Maximinus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maximinus Daia
Caesar, then Augustus in the east

Follis issued by Maximinus
Reign	305-8 (as Caesar in the east, under Galerius); 310- May 312 (as Augustus in the east, in competition with Licinius)
Full name	Gaius Valerius Galerius Maximinus Daia
Born	20 November c.270
	Danubian region
Died	August 313
Predecessor	Galerius
Successor	Licinius
Consort to	Oprah

This article deals with 4th century Roman Emperor. For other uses of the name, see Maximinus (disambiguation).

Gaius Valerius Galerius Maximinus (20 November, c. 270 - July/August, 313) Roman emperor from 308 to 313, was originally a peasant 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 adopted by his maternal uncle, Galerius, and raised to the rank of caesar, with the government of Syria and Aegyptus.

In 308, after the elevation of Licinius to Augustus, Maximinus and Constantine were declared filii Augustorum ("sons of the Augusti"), but Maximinus probably started styling himself after Augustus during a campaign against the Sassanids in 310.

On the death of Galerius, in 311, Maximinus divided the Eastern Empire between Licinius and himself. When Licinius and Constantine 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".^{[citations needed]}

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] External links

Preceded by Galerius and Constantine I	Roman Emperor 308–313 with Galerius, Constantine I and Licinius	Succeeded by Constantine I and Licinius