The Martyrs of Nicomedia was an incidence of the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire, perpetrated against the Christian population of Nicomedia on Christmas Day, 304 AD. In the event, around several thousand to 20,000 people (depending on the account) were massacred by Roman soldiers under Emperor Maximian, most of whom were brutally tortured (or even burned alive in a church, according to some sources). This was not the first time that large numbers of Christians were massacred in Nicomedia or other parts of the Roman Empire.