Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Early life
Galerius was born in Serdica,[13] though some modern scholars consider the strategic site where he later
built his palace named after his mother Felix Romuliana (Gamzigrad) his birth and funeral place.[10] His
father was a Thracian and his mother Romula was a
Dacian woman, who left Dacia because of the Carpians'
attacks.[14]:19 He originally followed his fathers 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. After a few years campaigning against
Sarmatians and Goths on the Danube, he received command of the legions on the eastern Imperial limits. Soon
after his appointment, Galerius would be dispatched to
Egypt to ght the rebellious cities Busiris and Coptos.[15]
PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS
3 Persecution of Christians
2.2
Peace negotiations
3
of Toleration by Galerius). Initially one of the leading
gures in the persecutions, Galerius later admitted that
the policy of trying to eradicate Christianity had failed,
saying: wherefore, for this our indulgence, they ought
to pray to their God for our safety, for that of the republic, and for their own, that the republic may continue uninjured on every side, and that they may be able to live
securely in their homes. Lactantius gives the text of the
edict in his moralized chronicle of the bad ends to which
all the persecutors came, De Mortibus Persecutorum.[24]
This marked the end of ocial persecution of Christians.
Christianity was ocially legalized in the Roman Empire
two years later in 313 by Constantine and Licinius in the
Edict of Milan.[12]:125
But when he had time to reconsider his position, he inevitably saw that his chances of winning a war against
Constantine was doubtful at best, especially given that
he was well aware of Constantines strengths as Constantine had been his guest for some time at Nicomedia,
not to mention the attachment of the troops to him.[25]
Therefore, without either condemning or ratifying the
choice of the British army, Galerius accepted the son of
his deceased colleague as the ruler of the provinces beyond the Alps; but he gave him only the title of Caesar,
and the fourth rank among the Roman princes, whilst he
conferred the vacant place of Augustus on his favourite
Severus.
Rule as Augustus
Follis of Galerius
REFERENCES
8.2
Modern sources
Banchich, Thomas M., trans. A Booklet
About the Style of Life and the Manners of
the Imperatores. Canisius College Translated Texts 1. Bualo, NY: Canisius College, 2009. Online at De Imperatoribus
Romanis. Accessed 15 August 2009.
Eusebius of Caesarea.
Historia Ecclesiastica (Church History).
McGiert, Arthur Cushman,
trans. Church History. From
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 1.
Edited by Philip Scha and
Henry Wace. Bualo, NY:
Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1890. Revised and
edited for New Advent by
Kevin Knight. Online at New
Advent. Accessed 25 August
2009.
Vita Constantini (Life of Constantine).
Richardson, Ernest Cushing,
trans. Life of Constantine.
From Nicene and Post-Nicene
Fathers, Second Series, Vol.
1. Edited by Philip Scha
and Henry Wace. Bualo,
NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1890. Revised
and edited for New Advent by
Kevin Knight. Online at New
Advent. Accessed 25 August
2009.
Festus. Breviarium.
Banchich, Thomas M., and Jennifer A.
Meka, trans. Breviarium of the Accomplishments of the Roman People. Canisius College Translated Texts 2. Bualo,
NY: Canisius College, 2001. Online at
De Imperatoribus Romanis. Accessed 15
August 2009.
Lactantius. De Mortibus Persecutorum (On the
Deaths of the Persecutors).
Fletcher, William, trans. Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died. From
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second
Series, Vol. 7. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A.
5
Cleveland Coxe. Bualo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886. Revised and edited for New Advent by
Kevin Knight. Online at New Advent.
Accessed 25 August 2009.
XII Panegyrici Latini (Twelve Latin Panegyrics).
Nixon, C.E.V., and Barbara Saylor
Rodgers, ed. and trans. In Praise of Later
Roman Emperors: The Panegyrici Latini.
Berkeley: University of California Press,
1994.
Zosimus. Historia Nova (New History).
Unknown, trans. The History of Count
Zosimus. London: Green and Champlin,
1814. Online at Tertullian. Accessed 15
August 2009.[notes 1]
10 CITATIONS
Corcoran, Simon. The Empire of the Tetrarchs: Imperial Pronouncements and Government, AD 284
324. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. ISBN 0-19815304-X
Odahl, Charles Matson. Constantine and the Christian Empire. New York: Routledge, 2004. Hardcover ISBN 0-415-17485-6 Paperback ISBN 0415-38655-1
Pohlsander, Hans. The Emperor Constantine. London & New York: Routledge, 2004a. Hardcover ISBN 0-415-31937-4 Paperback ISBN 0415-31938-2
Rostovtze, Michael. The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1966. ISBN 978-0-19-814231-7
Williams, Stephen. Diocletian and the Roman Recovery. New York: Routledge, 1997. ISBN 0-41591827-8
9 Notes
[1] This edition and translation is not very good. The pagination is broken in several places, there are many typographical errors (including several replacements of Julian
with Jovian and Constantine with Constantius). It
is nonetheless the only translation of the Historia Nova in
the public domain.[35]
10 Citations
[1] Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, pp. 89.
[2] Barnes, New Empire.
[3] Potter, The Roman Empire at Bay.
[4] Southern, Severus to Constantine.
[5] Williams, Diocletian.
[6] The earlier dates for Galerius appointment have been argued for based on the suggestion that the appointments of
Constantius and Galerius were timed to coincide (Barnes
1981, 89; Southern 1999, 146). Barnes (1982, 62) argues against a dating of 21 May 293 in Nicomedia originating in Seston, Diocltien, 88., stating that the evidence adduced (the Paschal Chronicle 521 = Chronica
Minora 1.229 and Lactantius, DMP 19.2) is invalid and
confused. Lactantius is commenting on Diocletian and
the place where Diocletian was acclaimed, and that the
Maximianus in the text is therefore a later gloss; the
Paschal Chronicle is not authoritative for this period for
events outside Egypt, and may simply be commenting on
the day when the laureled image of the new emperors arrived in Alexandria. Potter (2004, 650) agrees that locating the acclamation to Nicomedia is false, but believes that
Sestons other evidence makes a strong case for a temporal
lag between the two Caesars acclamations.
[7] Barnes, New Empire, p. 4.
[8] Eutropius.
Breviarivm historiae romanae, IX, 22
Template:Ref-la
[30] DiMaio, Jr., Michael. Maxentius (306-312 A.D.). De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman
Rulers and Their Families. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
[13] Maximianus Galerius in Dacia haud longe a Serdica natus, Eutropii Breviarum IX. 22.
[14] Lactantius, de Mortibus Persecutorum.
[15] Rees, Diocletian and the Tetrarchy, p. 14, citing William
Leadbetter, Galerius and the Revolt of the Thebaid,
293/4, Antichthon 34 (2000) 8294.
[16] Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, p. 17.
11 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
12
12
12.1
12.2
Images
12.3
Content license