Galerius
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| Galerius | |
 Coin of Galerius |
|
| Reign | 293 - 305 (as Caesar, under Diocletian); 305 - 311 (as Augustus alongside Constantius Chlorus) |
|---|---|
| Full name | Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus |
| Born | c. 250 |
| Birthplace | Felix Romuliana (Gamzigrad, Serbia) |
| Died | 5 May 311 |
| Place of death | near Serdica |
| Buried | Felix Romuliana (Gamzigrad, Serbia) |
| Predecessor | Maximian and Diocletian |
| Successor | Constantine I |
| Consort to | Galeria Valeria |
| Father | A herdsman |
Galerius Maximianus (c. 250–5 May 311), formally Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus was Roman Emperor from 305 to 311.
Contents |
[edit] Life and Reign
Galerius was born on a small farm estate, on a place where he later built his palace, Felix Romuliana, near Zaječar in Serbia. His father was a Thracian and his mother Romula was a Dacian woman, who left Dacia because of the Carpians attacks[1]. He originally followed his father's occupation, that of a herdsman, where he got his surname of Armentarius (Latin: armentum, herd). He served with distinction as a soldier under Emperors Aurelian and Probus, and in 293 at the establishment of the Tetrarchy, was designated Caesar along with Constantius Chlorus, receiving in marriage Diocletian's daughter Valeria (later known as Galeria Valeria), and at the same time being entrusted with the care of the Illyrian provinces.
In 296, at the beginning of the Persian War, he was removed from the Danube to the Euphrates; his first campaign ended in a crushing defeat, near Callinicum, which caused the loss of Mesopotamia. However, in 297, advancing through the mountains of Armenia, he gained a decisive victory over Narseh, with an enormous amount of booty that included Narseh's harem. Following up his advantage, he took the city of Ctesiphon and in 298 Narseh sued for peace. Mesopotamia was returned to Roman rule and even some territory east of the Tigris, which marks the greatest extension of the Roman Empire in the east.
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In 305, on the retirement of Diocletian and Maximian, he at once assumed the title of Augustus, with Constantius his former colleague, and having procured the promotion to the rank of Caesar of Flavius Valerius Severus, a faithful servant, and (Maximinus II Daia), his nephew, he hoped on the death of Constantius to become sole master of the Roman world. Having Constantius' son Constantine as guest at Galerius' court in the east helped to secure his position.
His schemes, however, were defeated by the sudden elevation of Constantine at Eboracum (York) upon the death of his father, and by the action of Maximian and his son Maxentius, who were declared co-Augusti in Italy.
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After an unsuccessful invasion of Italy in 307, he elevated his friend Licinius to the rank of Augustus, and moderating his ambition, he retired to the city Felix Romuliana (today Gamzigrad, Serbia) built by him to honor his mother Romula, and devoted the few remaining years of his life "to the enjoyment of pleasure and to the execution of some works of public utility."
According to Lactantius, Galerius had affirmed his Dacian identity, and he had avowed himself the enemy of the Roman name; and he proposed that the empire should be called, not the Roman, but the Dacian empire — exhibiting an anti-Roman attitude as soon as he had attained the highest power, treating the Roman citizens with ruthless cruelty, like the conquerors treated the conquered, all in the name of the same treatment that the victorious Trajan had applied to the conquered Dacians (forefathers of Galerius), two centuries before.
[edit] Persecution of Christians
Christians had lived in peace during most of the rule of Diocletian. The persecutions that began with an edict of February 24, 303, were credited by Christians to Galerius' work, as he was a fierce advocate of the old ways and old gods. Christian houses of assembly were destroyed, for fear of sedition in secret gatherings.
Diocletian was not anti-Christian during the first part of his reign, and historians have claimed that Galerius decided to prod him into persecuting them by secretly burning the Imperial Palace and blaming it on Christian saboteurs. Regardless of who was at fault for the fire, Diocletian's rage was aroused and he began one of the last and greatest Christian persecutions in the history of the Roman Empire.
It was at the insistence of Galerius that the last edicts of persecution against the Christians were published, beginning on February 24, 303, and this policy of repression was maintained by him until the appearance of the general edict of toleration, issued from Nicomedia in April 311, apparently during his last bout of illness, in his own name and in those of Licinius and Constantine (see Edict of Toleration by Galerius). Lactantius gives the text of the edict in his moralized chronicle of the bad ends to which all the persecutors came, De Mortibus Persecutorum ("On the Deaths of the Persecutors", chapters 34, 35). This marked the end of official persecution of Christians.
[edit] Death
Galerius died on 5 May 311 from a horribly gruesome disease described by Eusebius, possibly some form of bowel cancer or gangrene (Fournier gangrene?).
Galerius is remembered in Vlach folk songs as Ler Imparat (Emperor Ler).[citation needed]
Gamzigrad-Romuliana, Palace of Galerius near Zaječar in Serbia was inscribed into the World Heritage List in June 2007.
[edit] Note
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Medieval Sourcebook: Edict of Toleration by Galerius, 311.
- Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus
- Lactantius about Galerius in his "De Mortibus Persecutorum" chapter XXIII & XXVII
- Catholic Encyclopedia
| Preceded by Diocletian, Maximian |
Roman Emperor 305 (Caesar from 293)–311 with Constantius Chlorus, Constantine I, Licinius, and Maximinus |
Succeeded by Constantine I, Licinius, and Maximinus |
