Maximinus II

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maximinus Daia
55th 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)
Full name	Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximinus Daia Augustus^[1]
Born	20 November c. 270
Birthplace	near Felix Romuliana (Gamzigrad, Serbia)
Died	August 313 (aged 42)
Predecessor	Galerius
Successor	Licinius

This article deals with this 4th-century Roman Emperor. For the 3rd-century Roman Emperor of the same name, see: Maximinus Thrax. For other uses of the name, see Maximin.

Maximinus II (Latin: Gaius Valerius Galerius Maximinus Daia Augustus; c. 20 November 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.

Early career

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.^[2]

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.

Civil war

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".^[3]

Persecution of Christians

Maximinus has a bad name in Christian annals for renewing their persecution after the publication of the Edict of Toleration by Galerius, acting in response to the demands of various urban authorities asking to expel Christians. In one rescript replying to a petition made by the inhabitants of Tyre, transcribed by Eusebius of Caesarea,^[4] Maximinus expounds an unusual pagan orthodoxy, explaining that it is through "the kindly care of the gods" that one could hope for good crops, health, and the peaceful sea, and that not being the case, one should blame "the destructive error of the empty vanity of those impious men [that] weighed down the whole world with shame". In one extant inscription (CIL III.12132, from Arycanda) from the cities of Lycia and Pamphylia asking for the interdiction of the Christians, Maximinus replied, in another inscription, by expressing his hope that "may those [...] who, after being freed from [...] those by-ways [...] rejoice [as] snatched from a grave illness".^[5]

After the victory of Constantine over Maxentius, however, Maximinus wrote to the Praetorian Prefect Sabinus that it was better to "recall our provincials to the worship of the gods rather by exhortations and flatteries".^[6] Eventually, on the eve of his clash with Licinius, he accepted Galerius' edict; after being defeated by Licinius, shortly before his death at Tarsus, he issued an edict of tolerance on his own, granting Christians the rights of assembling, of building churches, and the restoration of their confiscated properties.^[7]

Eusebius on Maximinus

The Christian writer Eusebius claims that Maximinus was consumed by avarice and superstition. He also allegedly lived a highly dissolute lifestyle:

And he went to such an excess of folly and drunkenness that his mind was deranged and crazed in his carousals; and he gave commands when intoxicated of which he repented afterward when sober. He suffered no one to surpass him in debauchery and profligacy, but made himself an instructor in wickedness to those about him, both rulers and subjects. He urged on the army to live wantonly in every kind of revelry and intemperance, and encouraged the governors and generals to abuse their subjects with rapacity and covetousness, almost as if they were rulers with him.
Why need we relate the licentious, shameless deeds of the man, or enumerate the multitude with whom he committed adultery? For he could not pass through a city without continually corrupting women and ravishing virgins.^[8]

According to Eusebius, only Christians resisted him.

For the men endured fire and sword and crucifixion and wild beasts and the depths of the sea, and cutting off of limbs, and burnings, and pricking and digging out of eyes, and mutilations of the entire body, and besides these, hunger and mines and bonds. In all they showed patience in behalf of religion rather than transfer to idols the reverence due to God.

And the women were not less manly than the men in behalf of the teaching of the Divine Word, as they endured conflicts with the men, and bore away equal prizes of virtue. And when they were dragged away for corrupt purposes, they surrendered their lives to death rather than their bodies to impurity.

He refers to one high-born Christian woman who rejected his advances. He exiled her and seized all of her wealth and assets.^[9] Eusebius does not give the girl a name, but Tyrannius Rufinus calls her "Dorothea," and writes that she fled to Arabia. This story may have evolved into the legend of Dorothea of Alexandria. Caesar Baronius identified the girl in Eusebius' account with Catherine of Alexandria, but the Bollandists rejected this theory.^[9]

References

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press

↑ http://wildwinds.com/coins/ric/maximinus_II/i.html
↑ Roman Colosseum, Maximinus Daza
↑ Gibbon, Edward, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire', Chapter 14
↑ Ecclesiastical History , IX, 8-9 ; Eng. trans. available at . Accessed August 2 2012
↑ John Granger Cook, The Interpretation of the New Testament in Greco-Roman Paganism. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000, ISBN 3-16-147195-4 , page 304, footnote 175
↑ Ecclesiastical History, IX, 1-10
↑ Ecclesiastical History, X, 7-11
↑ Ecclesiastical History, VIII, 14.
↑ 9.0 9.1 Enciclopedia dei Santi: Santa Dorotea di Alessandria

External links

Media related to Maximinus II at Wikimedia Commons

DiMaio, Michael, "Maximinus Daia (305–313 A.D.)", De Imperatoribus Romanis
"Caius Valerius Daja Maximinus". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.

Regnal titles
Maximinus II Constantinian dynasty Born: 20 November 270 Died: July or August 313
Preceded by Galerius and Constantine I	Roman Emperor 308–313 with Galerius, Constantine I and Licinius	Succeeded by Constantine I and Licinius
Political offices
Preceded by Constantius Chlorus, Galerius	Consul of the Roman Empire 307 with Maximian, Constantine I , Flavius Valerius Severus,, Galerius	Succeeded by Diocletian , Galerius, Maxentius, Valerius Romulus
Preceded by Tatius Andronicus , Pompeius Probus, Maxentius	Consul of the Roman Empire 311 with Galerius , Gaius Caeionius Rufius Volusianus, Aradius Rufinus	Succeeded by Constantine I , Licinius, Maxentius
Preceded by Constantine I , Licinius, Maxentius	Consul of the Roman Empire 313 with Constantine I , Licinius	Succeeded by Gaius Caeionius Rufius Volusianus, Petronius Annianus

v t e Roman emperors

Principate 27 BC – 235 AD	Augustus Tiberius Caligula Claudius Nero Galba Otho Vitellius Vespasian Titus Domitian Nerva Trajan Hadrian Antoninus Pius Marcus Aurelius with Lucius Verus Commodus Pertinax Didius Julianus Septimius Severus Caracalla Geta Macrinus with Diadumenian Elagabalus Alexander Severus

Crisis 235–284	Maximinus Thrax Gordian I and Gordian II Pupienus and Balbinus Gordian III Philip the Arab Decius with Herennius Etruscus Hostilian Trebonianus Gallus with Volusianus Aemilianus Valerian Gallienus with Saloninus Claudius Gothicus Quintillus Aurelian Tacitus Florianus Probus Carus Carinus Numerian

Dominate 284–395	Diocletian Maximian Constantius Chlorus Galerius Severus Maxentius Maximinus Daia Licinius with Valerius Valens and Martinianus Constantine the Great Constantine II Constans I Constantius II with Vetranio Julian Jovian Valentinian I Valens Gratian Valentinian II Theodosius I

Western Empire 395–480	Honorius with Constantine III Constantius III Joannes Valentinian III Petronius Maximus Avitus Majorian Libius Severus Anthemius Olybrius Glycerius Julius Nepos Romulus Augustulus

Eastern/ Byzantine Empire 395–1204	Arcadius Theodosius II Marcian Leo I the Thracian Leo II Zeno Basiliscus Anastasius I Justin I Justinian I Justin II Tiberius II Constantine Maurice Phocas Heraclius Constantine III Heraklonas Constans II Constantine IV Justinian II Leontios Tiberios III Philippikos Anastasios II Theodosios III Leo III the Isaurian Constantine V Artabasdos Leo IV the Khazar Constantine VI Irene Nikephoros I Staurakios Michael I Rangabe Leo V the Armenian Michael II the Amorian Theophilos Michael III Basil I the Macedonian Leo VI the Wise Alexander Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos Romanos I Lekapenos Romanos II Nikephoros II Phokas John I Tzimiskes Basil II Constantine VIII Zoe Romanos III Argyros Michael IV the Paphlagonian Michael V Kalaphates Constantine IX Monomachos Theodora Michael VI Bringas Isaac I Komnenos Constantine X Doukas Romanos IV Diogenes Michael VII Doukas Nikephoros III Botaneiates Alexios I Komnenos John II Komnenos Manuel I Komnenos Alexios II Komnenos Andronikos I Komnenos Isaac II Angelos Alexios III Angelos Alexios IV Angelos Alexios V Doukas

Empire of Nicaea 1204–1261	Constantine Laskaris Theodore I Laskaris John III Doukas Vatatzes Theodore II Laskaris John IV Laskaris

Eastern/ Byzantine Empire 1261–1453	Michael VIII Palaiologos Andronikos II Palaiologos Michael IX Palaiologos Andronikos III Palaiologos John V Palaiologos John VI Kantakouzenos Matthew Kantakouzenos Andronikos IV Palaiologos John VII Palaiologos Andronikos V Palaiologos Manuel II Palaiologos John VIII Palaiologos Constantine XI Palaiologos

Persondata
Name	Maximinus Ii
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	270
Place of birth	near Felix Romuliana (Gamzigrad, Serbia
Date of death	313
Place of death

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.