Galerius

Galerius (Caius Galerius Valerius Maximinianus), d. 310, Roman emperor (305-10). Diocletian appointed him caesar for the eastern part of the empire in 293 (Constantius I was caesar of the West). He had to conduct hard campaigns in Pannonia and Asia. Defeated by the Persians in 296, he retrieved his reputation by a resounding victory over them in 297. On the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian in 305, he and Constantius succeeded as emperors. Galerius tried to increase his power, and after Constantius died in 306 he recognized Severus (d.307) as coemperor in the West. Severus and he attempted without success to put down the claims of Maxentius. After they were defeated and Severus was captured, Galerius had Diocletian approve the appointment of Licinius as emperor of the West. Constantius' son Constantine (Constantine I) and Maximin (d.313) then both claimed power. Galerius died before the confusion was eliminated by the victory of Constantine. Galerius had prompted the persecution of Christians under Diocletian but issued (309) an edict of toleration shortly before his death.

in full Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus

(born , near Serdica, Thrace—died 311) Roman emperor (305–311) notorious for his persecution of Christians. As caesar and a victorious commander, he apparently induced Diocletian to begin the persecutions. In 305 Galerius became augustus (senior emperor) of the East and briefly made himself supreme ruler. He imposed a harsh poll tax on the urban population and kept up the ruthless persecution of Christians. He fell ill in 311; fearing the Christian God was taking vengeance, he issued an edict of tolerance.

Learn more about Galerius with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Galerius Maximianus (ca. 260–late April or early May 311), formally Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus was Roman Emperor from 305 to 311.

Early life

Galerius was born near Serdica, Thrace (now Sofia, Bulgaria), in the place where he later built his palace, Felix Romuliana (today Gamzigrad, Serbia). His father was a Thracian and his mother Romula was a Dacian woman, who left Dacia because of the Carpians attacks. 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. Soon after his appointment, Galerius would be dispatched to Egypt to fight the rebellious cities Busiris and Coptos.

War with Persia

Invasion, counterinvasion

In 294, Narseh, a son of Shapur who had been passed over for the Sassanid succession, came into power in Persia. Narseh probably moved to eliminate Bahram III, a young man installed by a noble named Vahunam in the wake of Bahram II's death in 293. In early 294, Narseh sent Diocletian the customary package of gifts, but within Persia he was destroying every trace of his immediate predecessors, erasing their names from public monuments. He sought to identify himself with the warlike reigns of Ardashir (r. 226–41) and Shapur (r. 241–72), the same Shapur who had sacked Roman Antioch, skinned the Emperor Valerian (r. 253–260) to decorate his war temple.

In 295 or 296, Narseh declared war on Rome. He appears to have first invaded western Armenia, retaking the lands delivered to Tiridates in the peace of 287. He would occupy the lands there until the following year. Narseh then moved south into Roman Mesopotamia, where he inflicted a severe defeat on Galerius, then commander of the Eastern forces, in the region between Carrhae (Harran, Turkey) and Callinicum (Ar-Raqqah, Syria). Diocletian may or may not have been present at the battle, but would present himself soon afterwards at Antioch, where the official version of events was made clear: Galerius was to take all the blame for the affair. In Antioch, Diocletian forced Galerius to walk a mile in advance of his imperial cart while still clad in the purple robes of an emperor. The message conveyed was clear: the loss at Carrhae was not due to the failings of the empire's soldiers, but due to the failings of their commander, and Galerius' failures would not be accepted. (It is also possible that Galerius' position at the head of the caravan was merely the conventional organization of an imperial progression, designed to show a Caesar's deference to his Augustus.)

Galerius had been reinforced, probably in the spring of 298, by a new contingent collected from the empire's Danubian holdings. Narseh did not advance from Armenia and Mesopotamia, leaving Galerius to lead the offensive in 298 with an attack on northern Mesopotamia via Armenia. Diocletian may or may not have been present to assist the campaign. Narseh retreated to Armenia to fight Galerius' force, to Narseh's disadvantage: the rugged Armenian terrain was favorable to Roman infantry, but unfavorable to Sassanid cavalry. Local aid gave Galerius the advantage of surprise over the Persian forces, and, in two successive battles, Galerius secured victories over Narseh.

During the second encounter, Roman forces seized Narseh's camp, his treasury, his harem, and his wife along with it. Narseh's wife would live out the remainder of the war in Daphne, a suburb of Antioch, serving to the Persians as a constant reminder of Roman victory. Galerius advanced into Media and Adiabene, winning continuous victories, most prominently near Erzurum, and securing Nisibis (Nusaybin, Turkey) before October 1 298. He moved down the Tigris, taking Ctesiphon, and gazing onwards to the ruins of Babylon before returning to Roman territory via the Euphrates.

Peace negotiations

Narseh had previously sent an ambassador to Galerius to plead for the return of his wives and children, but Galerius had dismissed this ambassador, reminding him of how Shapur had treated Valerian. The Romans, in any case, treated Narseh's captured family with tact, perhaps seeking to evoke comparisons to Alexander and his beneficent conduct towards the family of Darius III. Peace negotiations began in the spring of 299, with both Diocletian and Galerius presiding. Their magister memoriae (secretary) Sicorius Probus was sent to Narseh to present terms.

The conditions of the peace were heavy: Persia would give up territory to Rome, making the Tigris the boundary between the two empires. Further terms specified that Armenia was returned to Roman domination, with the fort of Ziatha as its border; Caucasian Iberia would pay allegiance to Rome under a Roman appointee; Nisibis, now under Roman rule, would become the sole conduit for trade between Persia and Rome; and Rome would exercise control over the five satrapies between the Tigris and Armenia: Ingilene, Sophanene (Sophene), Arzanene (Aghdznik), Corduene, and Zabdicene (near modern Hakkâri, Turkey). These regions included the passage of the Tigris through the Anti-Taurus range; the Bitlis pass, the quickest southerly route into Persian Armenia; and access to the Tur Abdin plateau. With these territories, Rome would have an advance station north of Ctesiphon, and would be able to slow any future advance of Persian forces through the region. Under the terms of the peace Tiridates would regain both his throne and the entirety of his ancestral claim, and Rome would secure a wide zone of cultural influence in the region. The fact that the empire was able to sustain such constant warfare on so many fronts has been taken as a sign of the essential efficacy of the Diocletianic system and the goodwill of the army towards the tetrarchic enterprise.

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.

Death

Galerius died on 5 May, 311 from a horribly gruesome disease described by Eusebius, possibly some form of bowel cancer, gangrene or Fournier gangrene.

Galerius is remembered in Serbian mithology as herdsman emperor (car govedar)

Gamzigrad-Romuliana, Palace of Galerius near Zaječar in Serbia he had constructed in his birthplace, was inscribed into the World Heritage List in June 2007.

Notes

References

• Banchich, Thomas M. " Iulianus (ca. 286–293 A.D.)" De Imperatoribus Romanis (1997). Accessed March 8, 2008.
• Barnes, Timothy D. "Lactantius and Constantine." The Journal of Roman Studies 63 (1973): 29–46.
• Barnes, Timothy D. Constantine and Eusebius. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981. ISBN 978-0674165311
• Barnes, Timothy D. The New Empire of Diocletian and Constantine. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982. ISBN 0783722214
• Bleckmann, Bruno. "Diocletianus." In Brill's New Pauly, Volume 4, edited by Hubert Cancik and Helmut Schneider, 429–38. Leiden: Brill, 2002. ISBN 9004122591
• Bowman, Alan K., Peter Garnsey, and Averil Cameron. The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume XII: The Crisis of Empire. Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-521-30199-8
• Brown, Peter. The Rise of Western Christendom. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-631-22138-7
• Burgess, R.W. "The Date of the Persecution of Christians in the Army". Journal of Theological Studies 47:1 (1996): 157–158.
• Corcoran, Simon. The Empire of the Tetrarchs: Imperial Pronouncements and Government, AD 284–324. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. ISBN 019815304X
• Corcoran, "Before Constantine", Simon. "Before Constantine." In The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine, edited by Noel Lenski, 35–58. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Hardcover ISBN 0-521-81838-9 Paperback ISBN 0-521-52157-2
• DiMaio, Jr., Michael. " Constantius I Chlorus (305–306 A.D.)" De Imperatoribus Romanis (1996a). Accessed March 8, 2008.
• DiMaio, Jr., Michael. " Galerius (305–311 A.D.)" De Imperatoribus Romanis (1996b). Accessed March 8, 2008.
• DiMaio, Jr., Michael. " Maximianus Herculius (286–305 A.D)" De Imperatoribus Romanis (1997). Accessed March 8, 2008.
• Elliott, T. G. The Christianity of Constantine the Great. Scranton, PA: University of Scranton Press, 1996. ISBN 0-940866-59-5
• Harries, Jill. Law and Empire in Late Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Hardcover ISBN 0-521-41087-8 Paperback ISBN 0-521-42273-6
• Helgeland, John. "Christians and the Roman Army A.D. 173–337." Church History 43:2 (1974): 149–163, 200.
• Jones, A.H.M. The Later Roman Empire, 284–602: A Social, Economic and Administrative Survey. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1986.
• Lenski, Noel. "The Reign of Constantine." In The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine, edited by Noel Lenski, 59–90. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006b. Hardcover ISBN 0-521-81838-9 Paperback ISBN 0-521-52157-2
• Mackay, Christopher S. "Lactantius and the Succession to Diocletian." Classical Philology 94:2 (1999): 198–209.
• Mathisen, Ralph W. " Diocletian (284–305 A.D.)" De Imperatoribus Romanis (1997). Accessed February 16, 2008.
• Odahl, Charles Matson. Constantine and the Christian Empire. New York: Routledge, 2004. Hardcover ISBN 0-415-17485-6 Paperback ISBN 0-415-38655-1
• Pohlsander, Hans. The Emperor Constantine. London & New York: Routledge, 2004a. Hardcover ISBN 0-415-31937-4 Paperback ISBN 0-415-31938-2
• Pohlsander, Hans. " Constantine I (306 - 337 A.D.)" De Imperatoribus Romanis (2004b). Accessed December 16, 2007.
• Potter, David S. The Roman Empire at Bay: AD 180–395. New York: Routledge, 2005. Hardcover ISBN 0-415-10057-7 Paperback ISBN 0-415-10058-5
• Rees, Roger. Diocletian and the Tetrarchy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-7486-1661-6
• Southern, Pat. The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine. New York: Routledge, 2001. ISBN 0-415-23944-3
• Rostovtzeff, Michael. The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1966. ISBN 978-0198142317
• Treadgold, Warren. A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-8047-2630-2
• Williams, Stephen. Diocletian and the Roman Recovery. New York: Routledge, 1997. ISBN 0-415-91827-8

See also

• Arch and Tomb of Galerius

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

|}