Opening the library…

Search the Bible

Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died

Lactantius

Chapter 32

About this work

Author: Lactantius

Chap. XXXII.

Maximin Daia was incensed at the nomination of Licinius

‹ Chapter 31 Chapter 33 ›

to

the

dignity

of

emperor

,

and

he

would

no

longer

be

called

Cæsar

,

or

allow

himself

to

be

ranked

as

third

in

authority

.

Galerius

,

by

repeated

messages

,

besought

Daia

to

yield

,

and

to

acquiesce

in

his

arrangement

,

to

give

place

to

age

,

and

to

reverence

the

grey

hairs

of

Licinius

.

But

Daia

became

more

and

more

insolent

.

He

urged

that

,

as

it

was

he

who

first

assumed

the

purple

,

so

,

by

possession

,

he

had

right

to

priority

in

rank

;

and

he

set

at

nought

the

entreaties

and

the

injunctions

of

Galerius

.

That

brute

animal

was

stung

to

the

quick

,

and

bellowed

when

the

mean

creature

whom

he

had

made

Cæsar

,

in

expectation

of

his

thorough

obsequiousness

,

forgot

the

great

favour

conferred

on

him

,

and

impiously

withstood

the

requests

and

will

of

his

benefactor

.

Galerius

at

length

,

overcome

by

the

obstinacy

of

Daia

,

abolished

the

subordinate

title

of

Cæsar

,

gave

to

himself

and

Licinius

that

of

the

Augusti

,

and

to

Daia

and

Constantine

that

of

sons

of

the

Augusti

.

Daia

,

some

time

after

,

in

a

letter

to

Galerius

,

took

occasion

to

observe

,

that

at

the

last

general

muster

he

had

been

saluted

by

his

army

under

the

title

of

Augustus

.

Galerius

,

vexed

and

grieved

at

this

,

commanded

that

all

the

four

should

have

the

appellation

of

emperor

.

Notes

1
[One wonders that this history was not more efficacious in enforcing the hint on p. 12, at note 1, supra.]