Maximinus

Infobox Roman emperor
title = Emperor of the Roman Empire
name=Maximinus Daia
full name =Gaius Valerius Galerius
Maximinus Daia


caption =
reign =305-8 (as Caesar in the east, under Galerius);
310- May 312 (as Augustus in the east, in competition with Licinius)
predecessor =Galerius
successor =Licinius
spouse =Caecilia Paulina
spouse 2 =
issue =
dynasty =
father =
mother =
date of birth =20 November c. 270
place of birth =near Felix Romuliana (Gamzigrad, Serbia
date of death =August 313
place of death =
place of burial =|:"This article deals with 4th century Roman Emperor. For other uses of the name, see Maximin."

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".Facts|date=February 2007

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"). Eusebius of Caesarea ("Ecclesiastical History", VIII, 14), for example, writes that Maximinus conceived an "insane passion" for a Christian girl of Alexandria, who was of noble birth noted for her wealth, education, and virginity. When the girl refused his advances, he exiled her and seized all of her wealth and assets. [http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/39650. This girl was later identified with the legendary Dorothea of Alexandria as well as Catherine of Alexandria.]

He was also very tall. It is reported that he was 2.4 m (8ft) tall. (Life in Ancient Rome by Lesley and Roy Adkins)

References

*1911

External links

* [http://www.roman-emperors.org/daia.htm DiMaio, Michael, "Maximinus Daia (305-313 A.D.)", "De Imperatoribus Romanis"]
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10077b.htm Catholic Encyclopedia article]