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MAXIMUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 926 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MAXIMUS , the name of four See also:

Roman emperors. I. M. See also:CLoDIUS PUPIENUS MAXIMUS, See also:joint See also:emperor with D. Caelius Calvinus Balbinus during a few months of the See also:year A.D. 238. Pupienus was a distinguished soldier, who had been proconsul of See also:Bithynia, See also:Achaea, and Gallia Narbonensis. At the advanced See also:age of seventy-four, he was chosen by the See also:senate with Balbinus to resist the See also:barbarian Maximinus. Their See also:complete equality is shown by the fact that each assumed the titles of See also:pontifex maximus and princeps senatus. It was arranged that Pupienus should take the See also:field against Maximinus, while Balbinus remained at See also:Rome to maintain See also:order, a task in which he signally failed. A revolt of the See also:praetorians was not repressed till much See also:blood had been See also:shed and a considerable See also:part of the See also:city reduced to ashes. On his See also:march, Pupienus, having received the See also:news that Maximinus had been assassinated by his own troops, returned in See also:triumph to Rome.

Shortly afterwards, when both emperors were on the point of leaving the city on an expedition—Pupienus against the Persians and Balbinus against the Goths—the praetorians, who had always resented the See also:

appointment of the senatorial emperors and cherished the memory of the soldier-emperor Maximinus, seized the opportunity of revenge. When most of the See also:people were at the Capitoline See also:games, they forced their way into the See also:palace, dragged Balbinus and Pupienus through the streets, and put them to See also:death. See Capitolinus, See also:Life of Maximus and Balbinus; Herodian vii. to, viii. 6; See also:Zonaras xii. 16; See also:Orosius vii. 19; See also:Eutropius ix. 2; See also:Zosimus i. 14; Aurelius See also:Victor, Caesares, 26, epit. 26; H. See also:Schiller, Geschichte der rgmischen Kaiserzeit, i. 2; See also:Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. 7 and (for the See also:chronology) appendix 12 (See also:Bury's edition).

II. See also:

MAGNUS MAXIMUS, a native of See also:Spain, who had accompanied See also:Theodosius on several expeditions and from 368 held high military See also:rank in See also:Britain. The disaffected troops havingproclaimed Maximus emperor, he crossed over to See also:Gaul, attacked See also:Gratian (q.v.), and drove him from See also:Paris to See also:Lyons, where he was murdered by a See also:partisan of Maximus. Theodosius being unable to avenge the death of his colleague, an agreement was made (384 or 385) by which Maximus was recognized as See also:Augustus and See also:sole emperor in Gaul, Spain and Britain, while Valentinian II. was to remain unmolested in See also:Italy and Illyricum, Theodosius retaining his See also:sovereignty in the See also:East. In 387 Maximus crossed the See also:Alps, Valentinian was speedily put to See also:flight, while the invader established himself in See also:Milan and for the See also:time became See also:master of Italy. Theodosius now took vigorous See also:measures. Advancing with a powerful See also:army, he twice defeated the troops of Maximus—at Siscia on the See also:Save, and at Poetovio on the See also:Danube. He then hurried on to See also:Aquileia., where Maximus had shut himself up, and had him beheaded. Under the name of Maxen Wledig, Maximus appears in the See also:list of Welsh royal heroes (see R. See also:Williams , Biog. Dict. of Eminent Welshmen, 1852; " The See also:Dream of Maxen Wledig," in the See also:Mabinogion). Full See also:account with classical references in H.

See also:

Richter, Das westromische Reich, besonders unter den Kaisern Gratian, Valentinian II. and Maximus (1865); see also H. Schiller, Geschichte der rOmischen Kaiserzeit, ii. (1887); Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. 27; See also:Tillemont, Hist. See also:des empereurs, v. See Orosius vii. 42; Zosimus vi. 5; See also:Sozomen ix. 3; E. A. See also:Freeman, " The Tyrants of Britain, Gaul and Spain, A.D. 406-411," in See also:English See also:Historical See also:Review, i. (1886).

IV. See also:

PETRONIUS MAXIMUS, a member of the higher Roman See also:nobility, had held several See also:court and public offices, including those of praefectus Romae (420) and Italiae (439–441 and 445), and See also:consul (433, 443)• He was one of the intimate associates of Valentinian III., whom he assisted in the palace intrigues which led to the death of See also:Aetius in 454; but an See also:outrage committed on the wife of Maximus by the emperor turned his friendship into hatred. Maximus was proclaimed emperor immediately after Valentinian's See also:murder (March 16, 455), but after reigning less than three months, he was murdered by some Burgundian mercenaries as he was fleeing before the troops of Genseric, who, invited by Eudoxia, the widow of Valentinian, had landed at the mouth of the See also:Tiber (May or See also:June 455). See See also:Procopius, Vand. i. 4; Sidonius See also:Apollinaris, Panegyr. Aviti, ep. ii. 13; the various See also:Chronicles; Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chs. 35, 36; Tillemont, Hist. des empereurs, vi.

End of Article: MAXIMUS

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