of Pacatianus. A year earlier, Decius had defeated Philip the Arab, then Emperor of Rome, at the Battle of Verona. Elated by his victories on the battlefield, Decius’s army proclaimed their general the new Emperor of Rome in AD 249.