THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY AND THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA Sufficient theological antecedents have been reviewed that the stage is now set for a rehearsal of the great conciliar decisions which came out of the conflicts which raged throughout the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. and the events which led up to them. But there is also one historical antecedent which figured throughout the christological controversies. Beginning with Nero in the first century A.D. and culminating with Diocletian in the early fourth