Galerius

• 1. Introduction

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  In the streets of Antioch, Galerius walked a mile ahead of Emperor Diocletian's imperial cart. He wore the full purple robes of a Roman emperor. This was not ceremony. It was punishment, delivered before watching crowds after his forces had been beaten in Mesopotamia. Galerius was born around 258 to a cattle-herder in the Danube provinces, far from the corridors of Roman power. He would rise to co-rule the empire as Augustus, holding authority over much of the ancient world. He also launched a sustained persecution of Christians across the empire. What made a herdsman's son into one of Rome's most formidable rulers? And what could move that same man, in his last months, to beg the very people he had hunted for their prayers?

• 2. A Soldier's Rise

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  Felix Romuliana, the palace Galerius would later build in a Danube province eventually called Dacia Ripensis, was named for his mother, Romula. She had fled Roman Dacia, the land of modern Romania, when raids by the Carpians made living there impossible. An older villa found beneath the palace is sometimes identified as the site where Galerius grew up.

  Galerius worked as a herdsman in those early years, following his father's trade. Soldiers gave him the nickname 'Armentarius,' the Latin word for a cattle-herder. He later served with distinction under Emperors Aurelian and Probus, building a soldier's reputation on Rome's frontiers.

  In 293, Diocletian founded the Tetrarchy, elevating Galerius to Caesar alongside Constantius Chlorus. Galerius marked the occasion by changing his own name: his original cognomen, 'Maximinus,' became 'Maximianus' when he took the rank. He was also joined in marriage to Diocletian's daughter Valeria, formally binding him to the imperial family.

  His territory as Caesar was the Illyrian provinces, a stretch of Danube frontier requiring constant military attention. He spent years campaigning there against Sarmatians and Goths before receiving command of Rome's eastern legions. His first eastern mission took him to Egypt to suppress uprisings in the cities of Busiris and Coptos.

  Persia had a new king, and within a year or two that king would bring his army into Roman territory.

• 3. The Persian Campaign

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  Narseh came to power in Persia in 294, a son of Shapur I who had long been denied the succession. He moved immediately to erase his predecessors, striking their names from public monuments. He identified himself with the warlike reigns of Ardashir and Shapur, rulers who had sacked Roman Antioch and captured the Emperor Valerian.

  In 295 or 296, Narseh declared war on Rome. He swept first into western Armenia, retaking land that Rome had delivered to King Tiridates under an earlier peace. From there he moved south into Roman Mesopotamia, where he inflicted a severe defeat on Galerius in the region between Carrhae and Callinicum.

  Galerius received reinforcements in the spring of 298, drawing fresh troops from Rome's Danubian holdings. He chose to strike back through Armenia rather than directly across the plains. That choice favored Roman infantry over Sasanid cavalry in the rugged highland terrain, and local support gave Galerius the added advantage of surprise.

  In two successive battles, Galerius defeated Narseh. During the second encounter, the Battle of Satala in 298, Roman forces overran Narseh's camp. They seized his treasury, his harem, and his wife. Narseh's wife was settled at Daphne, a suburb of Antioch. She remained there for the rest of the war, a visible reminder of the Persian defeat.

  Galerius then pressed into Media and Adiabene, winning engagement after engagement. He secured Nisibis before the 1st of October 298. Historians Timothy Barnes and Patricia Southern have argued he may have continued down the Tigris and sacked the Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon. No ancient source directly confirms that claim, and many scholars hold that Diocletian halted his advance before he entered Sasanian territory.

  Narseh had already sent an ambassador to plead for the return of his wife and children. Galerius dismissed him with a pointed reminder of how Shapur had once treated the captured Emperor Valerian.

• 4. The Peace of Nisibis

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  Peace negotiations opened in the spring of 299, with both Diocletian and Galerius presiding. Their magister memoriae, Sicorius Probus, traveled to Narseh to present Rome's demands.

  Persia would cede territory to Rome, making the Tigris the new boundary between the two empires. Armenia returned to Roman dominion, with the fort of Ziatha as its border marker. Caucasian Iberia would pay allegiance to Rome under a Roman-appointed ruler. Nisibis, now a Roman city, would be the only authorized crossing point for trade between Persia and Rome.

  Five satrapies between the Tigris and Armenia passed to Roman control. They were Ingilene, Sophanene, Arzanene, Corduene, and Zabdicene, the last lying near modern Hakkari in Turkey. These territories gave Rome a forward position north of Ctesiphon. They included the Bitlis pass, the quickest southerly route into Persian Armenia, and access to the Tur Abdin plateau.

  Under the treaty, King Tiridates regained his throne and the full extent of his ancestral claim. Rome also secured a wide arc of cultural influence across the region.

  Diocletian abdicated in 305, handing Galerius the rank of Augustus. That Rome had sustained warfare on so many fronts at once was read as evidence the Tetrarchic system had worked. It would prove much harder to hold together without its founder.

• 5. A Fractured Empire

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  Maximinus Daza, Galerius's nephew, received command of Egypt and Syria despite having little experience and no formal education. Valerius Severus, a longtime military companion, was sent to govern Italy and Africa from his base in Mediolanum. Severus answered officially to the western emperor but was entirely devoted to Galerius. That arrangement gave Galerius effective control over three-quarters of the empire.

  Constantius died at Eboracum in 306 and his troops proclaimed his son Constantine the new Augustus. A letter arrived from Constantine, apologizing for the informal nature of his promotion but treating it as settled. Galerius responded with surprise, then rage, threatening to burn both the letter and its bearer.

  Constantine had the loyalty of Constantius's legions, and his conduct during an earlier encounter at Nicomedia had already impressed Galerius. A compromise emerged: Constantine would rule the provinces beyond the Alps as Caesar, the fourth-ranking position, while Severus was named Augustus.

  Maxentius, son of Maximian and husband of Galerius's daughter Valeria Maximilla, then rebelled in Italy. Galerius had tried to end Italy's traditional exemption from taxation, and local anger gave Maxentius his opening. When Severus marched on Rome, Maximian came out of retirement and turned many of the invading troops to his son's side. Severus was captured and later executed.

  Galerius himself invaded Italy with forces drawn from Illyricum and the East. He drove as far as Narni, sixty miles from Rome, but could not break through Maximian's defenses. He sent peace overtures to Maxentius; Maxentius refused and used bribes to weaken the loyalty of Galerius's Illyrian troops. Galerius had no choice but to withdraw.

  In 308, he convened an imperial conference at Carnuntum on the Danube, joined by Diocletian and Maximian. They agreed that Licinius would become Augustus in the West with Constantine as his Caesar. In the East, Galerius would keep the rank of Augustus with Maximinus remaining as Caesar. Maximian was to retire and Maxentius was declared a usurper.

  Maximinus refused the rank of Caesar and claimed the title of Augustus. Maximian declared himself emperor again in Arles. A claimant named Domitius Alexander arose in Africa. By then seven men held or claimed imperial power.

  Galerius, the most senior among them, stopped trying to coerce his rivals. His standing among the emperors was secure. But his approach to Christianity, the faith he had tried to uproot, was about to force a reversal no Roman emperor had ever made.

• 6. Persecution and Reversal

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  The first edicts against Christians were issued on the 24th of February, 303. Galerius was a fierce advocate of the old Roman religious traditions, and he had pushed Diocletian hard to act. Christian houses of assembly were torn down, in part from fear that secret gatherings could shelter sedition.

  The writer Lactantius, a Christian who later served as an adviser to Constantine, went further in his accusations. He claimed Galerius had secretly set fire to the Imperial Palace and pinned the blame on Christian saboteurs, manufacturing a pretext for the crackdown. Lactantius also accused Galerius of declaring himself an enemy of Rome once he became emperor. He claimed Galerius proposed renaming the empire the Dacian Empire, as payback for what Trajan had done to his Dacian forebears centuries before. These charges came from a partisan with no sympathy for Galerius, but they colored how he was remembered.

  Galerius kept the persecution going, insisting on the final edicts against Christians through the early years of his rule as Augustus. Then, in April 311, apparently during a final bout of illness, he signed the Edict of Serdica.

  Galerius acknowledged in that document that the effort to eradicate Christianity had not worked. His edict called on Christians to pray to their God 'for our safety, for that of the republic, and for their own.' Lactantius preserved the full text in his chronicle De Mortibus Persecutorum, meaning On the Deaths of the Persecutors.

  With the Edict of Serdica, official Roman persecution of Christianity came to a close. Constantine and Licinius took the next step two years later with the Edict of Milan, which formally legalized the faith.

  Galerius died in late April or early May 311 from a disease described in harrowing terms by Eusebius and Lactantius. The cause may have been bowel cancer, gangrene, or the condition now known as Fournier gangrene. His last recorded request was that Christians pray for him.

  Gamzigrad-Romuliana, the palace complex he had built near his birthplace, became his burial site. Excavations there uncovered lumps of corroded iron ring mail. This armour may have dressed the wax effigy of the emperor burned at his imperial funeral. The site was added to the World Heritage List in June 2007. A mountain peak in Antarctica, Galerius Peak, also carries his name.