Petronius Maximus (396-31 May 455) was Western Roman Emperor from 16 March to 31 May 455, succeeding Valentinian III and preceding Avitus.
Biography[]
Anicius Petronius Maximus was born in the Western Roman Empire in 396, the son of Anicius Probinus. He came from an aristocratic Catholic family, and he became a wealthy member of the Roman Senate during the early 5th century. He fathered Olybrius and Palladius, two future Roman emperors, and he served as praetor in 411, tribunus et notarius in 415, comes sacrarum largitionum from 416 to 419, praefectus urbi of Rome from 420 to 421, Prefect of the Praetorian Guard from 421 to 439, consul in 433, Praetorian Prefect of Italia from 439 to 441, consul in 443, and patrician in 445. After Emperor Valentinian III raped Maximus' wife as punishment for Maximus being unable to pay a gambling debt to him, Maximus swore vengeance. He first poisoned the mind of the Emperor against the magister militum Flavius Aetius, leading to Aetius' murder in 454; this allowed for Maximus to facilitate Valentinian III's murder by Aetius' Scythian followers in 455. Maximus then seized power as Emperor, marrying Valentinian's widow. He appointed Avitus as magister militum and sent him to Toulouse to gain the support of the Visigoths, and he angered the Vandals by cancelling King Geiseric's betrothal to a Roman noblewoman and having the woman marry his own son instead. On 31 May 455, as the Vandals approached Rome, Petronius Maximus's bodyguards abandoned him, and he was stoned to death by an angry mob. Three days later, Geiseric captured Rome and sacked it for two weeks.