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De mortibus persecutorum

32.

[1] Nuncupato igitur Licinio imperatore Maximinus iratus nec Caesarem se nec tertio loco nomi nari volebat. [2] Mittit ergo ad eum saepe legatos, orat sibi pareat, dispositionem suam servet; cedat aetati et honorem deferat canis. [3] At ille tollit audacius cornua et praescriptione temporis pugnat: sese priorem esse debere, qui prior sumpserit purpuram; preces eius et mandata contempsit. [4] Dolet bestia et mugit, quod cum ideo ignobilem fecisset Caesarem, ut sibi obsequens esset, is tamen tanti beneficii sui oblitus voluntati ac precibus suis impie repugnaret. [5] Victus contuma cia tollit Caesarum nomen et se Liciniumque Augustos appellat, Maximinum et Constantinum filios Augustorum. Maximinus postmodum scribit quasi nuntians in campo Martio proxime celebrato Augustum se ab exercitu nuncupatum. Recepit ille maestus ac dolens et universos quattuor imperatores iubet nominari.

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Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died

Chap. XXXII.

Maximin Daia was incensed at the nomination of Licinius to the dignity of emperor, and he would no longer be called Caesar, 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 Caesar, 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 Caesar, 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. ¹