Editing Maximinus Daza

{{short description|Roman emperor from 310 to 313}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox Roman emperor
| name         = Maximinus II Daza
| image        = MaximinusDaiaFinds.jpg
| image_size   = 
| alt          = Golden coin portrait of Maximinus
| caption      = Coin of Maximinus, with the legend:<br/>{{Smallcaps|Maximinus p(ius) f(elix) aug(ustus)}}
| succession   = [[Roman emperor]]
| reign        = 310 – July 313
| reign-type   = [[Augustus (title)|''Augustus'']]
| moretext     = (in [[Eastern Roman Empire|the East]])
| predecessor  = [[Galerius]]
| successor    = [[Licinius]]
| regent       = [[Constantine I]] (West)<br/>[[Maxentius]] (West)
| reg-type     = {{nowrap|Co-rulers}}
| reign1       = 1 May 305 – 310
| reign-type1  = [[Caesar (title)|''Caesar'']]
| birth_name   = Daza
| birth_date   = 20 November {{circa}} 270<ref>[[Eusebius]], [https://archive.org/details/SPCKEusebius1/page/n373/mode/2up?view=theater ''On the Martyrs'' (Syrian), 6.] "On the twelfth day before the Kalends of December... he celebrated the festival of his birthday." </ref>{{sfn|Barnes|1982|p=39}}
| birth_place  = near [[Felix Romuliana]], [[Roman Dacia]], [[Roman Empire]]<br/>(now [[Gamzigrad]], Serbia)
| death_date   = {{circa}} July 313{{sfn|Barnes|1982|p=7}} (aged {{circa}} 42)
| death_place  = [[Tarsus, Mersin|Tarsus]], [[Cilicia (Roman province)|Cilicia Prima]], Roman Empire<br />(now [[Turkey]])
| burial_place = 
| father       = [[Galerius]] (adoptive)
| mother       = Sister of [[Galerius]]
| issue        = 2 + others
| full name    = Galerius Valerius Maximinus
| religion     = [[Ancient Roman religion]]
}}

'''Galerius Valerius Maximinus''', born as '''Daza'''{{Efn-lr|Or, less correctly, '''Daia'''.{{sfn|Barnes|2011|p=206 (note 10)}} Also called '''Maximinus II''',{{Sfn|Sear|2011|p=317}} and sometimes anglicized as '''Maximin'''.{{Sfn|Berchman|2005|p=22}} }} ({{langx|grc|Μαξιμίνος}}; 20 November {{Circa}} 270 – {{Circa}} July 313), was [[Roman emperor]] from 310 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 [[Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire|persecutions of Christians]], before issuing an edict of tolerance granting Christians their freedoms back near his death. Maximinus Daza is the last to be referred as [[Roman pharaoh|Pharaoh of Egypt]].

==Name==
The emperor Maximinus was originally called "Daza", an ancient name with various unknown high distinction meanings in [[Illyria]], where he was born.{{sfn|Barnes|2011|p=206 (note 10)}}{{sfn|Mackay|1999|p=209}} The form "Daia" given by the Christian writer [[Lactantius]], an important source on the emperor's life, is considered a misspelling.{{sfn|Mackay|1999|pp=208–209}}{{sfn|Barnes|2011|p=206 (note 10)}} He acquired the name "Maximinus" at the request of his maternal uncle, [[Galerius]] (a Roman emperor of [[Dacians|Dacian]] and [[Thracian]] origin).{{sfn|Mackay|1999|p=206}}{{Efn-lr|Galerius' original ''[[cognomen]]'' was "Maximinus".<ref>[[Lactantius]], ''[https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0705.htm On the Deaths of the Persecutors]'', Chapter 18</ref>}} Modern scholarship often refers to him as "Maximinus Daza", though this particular form is not attested by epigraphic or literary evidence.{{sfn|Mackay|1999|pp=208–209}}{{sfn|Leadbetter|2010|p=8}}{{sfn|Mackay|1999|p=208}}

==Early career==
He was born in the Roman Illyria region to the sister of emperor [[Galerius]] near their family lands around [[Felix Romuliana]], in [[Roman Dacia]], a rural area then also in the former Danubian region of [[Moesia]], now modern [[Moravian Banovina|Eastern Serbia]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.roman-colosseum.info/roman-emperors/maximinus-daza.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090625145441/http://www.roman-colosseum.info/roman-emperors/maximinus-daza.htm |url-status=usurped |archive-date=25 June 2009 |website=Roman Colosseum |title=Maximinus Daza}}</ref> He later rose to high distinction after joining the Roman Army.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In 305, his maternal uncle [[Galerius]] became the eastern ''[[Augustus (title)|Augustus]]'' and adopted Maximinus as a son and heir, raising him to the rank of ''[[Caesar (title)|Caesar]]'' (that is, the junior eastern ruler), and granting him the government of [[Syria (Roman province)|Syria]] and [[Roman Egypt|Egypt]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==Civil war==
In 308, after the elevation of [[Licinius]] to ''Augustus'', Maximinus and [[Constantine I]] were declared ''filii Augustorum'' ("sons of the Augusti"), but Maximinus probably started styling himself as ''Augustus'' with support of his troops during a campaign against the [[Sassanid Empire|Sassanids]] in 310. On the death of Galerius in 311, Maximinus divided the Eastern Empire between Licinius and himself. When Licinius and [[Constantine I]] began to make common cause, Maximinus entered into a secret alliance with the usurper [[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 30 April. He fled, first to [[Nicomedia]] and afterwards to [[Tarsus in Cilicia|Tarsus]], where he died the following August.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==Persecution of Christians==
[[File:Ubekendt, Skægget, yngre mand, tetrarch, KAS2252, Statens Museum for Kunst.jpg|thumb|Re-cut colossal tetrarchic portrait from [[Anatolia|Asia Minor]], potentially depicting Maximinus.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://laststatues.classics.ox.ac.uk/database/discussion.php?id=754 |website=Last Statues |publisher=Oxford University |id=LSA-382 |first=J. |last=Lenaghan |department=Discussion |title=Re-cut colossal portrait head of Tetrach. Probably from Asia Minor. Late third to early fourth century.}}</ref>|left]]
Maximinus has a controversial name in [[Christianity|Christian]] annals for renewing their persecution after the publication of the [[Edict of Serdica|Edict of Toleration by Galerius]],{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} 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, Lebanon|Tyre]], transcribed by [[Eusebius of Caesarea]],<ref>[[Church History (Eusebius)|Ecclesiastical History]], IX, 8-9; Eng. trans. available at [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250109.htm]. Accessed 2 August 2012</ref> Maximinus expounds a 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 ([[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum|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".<ref>{{cite book |first=John Granger |last=Cook |title=The Interpretation of the New Testament in Greco-Roman Paganism |location=Tübingen |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |year=2000 |isbn=3-16-147195-4 |page=304 (footnote 175)}}</ref>

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".<ref>''[[Church History (Eusebius)|Ecclesiastical History]]'', IX, 1-10</ref> 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.<ref>''[[Church History (Eusebius)|Ecclesiastical History]]'', X, 7-11</ref>
[[File:Daza01 pushkin.jpg|thumb|Plaster cast in the [[Pushkin Museum]] of a [[Porphyry (geology)|porphyry]] bust of a tetrarch from [[Athribis]], now in the [[Cairo Museum]]. The bust is labelled as Maximinus, but this cannot be confirmed.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bergmann |first=Marianne |date=2012 |title=Life-size porphyry bust of Tetrarch. From Athribis (Augustamnica). 284-305. |url=http://laststatues.classics.ox.ac.uk/database/discussion.php?id=1208 |access-date= |website=Last Statues of Antiquity |id=LSA-836}}</ref> It probably depicts [[Galerius]] instead.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Weitzmann |first=Kurt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=efLuB7QPDm8C&pg=PA12 |title=Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Ar |date=1977 |publisher=[[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] |pages=12–13|isbn=9780870991790 }}</ref>|219x219px]]

==Pharaoh of Egypt==
[[image:Maximinus_Daza_hieroglyphics_ver_1.png|thumb|Cartouche of Maximinus Daza, ''Kaisaros Oualerios Mak(sim)inos '']]
As Christianity continued to spread in Egypt, the title of [[Pharaoh]] was increasingly incompatible with the new religious movements. Maximinus's status as a non-Christian accorded the priests of Egypt an opportunity to style him as Pharaoh, in the same manner that other foreign rulers of Egypt had been styled before. That said, the Roman emperors themselves mostly ignored the status accorded to them by the Egyptians; and their role as god-kings was only ever acknowledged domestically by the Egyptians themselves.<ref name=Oneill> O'Neill, Sean J. (2011), "The Emperor as Pharaoh: Provincial Dynamics and Visual Representations of Imperial Authority in Roman Egypt, 30 B.C. - A.D. 69", Dissertions of the University of Cincinnati</ref> Maximinus would prove to be the last person afforded the traditional titulature of Pharaoh – no Christian Roman/Byzantine emperor, nor Islamic or modern leader, has revived the title since.<ref name= Oneill /> As the last monarch to employ traditional pharaonic titulature, Maximinus' death can be seen as marking the end of a 3,400-year-old office.

==Death==
Maximinus' death was variously ascribed "to despair, to poison, and to the divine justice".<ref>Gibbon, Edward, ''Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', Chapter 14</ref>

Based on descriptions of his death given by Eusebius,<ref>[[Church History (Eusebius)|Ecclesiastical History]]'', IX, 14-15'',</ref> and Lactantius<ref>[[Lactantius]], ''[https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0705.htm On the Deaths of the Persecutors]'', Chapter 49</ref> as well as the appearance of [[Graves' ophthalmopathy]] in a Tetrarchic statue bust from Anthribis in Egypt sometimes attributed to Maximinus, endocrinologist Peter D. Papapetrou has advanced a theory that Maximinus may have died from severe [[thyrotoxicosis]] due to [[Graves' disease]].<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.hormones.gr/854/article/maximinus-daia-a-roman-emperor-who%E2%80%A6.html |first=Peter D. |last=Papapetrou |journal=Hormones |year=2013 |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=142–145 |title=Maximinus Daia, a Roman emperor who may have had Graves' disease and died of a thyrotoxic crisis|doi=10.1007/BF03401296 |pmid=23624140 }}</ref>

Maximinus was married at the time of his death, and he left behind an 8 year old son named Maximus and an unnamed 7 year old daughter.{{sfn|Barnes|1981|p=64}}{{sfn|DiMaio|2022}}

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

<blockquote>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.<br>
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.<ref>''[[Church History (Eusebius)|Ecclesiastical History]]'', VIII, 14.</ref></blockquote>

According to Eusebius, only Christians resisted him.

<blockquote>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.</blockquote>

He refers to one high-born Christian woman who rejected his advances. He exiled her and seized all of her wealth and assets.<ref name="EncSanti">{{Cite web|title=Santa Dorotea di Alessandria su santiebeati.it|url=http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/39650|access-date=2020-08-05|website=Santiebeati.it}}</ref> 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.<ref name=EncSanti/>

==Family tree==
{{Simplified Tetrarchs family tree}}

==See also==
*[[List of Roman emperors]]
*[[Civil wars of the Tetrarchy]]

== Notes ==
{{NoteFoot}}
{{Notelist-lr}}

== References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{Cite book |last=Barnes |first=Timothy D. |author-link=Timothy Barnes (classicist) |url=https://archive.org/details/constantineeuseb0000barn/mode/1up |title=Constantine and Eusebius |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1981 |isbn=978-0-674-16531-1 |location=Cambridge, MA}}
* {{Cite book |last=Barnes |first=Timothy D. |author-link=Timothy Barnes (classicist) |url={{googlebooks|K3poAAAAMAAJ|plainurl=y}} |title=The New Empire of Diocletian and Constantine |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1982 |isbn=0-674-28066-0 |location=Cambridge, MA}}
* {{Cite book |last=Barnes |first=Timothy D. |title=Constantine: Dynasty, Religion and Power in the Later Roman Empire |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-4051-1727-2 |location=Chichester}}
* {{Cite book |last=Berchman |first=Robert M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f3t_n2DF5I0C |title=Porphyry Against the Christians |publisher=BRILL |year=2005 |isbn=9004148116}}
* {{Cite web |last=DiMaio |first=Michael |date=2022 |title=Maximinus Daia (305–313 A.D.) |url=http://www.roman-emperors.org/daia.htm |website=[[De Imperatoribus Romanis]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230528073725/http://www.roman-emperors.org/daia.htm |archive-date=2023-05-28 |url-status=dead}}
* {{Cite book |last=Leadbetter |first=Bill |url={{googlebooks|QBBjy7l-NWQC|plainurl=y}} |title=Galerius and the Will of Diocletian |publisher=Routledge |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-415-40488-4 |location=London}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Mackay |first=Christopher S. |year=1999 |title=Lactantius and the Succession to Diocletian |journal=[[Classical Philology (journal)|Classical Philology]] |volume=94 |issue=2 |pages=198–209 |doi=10.1086/449431 |jstor=270559 |s2cid=161141658}}
* {{Cite book |last=Sear |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mBuWDwAAQBAJ |title=Roman Coins and Their Values |publisher=Spink & Son, Ltd |year=2011 |isbn=978-1907427077 |volume=4}}
*{{EB1911 |wstitle=Maximinus, Galerius Valerius |volume=17 |page=925}}
{{Refend}}

==Further reading==
*{{Cite book |last=Christensen |first=Torben |url=http://www.patristik.dk/ebog/Maximinus.pdf |title=C. Galerius Valerius Maximinus: Studies in the Politics and Religion of the Roman Empire AD 305–313 |publisher=Copenhagen University |year=2012 |isbn=978-87-91838-48-4 |editor-last=Müller |editor-first=Mogens |oclc=872060636 |orig-year=1974}}
* {{Cite encyclopedia |title=Maximinus, Gaius Galerius Valerius |encyclopedia=[[Oxford Classical Dictionary]] |last=Davis |first=Raymond |date=2015 |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.4022|isbn=978-0-19-938113-5 }}
*{{Cite encyclopedia |year=1901 |title=Daia |encyclopedia=[[Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft]] |publisher=Metzlerscher Verlag |location=Stuttgart |url=https://archive.org/details/PaulysReal-encyclopadieDerClassischenAltertumswissenschaftVolume8/page/n89/mode/2up |last=Seeck |first=Otto |author-link=Otto Seeck |editor-last=Wissowa |editor-first=Georg |volume=IV.2 |at=columns 1986–1990}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-reg}}
{{s-bef|rows=1|before=[[Galerius]]|before2=[[Constantine I]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of Roman emperors|Roman emperor]]|years=310–313|regent1=[[Galerius]], [[Constantine I]] and [[Licinius]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Constantine I]] and [[Licinius]]}}
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef | before= [[Constantius I]]|before2=[[Galerius]]}}
{{s-ttl | title=[[List of Roman consuls|Roman consul]] | years=307 |regent1= [[Maximian]],<br>[[Constantine I]],<br />[[Severus II]],<br />[[Galerius]]}}
{{s-aft | after= [[Diocletian]]|after2=[[Galerius]]|after3=[[Maxentius]]|after4=[[Valerius Romulus]]}}
{{s-bef | before= [[Tatius Andronicus]]|before2=[[Pompeius Probus]]|before3=[[Maxentius]]}}
{{s-ttl | title=[[List of Roman consuls|Roman consul]] II | years=311 |regent1= [[Galerius]], <br /> [[Gaius Ceionius Rufius Volusianus|G. Ceionius Rufius Volusianus]], <br />[[Aradius Rufinus]]}}
{{s-aft | after= [[Constantine I]]|after2=[[Licinius]]|after3=[[Maxentius]]}}
{{s-bef | before= [[Constantine I]]|before2=[[Licinius]]|before3=[[Maxentius]]}}
{{s-ttl | title=[[List of Roman consuls|Roman consul]] III | years=313 |regent1= [[Constantine I]], <br /> [[Licinius]]}}
{{s-aft | after= [[Gaius Ceionius Rufius Volusianus|G. Ceionius Rufius Volusianus]]|after2=[[Petronius Annianus]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Roman emperors}}
{{Pharaohs}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:3rd-century births]]
[[Category:313 deaths]]
[[Category:4th-century Roman consuls]]
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[[Category:Roman pharaohs]]
[[Category:Tetrarchy]]
[[Category:Valerii]]
[[Category:Damnatio memoriae]]
[[Category:Adult adoptees]]