Decentius

Bronze medallion of Decentius

Flavius ​​Magnus Decentius († August 18, 353 in Senonae ) was a Roman usurper from 350/351 to 353.

Decentius was the brother of the counter-emperor Magnentius , who had overthrown the rightful Augustus Constans in the west in early 350 . In the summer of 350 or spring 351 he was appointed Caesar (lower emperor) for Gaul by Magnentius in order to secure the Rhine border and to keep his back free in the conflict with Constantius II . In 352 Decentius held the consulate . However, Decentius did not prove itself. He suffered a decisive defeat against the Alemanni king Chnodomar and was unable to provide Magnentius with the military support he would have needed after the battle of Mursa (today Osijek in Croatia), which he lost on September 28, 351 .

In the meantime, Decentius even lost control of the Gallic royal seat of Trier , where the rebel Poemenius sided with Constantius II. With the remaining troops Decentius wanted to rush to his brother's aid. However, he hanged himself on August 18 in Senonae when he received news of the death of his brother Magnentius, who also committed suicide in Lyon on August 10 or 11 as a result of the battle of Mons Seleucus (today La Bâtie-Montsaléon , France).

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• Ammianus Marcellinus , Res gestae XV , 6.4, 16.12
• Aurelius Victor , Liber de Caesaribus 42
• Epitome de Caesaribus 42
• Eutropius , Breviarium from urbe condita 10 , 12
• Zosimos , New History 2 , 45

literature

• Bruno Bleckmann : Decentius, brother or cousin of Magnentius? In: Göttinger Forum for Classical Studies 2 (1999), pp. 85–87. (PDF; 105 kB)
• Walter Holt: Usurping a Usurper: The Poemenius Revolt at Trier. In: Journal of the Numismatic Association of Australia 17 (2006), pp. 71-79 (PDF; 520 kB).
• Arnold Hugh Martin Jones , John Robert Martindale, John Morris : Decentius 3. In: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1971, ISBN 0-521-07233-6 , pp. 244-246.
• Otto Seeck : Decentius 1 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IV, 2, Stuttgart 1901, Col. 2268 f.
• Sandra Seibel: Typological research on the usurpations of late antiquity. Diss. Duisburg 2006.

Web links

Commons : Decentius  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Michael DiMaio Jr .: Short biography (English) at De Imperatoribus Romanis (with references).