The third century of Christianity was largely the time of the Ante-Nicene Fathers who wrote after the Apostolic Fathers of the 1st and 2nd centuries but before the First Council of Nicaea in 325 (ante-nicene meaning before Nicaea). Some of the larger persecutions of early Christians in the Roman Empire occurred in this time period, only ceasing with the Edict of Milan of 313 in the 4th century (excluding the brief rule of Julian the Apostate, 331-363).