Maxentius

Maxentius was the son of the retired emperor Maximian and the son-in-law of Galerius. The remnant of the praetorian guard at Rome clothed him in the purple when Galerius tried to tax the city (Lactantius, Deaths of the Persecutors 26). He survived two attempts to remove him, by the Caesar Severus and by Galerius in person (Origo Constantini 3.6–7, 4.12).

Eusebius, who has nothing good to say of him, says that at the start of his reign he ordered the persecution of Christians to stop, and puts this down to a pretence of piety meant to please the Roman people; the rest of his portrait is of a tyrant who preyed on senators and their wives (Eusebius, Church History 8.14.1–4). That portrait comes from the side that defeated him. He died on 28 October 312, driven into the Tiber in the rout at the Milvian Bridge (Lactantius, Deaths of the Persecutors 44) (Chronograph of 354 part 6 (calendar), 28 October). The English translation of the anonymous life of Constantine gives him a reign of six years; the number is missing in the manuscript and is supplied by the editor (Origo Constantini 3.6–7, 4.12). Lactantius sets the battle on the anniversary of his accession (Lactantius, Deaths of the Persecutors 44).