Maxentius

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Bust of Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius

Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius (* around 278; † October 28, 312 ) was the usurper of the Roman emperor. The son of Emperor Maximian had himself proclaimed emperor in Rome on October 28, 306 and ruled over Italy and North Africa , at times also over Spain , until October 28, 312 . He was not recognized as emperor by the highest ranking Augustus Galerius and therefore waged a permanent civil war. At the same time, he took great care of Italy, his power base, and had large buildings built in the city of Rome, his residence. He died in the battle of the Milvian Bridge in the fight against Constantine the Great .

Map of the Roman prefectures at the time of the Roman Tetrarchy from 293 to 306, the year in which the Roman Tetrarchy was dissolved.

Life

Ascent

Maxentius was born around 278, the exact year is unknown. He was the son of from Niederpannonien coming later Emperor Maximian and from Syria coming Eutropia .

Maximian was made emperor by Diocletian in 285 and entrusted with the administration of the western half of the Roman Empire. Constantius I and Galerius, as "junior emperors " ( Caesares ), completed Diocletian's system of rule of four emperors, the so-called tetrarchy , from 293 onwards .

It is uncertain whether Maxentius was considered heir to the throne at that time. This is supported by the fact that he was addressed as his successor in an eulogy from the year 289, and that he married Valeria Maximilla, the daughter of Emperor Galerius, early (probably around 293), thus further strengthening the relationship to the emperors. Contrary to this, however, is the fact that we do not know of any higher civil or military offices that Maxentius would have held, and that Diocletian evidently rejected an inheritance in the tetrarchy in principle early on. With Valeria Maximilla, Maxentius had two sons, Valerius Romulus (about 293-309) and a younger with an unknown name.

In 305 Diocletian abdicated and forced Maximian to take this step too. The previous junior emperors Constantius and Galerius thus advanced to "Oberkaisern" ( Augusti ). Although Maxentius and Konstantin, the son of Constantius, were two adult sons of emperors, they were both passed over within the framework of the tetrarchical system (which, as said, provided no dynastic succession) and Severus and Maximinus Daia were appointed Caesares instead. The Christian and historian Lactantius ( de mortibus pers. 18) attributed this choice to the fact that Galerius had hated Maxentius and preferred candidates he could better influence; however, Lactantius' utterances are not very reliable in this regard, since he detested Galerius. It would be more plausible that Diocletian, as mentioned, did not want to allow a succession or that he considered Maxentius unsuitable for the military tasks of an emperor.

When Constantius died in 306, the army in Britain made his son Constantine emperor on July 25th. Galerius confirmed him shortly afterwards as Caesar over Britain, Gaul and Hispania . This set the precedent for Maxentius' survey a few months later.

The elevation to the emperor

Follis of Maxentius

Since the so-called Imperial Crisis of the 3rd century , the city of Rome had lost much of its earlier importance as the capital, and this trend had continued under the tetrarchy. Nominally, it was still the center of the empire, but the emperors' permanent residence was cities such as Trier , Milan , Thessaloniki , Nicomedia or Antioch , which were more conveniently located near the borders . They rarely visited Rome itself.

After Diocletian had already greatly reduced the Imperial Guard stationed in Rome, the Praetorians , the message reached Rome in 306 that the Praetorians were now completely withdrawn and that Rome should also be subjected to the normal poll tax and thus be placed on an equal footing with the other cities of the empire. This led to unrest in the population and among the remaining troops. Some officers turned to Maxentius, who at the time lived on an estate near Rome, and offered him the emperor. Obviously it was expected that Galerius, after he had confirmed Constantine in office, could not refuse recognition to the emperor's son Maxentius either. Maxentius accepted, promised gifts of money to the troops in the city and was publicly proclaimed emperor on October 28, 306.

Then he (Maxentius) called in Lucianus, the people responsible for the supply of the pork with which the public treasury supplied the people of Rome, as well as the tribunes Marcellianus and Marcellus and the soldiers at court, who were the ones to help in his company Praetorians called. From the latter he was raised to the imperial throne, promising that he would reward those who did this for him with rich gifts ( Zosimos , 2,9,3).

The usurpation apparently took place without any major bloodshed (Zosimos names only one victim). The city ​​prefect went over to Maxentius and kept his office. Presumably the conspirators also turned to Maximian, who had retired to a retirement home in Lucania , to convince him to return to active politics as emperor. However, Maximian refused for the time being.

Government years

Maxentius, Sculpture Collection, Dresden

Maxentius was recognized in central and southern Italy, in the African provinces and on the islands of Sicily , Sardinia and Corsica . Northern Italy, on the other hand, initially remained under the rule of Augustus Severus , who was residing in Milan at the time. At first Maxentius avoided gaining the imperial title of Augustus and called himself princeps invictus , "undefeated ruler", apparently in the hope that Galerius would recognize him just like Constantine before (in Africa Maxentius had himself called Caesar on coins ). However, Galerius refused: He wanted to avoid that the ascension of Constantine and Maxentius would be followed by further usurpations. Constantine controlled the territories of his father unchallenged and thus also the Rhine Army , one of the great army groups of the empire, and Galerius could pretend in his case that it was the normal succession of the tetrarchy: Augustus ("Oberkaiser") Constantius died, who previous Caesar ("Under Emperor") Severus moved up, and Constantine became the new Caesar . With Maxentius neither was given: there was no deceased emperor to replace, so he would be the fifth, and he had little military power. So it seemed that Maxentius' usurpation could be suppressed relatively easily. In the spring of 307 Augustus Severus therefore marched towards Rome with an army.

The largest part of this army consisted of soldiers who had previously served under Maxentius' father Maximian for years. Maxentius had meanwhile persuaded him to wear the imperial purple again; Presumably, Maximian was secretly dissatisfied with his forced resignation anyway, at least his later actions suggest this. When Severus reached Rome, a large part of his troops ran over to Maximian, who reminded the soldiers of his past as a successful general, and Maxentius, who helped with large sums of money. Severus withdrew with the rest of his army to Ravenna , where shortly afterwards he surrendered to Maximian. Maxentius now took possession of northern Italy as far as the Alps and in the east as far as the Istrian peninsula and now also referred to himself as Augustus , since a reconciliation with Galerius was obviously no longer possible.

As early as the summer of 307, Galerius tried personally to suppress the usurpation and also came to Italy with an army. Maxentius entrenched himself in Rome, to whose siege Galerius did not have the means and who, moreover, could not rely on his troops. During the negotiations, Maxentius repeated what he had already achieved with Severus 'army: with large bribes and the authority of the old emperor Maximian behind him, he persuaded many of Galerius' soldiers to join him. Galerius then had to withdraw. Severus was killed by Maxentius probably in connection with the invasion of Galerius, even if the circumstances of his death are not entirely certain. Thereafter, Maxentius' rule over Italy and Africa was firmly established.

In 307 Maxentius tried to maintain good relations with Constantine, probably also to receive support from him in the fight against Galerius. Maximian also traveled to Gaul in the summer to marry Constantine to his daughter Fausta , the sister of Maxentius. Despite (or because of) the family ties established in this way, Constantine remained neutral in the conflict between Galerius and Maxentius.

After Maximian's return from Gaul in April 308 there was a break between father and son; however, Maxentius had already not been mentioned in the wedding speech. At an army meeting in Rome, Maximian tried to depose his son, tearing his purple cloak from him. However, the soldiers present sided with Maxentius, so that Maximian had to leave Italy. He fled to his son-in-law Constantine in Gaul.

At the Imperial Conference of Carnuntum in the autumn of the same year, in which Diocletian also took part, the absent Maxentius was again denied recognition as a legitimate emperor. In place of Severus, Licinius was appointed Augustus , with the task of taking action against Maxentius.

At the end of 308 the troops of the African provinces rebelled and made Domitius Alexander emperor in Carthage . The loss of North Africa put Maxentius in a difficult position, since his capital Rome was dependent on grain deliveries from these provinces. Nevertheless, it was not until 310 that Maxentius succeeded in sending an army under the command of his Praetorian prefect Rufius Volusianus , which Domitius Alexander defeated and the rebellion put down; the breakaway provinces were severely punished. In return, Maxentius lost Istria to Licinius in the same year, but he could not continue the campaign because he had to take over the defense of the Danube border from the terminally ill Galerius. Hispania was lost to Constantine, as coin finds from the first half of 310 prove.

Maxentius' son, Valerius Romulus , whom he intended to succeed him, died in 309 at the age of about 14. Maxentius had him elevated to god ( divus ) and buried in a mausoleum on the grounds of the Maxentiusvilla on the Via Appia .

After Maximian's renewed attempt to regain the dignity of Emperor, for which he had intrigued against Constantine, and his subsequent death in 310, Maxentius' relations with Constantine deteriorated quickly. After the death of Galerius in 311 he had entered into an alliance with Licinius, and it seemed only a matter of time before one of the two emperors would take action against Maxentius again. He tried to secure himself against it with an alliance with the highest ranking Augustus Maximinus Daia at the time . This finally gave Maxentius, who had been ostracized as a usurper, the factual recognition within the tetrarchical system as a co-emperor in the West, but was no longer militarily effective.

death

In the spring of 312 Constantine crossed the Alps with an army of about 40,000 men; it was somewhat inferior in numbers to Maxentius' troops, but in return it was much more battle-tested. In several battles, especially near Turin and Verona , Constantine defeated Maxentius' army stationed in northern Italy; the Praetorian prefect of Maxentius, Ruricius Pompeianus , also fell near Verona . At the end of October, Constantine's army reached the area around Rome. One could expect that Maxentius would entrench himself in Rome and sit out the siege, which would be considerably more costly and costly for the attacker; he had done well against both Severus and Galerius. Surprisingly, perhaps due to the pressure from the urban Roman population, who did not want to endure a long siege, he decided to face Constantine at the Milvian Bridge on October 28, 312 in an open battle ( Battle of the Milvian Bridge ). The ancient sources generally attribute this decision to omens, Maxentius' superstitions, or divine providence. The fact that the day of the battle was also his dies imperii , the auspicious day of the accession to power, may have played a major role : on October 28, 306 he was proclaimed emperor.

The battle took place in the north of the city, a few kilometers outside the walls and on the other bank of the Tiber along the Via Flaminia . Possibly Maxentius wanted to destroy the enemy army in a cauldron battle; but if that was the plan, it failed because the attackers were able to break through its lines. According to Lactantius, Constantine fought under the sign of the Christian cross that had previously appeared to him in a dream. He defeated Maxentius' forces, which retreated towards the city. While trying to cross the Tiber, Maxentius fell into the river and drowned. His body was found and the next day when Constantine entered Rome his head was taken as evidence of his death. The Praetorian Guard , which had been loyal to Maxentius to the end, was disbanded.

insignia

In 2005, during excavations on the Palatine Hill, the regal insignia of Maxentius were discovered, which apparently had been buried almost 1,700 years earlier. A connection with the battle death of the emperor is very likely; apparently his emblems should be hidden from the victors. Although the badges of Roman rulers are well known from written and pictorial sources, this is the only case so far in which the originals are actually available.

Domestic politics

Coin portrait of Maxentius, a representation in frontal view that is rare on ancient coins and only more common in late antiquity

One is poorly informed about the internal circumstances of Maxentius' rule, since no source reports on it in detail and most of them are strongly influenced by the later propaganda of the victor, Constantine.

Maxentius' position was based on the one hand on the nimbus of the city of Rome, which was still recognized as the actual capital of the empire and as its conservator ("maintainer") he presented himself; on the other hand, as with every emperor, in the army; and finally, at the beginning of his rule, on the authority of his father Maximian, that is, on the dynastic principle.

At first he had only a few troops, especially the Imperial Guards ( Praetorians ) and city ​​militias stationed in Rome . After the campaigns of Severus and Galerius, however, his army had increased considerably due to deserters, and finally, after the reconquest of North Africa, he withdrew troops from there to protect Italy. Compared to his rivals, however, Maxentius' military power was never particularly great. The reason for this was that he had no access to one of the three large assembly rooms of the Roman army on the Rhine , Lower Danube and Euphrates , but ruled over an area that traditionally had only a low concentration of troops and also did not contain any of the important recruiting rooms.

One reason for Maxentius' elevation to emperor was the planned taxation of Rome; accordingly, the population of the capital remained privileged. Nevertheless, Maxentius needed large sums of money to finance the generous donations to the soldiers (especially the bribes of the troops of Severus and Galerius), his representation, the extensive building program in Rome and finally the general defense of his dominion. In particular, the initially good relationship with the Senate seems to have been burdened by “voluntary” contributions from this state. A number of prominent senators, including the aforementioned Praetorian prefect Volusianus, continued their career unhindered under Constantine after Maxentius' death, which was variously interpreted as an indication that parts of the Senate supported Constantine. The minting of numerous coins with inferior metal content was also used to raise money, which the emperor began with in the year of the crisis in 307. The loss of Africa and the associated restrictions on the grain supply led to a famine in Rome, and unrest in the city is said to have claimed 6,000 victims (according to sources hostile to Maxentius); neither certainly contributed to the popularity of Maxentius.

The building program of Maxentius was extensive, especially in view of the short reign. In Rome he restored the Temple of Venus and Roma opposite the Colosseum, built the complex of the Maxentius Villa on the Via Appia with a circus and mausoleum and began the construction of the Maxentius basilica at the Roman Forum , which was then completed by Constantine. Outside the capital, there is an extensive road construction program in Italy.

In his religious policy, Maxentius showed himself to be an admirer of the traditional gods, who were reminiscent of the ancient greatness of Rome; Hercules and Mars , the patron gods of his father, are particularly prominent . Nevertheless, he showed himself tolerant towards Christianity and ended all persecution in his part of the empire. During his reign, as an aftermath of the Diocletian persecution, there were sometimes bloody conflicts within the Christian community, so that in 309 Maxentius was forced to expel two Roman bishops , Marcellus I and Eusebius, one after the other. However, he did not hinder the actual practice of religion; on the contrary, he even gave back parts of the expropriated property to the church and again permitted episcopal elections. The accusations of the hostile tradition (especially Eusebius of Caesarea ) that he was a brutal persecutor of Christians are demonstrably wrong and should serve to justify the actions of the later victor, Constantine.

Aftermath

After Constantine's victory, Maxentius was consistently demonized and portrayed as a cruel, bloodthirsty and incompetent tyrant. This influence of official propaganda also led to his being counted among the persecutors by the later Christian tradition, although contemporary sources such as Lactantius do not report anything about it. This defamation left its mark on all surviving sources, both Christian and pagan, and determined the image of Maxentius well into the 20th century. Only a more extensive use of non-literary sources such as coins and inscriptions and a more critical handling of the written reports about Maxentius' government have led to a revision of the assessment of this emperor.

literature

Lexicon article

Monographs and Articles

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Günter Rohleder: Imperial splendor in Saxony-Anhalt - exhibition about Otto I in the Magdeburg Cultural History Museum . In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur . August 27, 2012 ( deutschlandfunkkultur.de [accessed May 1, 2017]).
predecessor Office successor
Severus Roman Emperor
306–312
Constantine I.