Maximian (250-July 310) was Roman emperor from April to May 305, succeeding Diocletian and preceding Constantius I.
Biography[]
Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus was born in 250 in Sirmium, Pannonia, Roman Empire (present-day Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia). A talented general, he was chosen by Diocletian to help him in fighting Rome's enemies as co-emperor, as Diocletian considered himself to be a mediocre general. Maximian therefore had the task of crushing the Bagaudae peasants in Burgundy in 285, and he sent the Theban Legion to perform this task. When they refused, Maximian had the whole regiment massacred, including its commander Saint Maurice; the site of their execution, Agaunum, was renamed Saint-Maurice-en-Valais, Switzerland in the coming centuries. From 285 to 288, Maximian fought against the Germanic tribes on the Rhine, and in 288 he led a scorched earth invasion of Germania, punishing the Alemanni. However, the 286 secession of Carausius in Britannia and northern Gaul presented a new problem to the Romans, and in 290 his fleet was destroyed by a storm before he could fight against Carausius. Fellow tetrarch Constantius I would defeat Carausius' successor Allectus in 296 as Maximian fought pirates off Hispania and battled the Berbers in Mauretania. In April 305, he briefly reigned as sole Roman emperor after Diocletian's abdication, and he helped his son Maxentius' rebellion in Italy. In April 307, however, he had a falling out with his son and attempted to overthrow him. He fled to the court of his son-in-law Constantine the Great at Trier, and on 11 November 308 he renounced the title of Augustus at the request of Diocletian and Galerius. In early 310, Maximian attempted to take Constantine's title from him while he was away, but he faied; Maximian committed suicide as a result.