Maximian
250 – 310 · Generation II · Emperor (r. 286–305)
Maximian (AD 250 – 310). Emperor (r. 286–305). Married Eutropia. Augustus (West). Herculius by nickname, he was the soldier of the pair, content to leave statecraft to Diocletian. He crushed the Bagaudae rising in Gaul, spent years warring with the tribes across the Rhine, and joined Diocletian in burning a path deep into the lands of the Alamanni. Carausius, the man he had set over the Channel fleet, rebelled and carried Britain into secession; Maximian’s invasion fleet was destroyed by storms, and it was left to his subordinate Constantius to finish the rebel state. He stepped down alongside Diocletian in 305, but retirement did not hold: he took the purple again to back his son Maxentius, tried and failed to depose him, was made to renounce his claim at Carnuntum, and finally attempted to seize Constantine’s title. Captured at Marseille, he killed himself on Constantine’s orders – and was later deified all the same.
Partners
- Married Eutropia (250 – ?) — 2 children together