MAXIMINUS DAIA (Galerius Valerius Maximinus Daia), Roman Emperor. - Son of a sister of Galerius (v.), born in Illyricum, he was protected by his uncle in his military career and then adopted, taking the names Galerius Valerius M. The form D. of the surname seems, on epigraphic evidence, to be preferred to the other Daza (v., e.g., CIL, VIII, 10784).
On the day of the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian (1 May 305), when the Caesars Galerius and Constantius Chlorus were promoted to Augusti, M. D. was named Caesar together with Flavius Severus. He was assigned the two dioceses of the East and of Egypt. From the very beginning his inadequacy was so evident that at the conference of Carnuntum, held under the presidency of Diocletian (308), he was not, as he should have been, promoted from Caesar to Augustus, but a "homo novus," Licinius, was preferred to him. This demotion fatally drew him closer to another rejected man, Maxentius, although their friendship could not translate into any effective action, each being absorbed by his own difficulties. When indeed Galerius died (311), M. had himself acclaimed Augustus by his own soldiers and rushed to occupy the whole of Asia Minor. His army and that of Licinius stood drawn up facing each other on the shores of the Bosporus, but since neither felt sure of being able to win, no battle was joined. In 312, held back by threats from Armenia, M. could not bring help to Maxentius against Constantine. When, however, after Constantine's victory, Licinius went to Milan and married the victor's sister, M. believed he could cross the Bosporus, and occupied Byzantium and Heraclea. This time, however, Licinius could not remain inactive; battle was fought at Campus Serenus near Heraclea and M. was completely defeated. He fled across Asia Minor and tried to gather further forces, but, stricken by illness, he died at Tarsus in Cilicia in the autumn of 313 (on 26 Nov. of that year his third consulate appears annulled in Egyptian documents: Berliner Aegyptische Urkunden, I, 349). He was always an enemy of the Christians, a zealous executor of Diocletian's edict of persecution and reluctant to apply Galerius's edict of toleration.
Bibliography2 works
Roberto Paribeni