Silvered Follis AE1, A.D. 312, Thessalonica, 25.2mm, 4.88g, 0°, RIC VI 50a; scarce.
Obv: MAXIMINVS P F AVG. Laureate head right.
Rev: IOVI CONSERVATORI. Jupiter standing left, globe in right, scepter in left; wreath and epsilon in field, SMTS in ex.
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Gaius Valerius Galerius Maximinus Daia Augustus, also known as Maximinus II, Maximinus Daia or Maximinus Daza, was Roman Emperor from 309 to 313. He was born of Dacian peasant stock to the half sister of the emperor Galerius near their family lands around Felix Romuliana; a rural area then in the Danubian region of Moesia, now Eastern Serbia. He rose to high distinction after he had joined the army.
In 305, his maternal uncle Galerius became the eastern Augustus and adopted Maximinus, raising him to the rank of caesar. In 308, after the elevation of Licinius to Augustus, Maximinus and Constantine were declared filii Augustorum ("sons of the Augusti"), but Maximinus probably started styling himself as Augustus with the support of his troops in early 309. On the death of Galerius, in 311, Maximinus divided the Eastern Empire between Licinius and himself.
Maximinus Daia has a bad name in Christian annals, as having renewed persecution after the publication of the toleration edict of Galerius. Eusebius of Caesarea, for example, writes that Maximinus conceived an "insane passion" for a Christian girl of Alexandria, who was of noble birth noted for her wealth, education, and virginity – Saint Catherine of Alexandria. When the girl refused his advances, he had her beheaded, and then seized all of her wealth and assets.
When Licinius and Constantine began to make common cause with one another, Maximinus entered into a secret alliance with the usurper Maxentius, who controlled Italy. Maximinus came to an open conflict with Licinius in 313. He summoned an army of 70,000 men, but still sustained a crushing defeat at the Battle of Tzirallum, and fled, first to Nicomedia and afterwards to Tarsus, where he died the following August. His death was variously ascribed "to despair, to poison, and to the divine justice".
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