Melchiades - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

MELCHIADES, or Miltiades (other forms of the name being Meltiades, Melciades, Milciades and Miltides), pope from the 2nd of July 310, to the 11th January 31 4. He appears to have been an African by birth, but of his personal history nothing is known. The toleration edicts of Galerius and of Constantine and Licinius were published during his pontificate, which was also marked by the holding of the Lateran synod in Rome (313) at which Caecilianus, bishop of Carthage, was acquitted of the charges brought against him and Donatus condemned. Melchiades was preceded and followed by Eusebius and Silvester I. respectively.