The evening meal, or convivium, may include meat, fish, broccoli, cereals, a porridge of breadcrumbs and onions fried in oil and seasoned with vinegar and chick-peas. The main building alone covers six acres and can accommodate as many as 1,600 at one time. The emperor Decius institutes the first wholesale persecution of Christians in an attempt to restore the religion and institutions of ancient Rome. The persecution produces martyrs who will be revered as saints. The depression ruins craftsmen, tradesmen, and small farmers, who are reduced to bartering.
Large landowners grow larger by buying up cheap land.
The public baths of the emperor Diocletian at Rome open with 3,000 rooms. They are even larger and more elaborate than the Baths of Caracalla completed in 213. The Arch of Constantine, completed by the Roman emperor, commemorates his victory at the Milvian Bridge in 312. Barbarian peoples have used waterpower for years and pressure mounts to use such power in Rome, where rulers have opposed it in the past lest it cause unemployment. Stilicho is murdered August 22 on orders from the emperor Honorius.