the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Bible Encyclopedias
Galerius Valerius Maximinus
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or Roman emperor from A.D. 308 to 314, was originally an Illyrian shepherd named Daia. He rose to high distinction after he had joined the army, and in 305 he was raised by his uncle, Galerius, to the rank of Caesar, with the government of Syria and Egypt. In 308, after the elevation of Licinius, he insisted on receiving the title of Augustus; on the death of Galerius, in 311, he succeeded to the supreme command of the provinces of Asia, and when Licinius and Constantine began to make common cause with one another Maximinus entered into a secret alliance with Maxentius. He came to an open rupture with Licinius in 313, sustained a crushing defeat in the neighbourhood of Heraclea Pontica on the 30th of April, and fled, first to Nicomedia and afterwards to Tarsus, where he died in August following. His death was variously ascribed "to despair, to poison, and to the divine justice." Maximinus has a bad name in Christian annals, as having renewed persecution after the publication of the toleration edict of Galerius, but it is probable that he has been judged too harshly.
See Maxentius; Zosimus ii. 8; Aurelius Victor, Epit. 40.
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Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Galerius Valerius Maximinus'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/g/galerius-valerius-maximinus.html. 1910.
