Maximian

Maximian

The overall impression I got of Maximian after reading Lactantius's text On the Manner in which the Persecutors died, is that Maximian was a vulgar, menacing beast with a savage temper. Lactantius mentions Maximian as possessing an evil spirit and a bold attitude for doing bad deeds.

The passage that helped shape my overall impression of Maximian as an evil Caesar, which I believe to be most reliable, was the passage from chapter eight. Lactantius mentions in this chapter things like "Whenever he stood in need of more, the richest senators were presently charged, by suborned evidences, as guilty of aspiring to the empire; so that the chief luminaries of the senate were daily extinguished. And thus the treasury, delighting in blood, overflowed with ill-gotten wealth." After reading this passage it was very clear to me that Maximian was a very greedy emperor who would go to any lengths to get what he wanted.

Another passage which states Maximian's evil doings is also from chapter eight. I also find this passage to be reliable. Lactantius mentions here "Add to all this the incontinency of that pestilent wretch, not only in debauching males, which is hateful and abominable, but also in the violation of the daughters of the principal men of the state; for wherever he journeyed, virgins were suddenly torn from the presence of their parents." This passage helped to shape my opinion on his savageness.

In a passage from chapter thirty Lactantius gives more evidence of Maximian's character which helps shape my initial impression of an emperor who is willing to go to any lengths to get what he wants. I believe this passage is very reliable because it highlights everything that I have already learned about Maximian. In this passage Lactantius brings to light that after Maximian was insulted by his son-in-law Constantine, he grew impatient and formed a plot to kill him by asking his daughter to betray her husband. "He addressed himself to his daughter Fausta, and, as well by entreaties as by the soothing of flattery, solicited her