Maximus was a
Roman usurper
Roman usurpers were individuals or groups of individuals who obtained or tried to obtain power by force and without legitimate legal authority. Usurpation was endemic during the Roman imperial era, especially from the crisis of the third century ...
(409 – 411) in
Hispania
Hispania ( la, Hispānia , ; nearly identically pronounced in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Italian) was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hispania ...
(the
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...
, modern
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
and
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
). He had been elected by general
Gerontius Gerontius (; Latinized Greek for 'old man') can refer to:
Music and literature
* ''The Dream of Gerontius'', a 1900 choral work by Edward Elgar, a setting of a poem of the same name by John Henry Newman
* ''The Dream of Gerontius'', the poem by ...
, who might have been his father.
Relations between the usurper
Constantine III and his general Gerontius, who had been sent to Hispania, had been deteriorating through the year 409. When Constantine sent an army under his son and heir
Constans
Flavius Julius Constans ( 323 – 350), sometimes called Constans I, was Roman emperor from 337 to 350. He held the imperial rank of '' caesar'' from 333, and was the youngest son of Constantine the Great.
After his father's death, he was mad ...
, Gerontius
mutinied
Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military, of a crew or of a crew of pirates) to oppose, change, or overthrow an organization to which they were previously loyal. The term is commonly used for a rebellion among members ...
and installed Maximus in the late summer of 410.
[J. F. Drinkwater]
"The Usurpers Constantine III (407-411) and Jovinus (411-413)", ''Britannia''
29 (1998), p. 284 Kullikowski suggests that Gerontius may have feared being replaced as Constantine's chief military figure in the provinces of Hispania.
[Michael Kulikowski]
"The Career of the 'Comes Hispaniarum' Asterius", ''Phoenix''
54 (2000), p. 124 Drinkwater on the other hand suggests that Gerontius, seeing Constantine negotiating with Emperor
Honorius, over 409 had decided to side with the local Theodosian supporters. However, by the summer of 410 Gerontius had received no support from Italy, was threatened by Constans and desperate for imperial authority to confirm his arrangements with his barbarian allies. Faced by these threats, "Gerontius was at length driven into open revolt."
[
Maximus managed some degree of rule over the provinces of Hispania. Kullikowski reports that "the mint at Barcino struck coins in his name and there is evidence for major construction work on that city's walls during reign."][
In the first 18 months of his reign Gerontius's forces defeated Constantine's forces, killed his son Constans at ]Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
(modern Vienne, Isère) and trapped Constantine himself inside Arelas. Seeing the losses of the armies of the two usurpers, Honorius sent his general Constantius into Gaul; Gerontius' soldiers deserted him for the imperial general. Gerontius retired to Hispania, and when his remaining troops turned on him, committed suicide.
Deprived of his major supporter, Maximus reportedly fled to sanctuary "amongst the barbarians in Hispania."
The remainder of the recorded history of this shadowy figure becomes even more murky. He is commonly identified with a second Maximus who started his rebellion in Hispania between July 419 and February 421. According to Marcellinus Comes Marcellinus Comes (Greek: Μαρκελλίνος ό Κόμης, died c. 534) was a Latin chronicler of the Eastern Roman Empire. An Illyrian by birth, he spent most of his life at the court of Constantinople. His only surviving work, the ''Chronicl ...
, this Maximus was brought to Rome where he was displayed and executed, along with one Jovinianus, around 23 January 422, during Honorius' tricennalia. Kullikowski supports this identification, explaining that he was defeated and captured by the ''comes
''Comes'' ( ), plural ''comites'' ( ), was a Roman title or office, and the origin Latin form of the medieval and modern title "count".
Before becoming a word for various types of title or office, the word originally meant "companion", either i ...
'' Asterius, for which achievement Asterius was rewarded with the Patriciate.[Kullikowski, "Career", pp. 134f]
References
External links
Elton, Huges, "Maximus (409-422 A.D.)", ''De Imperatoribus Romanis''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maximus Of Hispania
5th-century Roman usurpers
5th-century deaths
Year of birth unknown