Editing Magnus Maximus (section)

==Life==
===Birth, army career===
Maximus was born in [[Gallaecia]], Hispania, on the estates of [[Count Theodosius]] (the Elder) of the [[Theodosian dynasty]], to whom he claimed to be related.<ref name="The Cambridge Medieval History 1924 p. 238">[[J. B. Bury]] ed. (1924), [https://archive.org/details/cambridgemedieva009698mbp ''The Cambridge Medieval History''], p. 238</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bartrum. |first1=Peter Clement |title=A Welsh Classical Dictionary; People In History And Legend Up To About A. D. 1000 |date=1993 |publisher=The National Library of Wales |isbn=9780907158738 |url=https://archive.org/details/a-welsh-classical-dictionary-people-in-history-and-legend-up-to-about-a.-d.-1000/page/494/mode/2up?q=maximus |page=494}}</ref>{{sfn|McLynn|1994|p=154}} In their youth, Maximus and Theodosius I served together in Theodosius the Elder's army in Britannia.{{sfn|Errington|2006|pp=31-32}} Maximus would become a distinguished general in the following years; as he would gain the support of his fellow soldiers and the admiration of the Romano-Britons whom he defended, which would lead to his eventual immortalisation in Welsh legend in the centuries following.<ref>Wijnendaele, J. (2020). [https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/britannia/article/abs/ammianus-magnus-maximus-and-the-gothic-uprising/B72141580D83AEFB704E27C6A0FBADCD Ammianus, Magnus Maximus and the Gothic Uprising]. ''Britannia'', 51, 330-335. doi:10.1017/S0068113X20000045</ref> He served under Count Theodosius in Africa in 373.<ref>Ammianus Marcellinus, ''The Later Roman Empire''(Penguin 1986) p. 417</ref> Assigned to Britain in 380, he defeated an incursion of the [[Picts]] and [[Scoti|Scots]] in 381.<ref name="The Cambridge Medieval History 1924 p. 238"/>

===Rebellion and bid for the throne===
The Western emperor [[Gratian]] had received a number of [[Alans]] into his bodyguard, and was accused of showing favouritism towards these [[Indo-Iranian languages|Iranian]] speaking foreigners at the expense of Roman citizens.<ref name="The Cambridge Medieval History 1924 p. 238"/> In 383, the discontented Roman army proclaimed Maximus emperor in Gratian's place. [[Orosius]], who wrote that Maximus was "an energetic and able man and one worthy of the throne had he not risen to it by usurpation, contrary to his oath of allegiance," claimed that he was proclaimed emperor against his will,<ref>Orosius, ''Historium adversum paganos'' 7.34.9</ref> but [[Zosimus (historian)|Zosimus]] portrays him as inciting the troops to rebel against Gratian, as he was upset about Theodosius becoming emperor while he himself was not promoted.<ref>Zosimus, ''Historia Nova'' 4.35.2-3</ref> Stephen Williams and Gerard Friell preferred the latter version, based on the rapid success of the revolt.{{Sfn|Williams|Friell|1994|p=37}}

Maximus went to [[Gaul]] to pursue his imperial ambitions, taking a large portion of the British garrison with him.<ref name="The Cambridge Medieval History 1924 p. 238"/> After five days of skirmishing near [[Lutetia|Paris]] he defeated Gratian,<ref name="The Cambridge Medieval History 1924 p. 238"/> who fled the battlefield and was killed at [[Lugdunum|Lyon]] on 25 August 383. Continuing his campaign into Italy, Maximus was stopped from overthrowing [[Valentinian II]], who was only twelve, when [[Bauto]] came with a powerful force to forestall him. Negotiations followed in 384, including the intervention of [[Ambrose]], Bishop of Milan, leading to an accord with Valentinian II and Theodosius I in which Maximus was recognized as ''[[Augustus (rank)|Augustus]]'' in the West.<ref>D Divine, ''The North-West Frontier of Rome'' (London 1969) p. 229</ref>

===Administration===
Maximus made his capital at [[History of Trier#Roman Empire|Augusta Treverorum]] (Treves, [[Trier]]) in Gaul, and ruled Britain, Gaul, Spain and Africa. He issued coinage and a number of edicts reorganising Gaul's system of provinces. Some historians believe Maximus may have founded the office of the ''[[Comes Britanniarum]]'' as well, although it was probably Stilicho who created the permanent office.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Craven |first=Maxwell |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dxayEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT167 |title=Magnus Maximus |date=2023 |publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited |isbn=978-1-3981-1137-0 |pages=167}}</ref>

Maximus was a stern persecutor of [[heresy|heretics]]. It was on his orders that [[Priscillian]] and six companions were executed for [[Priscillianism|heresy]], although the actual civil charges laid by Maximus were for the practice of [[Magic in the Greco-Roman world|magic]]. Prominent churchmen such as [[Ambrose|St. Ambrose]] and [[St. Martin of Tours]] protested against this involvement of the secular power in doctrinal matters, but the executions were carried out nonetheless.<ref>A Momigliano, ''Essays in Ancient and Modern Historiography'' (Oxford 1977) p. 113</ref> Maximus thereby not only established his credentials as an upholder of orthodoxy, but also strengthened his financial resources in the ensuing confiscations.<ref>K Cooper ed., ''Making Early Medieval Societies'' (2016) p. 34 and p. 44</ref> The [[Chronica Gallica of 452|''Gallic Chronicle'' of 452]] describes the Priscillianists as "Manichaeans", a different [[Gnostic]] heresy already condemned in Roman law under [[Diocletian]], and states that Magnus Maximus had them "caught and exterminated with the greatest zeal".<ref>{{cite book |last=Ames |first=Christine Cadwell |date=15 April 2015 |title=Medieval Heresies: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aPgGBwAAQBAJ |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=45–46 |isbn=9781107023369}}</ref>

In a threatening letter addressed to Valentinian II, most likely composed between the spring of 384 and the summer of 387, Maximus complains of Valentinian's actions towards Ambrose and adherents of the Nicean Creed, writing: "Can it be that Your Serenity, venerable to me, thinks that a religion which has once taken root in the minds of men, which God himself has established, can be uprooted?" in response to "the disturbance and convulsion of Catholic law."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Omissi |first=Adrastos |date=May 2022 |title=Two letters of the usurper Magnus Maximus (Collectio Avellana 39 and 40) |url=https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/263793/ |journal=Classical Quarterly |language=en |volume=72 |issue=1 |pages=391–415 |doi=10.1017/S000983882200043X |s2cid=253923880 |issn=0009-8388}}</ref>

Conversely, Maximus's edict of 387/388, which censured Christians at Rome for burning down a Jewish [[synagogue]], was condemned by bishop [[Ambrose]], who said people exclaimed, "the emperor has become a Jew".<ref>Ambrose, Patrologia Latina, 16–17 (1845), nos. 40</ref>

===Final conflicts and execution===
In 387, Maximus managed to force emperor Valentinian II out of [[Mediolanum|Milan]]. Valentinian fled to Theodosius I, and the two subsequently invaded from the east; their armies, led by [[Richomeres]] and other generals, campaigned against Maximus in July–August 388. Maximus was defeated in the [[Battle of Poetovio]],<ref>Pan. Lat. II.34</ref><ref>For a summary of the invasion of Italy and subsequent campaign against Theodosius see Hebblewhite, M. (2020) Theodosius and the Limits of Empire, 81ff</ref> and retreated to [[Aquileia]]. Meanwhile, the [[Franks]] under [[Marcomer]] had taken the opportunity to invade northern Gaul, further weakening Maximus's position.

[[Andragathius]], ''[[magister equitum]]'' of Maximus and the killer of the Emperor Gratian, was defeated near [[Siscia]], while Maximus's brother, Marcellinus, fell in battle at [[Poetovio]].<ref>Pan. Lat. II.35-6</ref> Maximus surrendered in Aquileia and, although he pleaded for mercy, was executed. The Senate passed a decree of ''[[Damnatio memoriae]]'' against him, but his mother and at least two daughters were spared.<ref>Ambrose, Ep. 40.32</ref> Theodosius's trusted general [[Arbogast (magister militum)|Arbogast]] strangled Maximus's son, [[Victor (emperor)|Victor]], at Trier in the fall of the same year.<ref>Susan Wise Bauer, "The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade", W. W. Norton & Company, 22 Feb 2010 (p.68)</ref>

===Fate of family===
It is not recorded what happened to Maximus's family after his downfall. He is known to have had a wife, who is recorded as having sought spiritual counsel from [[St. Martin of Tours]] during his time at Trier. Her ultimate fate, and even her name (but see the Welsh tradition below), have not been preserved in definitive historical records. The same is true of Maximus's mother and unnamed daughters, other than that they were spared by Theodosius I.<ref name="Ashe">{{cite book |last1=Ashe |first1=Geoffrey |title=From Caesar to Arthur |date=1960 |publisher=Collins |location=London |isbn=978-7-270-00620-8 |page=114 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gjRnAAAAMAAJ |access-date=8 April 2025 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Saint Ambrose |editor1-last=Walford |editor1-first=Rev. H. |title=The Letters of S. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan |date=1881 |publisher=James Parker & Co. |location=London |page=268 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r_gXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR7&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjQ1_mwv8mMAxVQQzABHcSdHMkQ6AF6BAgEEAM#v=onepage&q=%22daughters%20of%20your%20enemy%22&f=false |access-date=8 April 2025 |language=en |chapter=Letter XL, Ambrose to Theodosius, 388 AD |quote="[Y]ou have recalled the daughters of your enemy, you have committed them to be nurtured by their relative, you have bestowed money from your treasury on the mother of your enemy."}}</ref>

One of Maximus's daughters may have been married to [[Ennoius|Ennodius]],<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Drinkwater |editor-first1=John |editor-last2=Elton |editor-first2=Hugh |title=Fifth-Century Gaul: A Crisis of Identity? |date=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-41485-7 |page=118 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lHGOvpQfFqcC&pg=PA118 |access-date=Jan 13, 2020}}</ref> proconsul Africae (395). Ennodius's grandson was [[Petronius Maximus]], another ill-fated emperor, who ruled in Rome for only 77 days before he was stoned to death while fleeing from the Vandals on 24 May 455. Other descendants of Ennodius, and thus possibly of Maximus, included [[Olybrius|Anicius Olybrius]], emperor in 472, but also several consuls and bishops such as [[Magnus Felix Ennodius|St. Magnus Felix Ennodius]] (Bishop of [[Pavia]] {{circa|lk=no|514}} – 521). We also encounter an otherwise unrecorded daughter of Magnus Maximus, [[Sevira, daughter of Maximus|Sevira]], on the [[Pillar of Eliseg]] (9th century), an early medieval inscribed stone in Wales, which claims that she married [[Vortigern]], [[king of the Britons]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bartrum |first1=Peter C. |title=A Welsh Classical Dictionary: People In History And Legend Up To About A. D. 1000 |date=1993 |publisher=National Library of Wales |location=[[Aberystwyth]] |page=672 |url=https://archive.org/details/a-welsh-classical-dictionary-people-in-history-and-legend-up-to-about-a.-d.-1000/page/672/mode/1up |access-date=8 April 2025 |chapter=Severa daughter of Maximus}}</ref>