Maximinus Daia
| Maximinus Daia | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 59th Emperor of the Roman Empire | |||||
 |
|||||
| Reign | 305–308 (as Caesar in the east, under Galerius); 310 – May 312 (as Augustus in the east, in competition with Licinius) |
||||
| Predecessor | Galerius | ||||
| Successor | Licinius | ||||
| Born | 20 November c. 270 near Felix Romuliana (Gamzigrad, Serbia) |
||||
| Died | August 313 (aged 42) | ||||
|
|||||
| Full name | |
|---|---|
| Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximinus Daia Augustus |
Maximinus II (Latin: Gaius Valerius Galerius Maximinus Daia Augustus; 20 November c. 270 – July or August 313), also known as Maximinus Daia or Maximinus Daza, was Roman Emperor from 308 to 313. He became embroiled in the Civil wars of the Tetrarchy between rival claimants for control of the empire, in which he was defeated by Licinius. A committed pagan, he engaged in one of the last persecutions of Christians.
He was born of Dacian peasant stock to the sister of the emperor Galerius near their family lands around Felix Romuliana, a rural area then in the Danubian region of Moesia, now Eastern Serbia.
He rose to high distinction after joining the army.
In 305, his maternal uncle Galerius became the eastern Augustus and adopted Maximinus, raising him to the rank of caesar (in effect, the junior eastern Emperor), and granting him the government of Syria and Egypt.
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, 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 sustained a crushing defeat at the Battle of Tzirallum in the neighbourhood of Heraclea Perinthus on April 30. He 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".
...
Wikipedia