As emperor, he was part of growing pattern of dividing the empire, for administrative purposes, into a western and an eastern half. At the end of his career, he was occupied largely with war and diplomacy vis a vis the Persians.
During his reign, he escalated the persecution of Jesus followers. They were arrested, beaten, tortured, jailed, and killed in large quantities.
Despite, or because of, the aggressive oppression of those who followed Jesus, their numbers grew continually. Historian Ernest Gottlieb Sihler writes:
In 258 A.D. the Emperor Valerian issued a rescript to the Roman Senate, not only naming bishops, presbyters, and deacons as objects of judicial prosecution, but decreeing also that senators and “honourables” (egregii) and Roman knights, who were Christians, should lose their ranks and fortunes, and if they persisted in their religion, their lives also. We observe at once the spread of the Christian religion and worship among the higher classes. The words of the official utterance of the Proconsul at Carthage, in passing sentence of death on Bishop Cyprian, in September, 258, are a suggestive document of those times.
In 257 AD, the proconsul Aspasius Paternus placed Cyprian under arrest. Cyprian was sent to live in house arrest, in town approximately 90 km from Carthage.
The location of Cyprian’s house arrest is variously spelled Curubis, Kurba, or Korba. Proconsul Aspasius Paternus used the following words to condemn Cyprian as a follower of Jesus:
For a long time you have lived in a sacrilegious frame of mind and have gathered very many men into your wicked conspiracy and have made yourself an enemy of the Roman gods and of the statutes of religion.
The proconsul continues, recounting imperial efforts to convert Cyprian to the Roman civil religion:
Their most august majesties Valerian and Gallienus and the Caesar Valerian could not recall you to the sect of their own ceremonies.
As Professor Sihler notes, the growth of the Jesus movement, especially among the leadership class, was perceived as a significant threat to the aristocracy’s ability to control Roman society.
After a year of arrest, the proconsul sentenced Cyprian to death with these words:
Let sound tradition [disciplina] be enforced by your blood.
Cyprian is one example of the thousands, and tens of thousands, of Jesus followers who were executed, not only during the reign of Valerian, but of Decius and other emperors.
During the career of Cyprian, the Novatianist controversy arose. The question was whether those Jesus followers who denied Jesus under pressure from the Roman government could be welcomed again into the fellowship of Jesus followers.
The majority of Jesus followers answered that those who “lapsed” either by denying Jesus under Roman threats, or by offering sacrifices to the Roman gods, were indeed welcome back among the community of Jesus followers. Cyprian, as bishop, exercised leadership and moderation in dealing with this matter.
