Maximinus

From Free net encyclopedia

This article deals with 4th century Roman Emperor. For the 3rd century Roman emperor, see Maximinus Thrax. For the 4th century Roman Praetorian Prefect and barrister see Maximinus (Praetorian Prefect).

Image:Maximinus2.jpg Gaius Valerius Galerius Maximinus (20 November, 270? - July/August, 313) Roman emperor from 308 to 313, was originally a shepherd named Daia, born in the Danubian region, in the newly reorganised Roman province of Dacia Aureliana (together with Macedonia subordinated to the later Prefecture of Illyricum). He was the nephew of Galerius, being the son of his sister.

He rose to high distinction after he had joined the army, and in 305 he was raised by his maternal uncle, Galerius, to the rank of Caesar, with the government of Syria and Aegyptus.

In 308, after the elevation of Licinius, he insisted on receiving the title of Augustus; on the death of Galerius, in 311, he succeeded to the supreme command of the provinces of Asia. When Licinius and Constantine I began to make common cause with one another, Maximinus entered into a secret alliance with the usurper Caesar Maxentius, who controlled Italy. He came to an open rupture with Licinius in 313, sustained a crushing defeat at the battle of Tzirallum, in the neighbourhood of Heraclea Pontica, on the April 30, and fled, first to Nicomedia and afterwards to Tarsus, where he died the following August. His death was variously ascribed "to despair, to poison, and to the divine justice."

Maximinus has a bad name in Christian annals, as having renewed persecution after the publication of the toleration edict of Galerius, but it is probable that he has been judged too harshly.

[edit]

References

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition{{#if:{{{article|}}}| article {{#if:{{{url|}}}|[{{{url|}}}}} "{{{article}}}"{{#if:{{{url|}}}|]}}{{#if:{{{author|}}}| by {{{author}}}}}}}, a publication now in the public domain.

[edit]