Desiderius (Caesar)

Desiderius († 353?) Was an alleged brother of the Roman counter-emperor Magnentius .

Desiderius is said to have been made Caesar by his brother and killed soon afterwards, when the usurper, trapped in Lugdunum after the battle of Mursa, in view of the hopelessness of his situation, killed all his relatives and friends in a veritable rampage and then killed himself in order not to in to fall the hands of his rival Constantius II . According to Zonaras, however, Desiderius was badly wounded and surrendered to Constantius after his recovery.

In research, the credibility of the information about Desiderius is rated as very low, he is probably to be regarded as fictitious. In addition, in contrast to Caesar Decentius , no coins are known of Desiderius .

swell

• Johannes Zonaras : Epitome Historion , 13.9.

literature

• Bruno Bleckmann : The battle of Mursa and the contemporary interpretation of a civil war in late antiquity. In: Hartwin Brandt (ed.): Interpretation of reality. Crises, realities, interpretations (3rd – 6th centuries AD) (= Historia individual writings , 134). Steiner, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-515-07519-4 , pp. 47-102 (there p. 99 ff.).
• Arnold Hugh Martin Jones , John Robert Martindale, John Morris : Desiderius. In: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1971, ISBN 0-521-07233-6 , pp. 294-295.