There is little historical base to the story, as Diocletian had a daughter Valeria but no sons—a fact of considerable importance to the history of his reign. However, he did carry out the last intensive persecution of Christians in Roman history, many of whose victims were indeed burned alive. Thus, Pelagia might have been an actually martyr of that time, even if under different circumstances than those recounted in the later story.[citation needed] More probably, commemorations of the historical martyr Pelagia at Tarsus were probably embellished and given a local setting at some point.[2]