Maximian

Maximian was co-emperor with Diocletian, abdicated with him, and then spent his last years trying to get the throne back. Born around 250 near Sirmium to a family of shopkeepers, he was a professional soldier who had risen through the Danubian army alongside Diocletian, and had no education and no interest in acquiring one. Diocletian made him Caesar in 285 and Augustus the following year, on the reasoning that the empire was too large and too threatened for one man to defend — the beginning of the arrangement that became the Tetrarchy in 293, with two senior emperors and two juniors. The division of labour suited them both. Diocletian took the east and the administrative reconstruction of the state; Maximian took the west and did the fighting, campaigning on the Rhine, suppressing the Bagaudae in Gaul, and defending Africa and Spain. He lost Britain for a decade to the usurper Carausius, whose fleet he could not match. Diocletian took the title Jovius, son of Jupiter, and gave Maximian Herculius, which described the relationship exactly. He abdicated on the same day as Diocletian in 305, under considerable pressure and against his inclination. When his son Maxentius seized Rome in 306, Maximian came out of retirement to support him, then quarrelled with him and tried to strip him of the purple in front of the troops, who sided with the son. He fled to Constantine, his son-in-law, conspired against him, and was forced to hang himself in 310. His memory was condemned and then quietly restored.

• Lived: 250 CE – 310 CE
• Nationality: Roman
• Roles: ruler, general