Maximinus
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| Maximinus Daia | |
|---|---|
| Caesar, then Augustus in the east | |
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| 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 |
| near Felix Romuliana (Gamzigrad, Serbia | |
| Died | August 313 |
| Predecessor | Galerius |
| Successor | Licinius |
| Consort to | Caecilia Paulina |
- 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 named Daia. He was born of peasant stock to the half sister of the Roman emperor Galerius near their family lands around Felix Romuliana; a rural area now in the Danubian region of Serbia, then the newly reorganised Roman province of Dacia Aureliana subordinated to the later Prefecture of Illyricum).
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, he summoned an army of 70,000 men, but still 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 (see Edict of Milan), but it is probable that he has been judged too harshly.[citation needed]
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
[edit] External links
Commons has media related to Maximinus II- DiMaio, Michael, "Maximinus Daia (305-313 A.D.)", De Imperatoribus Romanis
- Catholic Encyclopedia article
| Preceded by Galerius and Constantine I |
Roman Emperor 308–313 with Galerius, Constantine I and Licinius |
Succeeded by Constantine I and Licinius |
