Historical Context
The martyrdom is set during the reign of Maximian Galerius, who as senior Augustus (305-311) maintained the harshest phase of the Great Persecution. Galerius had pressed for the edicts of persecution against Christians published from 303, beginning with an edict issued on February 24 of that year, under which Christian houses of assembly were destroyed for fear of sedition in secret gatherings. Near the end of his life he reversed course, issuing the Edict of Serdica (the Edict of Toleration) in April 311 and effectively ending official persecution. The deaths of Aristocles, Demetrian, and Athanasius in 306 thus fall within this final, severe phase.
Cyprus was an early and important Christian center. Tamassos, where Aristocles served as presbyter, was one of the ten ancient city-kingdoms of the island, lying in the central plain southwest of Nicosia, and became one of the first Greek Orthodox dioceses in Cyprus; its earliest bishops are named in tradition as Saints Herakleidios and Mnason. Salamis, where the three were martyred, was where the Apostles Paul and Barnabas first proclaimed Christ on their First Missionary Journey, and where, by tradition, Barnabas was martyred and venerated as founder of the Church of Cyprus.