Maxentius

Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius lived from about 283 until his death on 28 October 312, ruling as Roman emperor from 306 onward. Although he controlled Italy and North Africa and enjoyed the backing of the Roman Senate, his fellow emperors refused to acknowledge him as a legitimate ruler. He was the son of the former emperor Maximian and the father-in-law of Emperor Galerius. The final phase of his reign was consumed by civil war, during which he allied with Maximinus against Licinius and Constantine—though the alliance was not simultaneous: Maximinus fought Licinius, while Maxentius fought Constantine. Constantine defeated him at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312; as his army fled, Maxentius supposedly drowned in the Tiber River. He holds the distinction of being the last emperor to make Rome his permanent residence. He worked to beautify, restore, and improve the ancient city, commissioning major construction projects such as the Temple of the Divine Romulus (dedicated to his dead son), the Basilica of Maxentius (later finished by Constantine), and his own villa and circus.

Maxentius was born to Maximian and his Syrian wife Eutropia. Because his father became emperor in 285, he was seen as the heir apparent. Yet he appears to have held no significant military or administrative posts under Diocletian and his father. The date of his marriage to Valeria Maximilla, Galerius’s daughter, is not recorded. He fathered two sons: Valerius Romulus and another whose name is unknown. When Diocletian and Maximian stepped down in 305, Constantius and Galerius became Augusti. Despite the availability of two emperors’ sons—Constantine and Maxentius—they were overlooked for the new tetrarchy; instead, Valerius Severus and Maximinus Daza were made Caesars. According to Lactantius, Galerius disliked Maxentius and used his influence with Diocletian to block him from the succession; Diocletian may also have doubted Maxentius’s fitness for the military demands of the office. Maxentius withdrew to an estate a few miles from Rome. After Constantius died in 306, his son Constantine was crowned emperor on July 25 and accepted by Galerius as a Caesar in the Tetrarchy—a precedent that paved the way for Maxentius’s own rise later that year.

Rumors spread in Rome that the emperors planned to impose a capitation tax on the city’s population and disband what remained of the Pra