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Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died

Chap. XXVIII.

After the flight of Galerius, Maximian, having returned from Gaul, held authority in common with his son; but more obedience was yielded to the young man than to the old: for Maxentius had most power, and had been longest in possession of it; and it was to him that Maximian owed on this occasion the imperial dignity. The old man was impatient at being denied the exercise of uncontrolled sovereignty, and envied his son with a childish spirit of rivalry; and therefore he began to consider how he might expel Maxentius and resume his ancient dominion. This appeared easy, because the soldiers who deserted Severus had originally served in his own army. He called an assembly of the people of Rome, and of the soldiers, as if he had been to make an harangue on the calamitous situation of public affairs. After having spoken much on that subject, he stretched his hands towards his son, charged him as author of all ills and prime cause of the calamities of the state, and then tore the purple from his shoulders. Maxentius, thus stripped, leaped headlong from the tribunal, and was received into the arms of the soldiers. Their rage and clamour confounded the unnatural old man, and, like another Tarquin the Proud, he was driven from Rome.

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De mortibus persecutorum

28.

[1] Post huius fugam cum se Maximianus alter e Gallia recepisset, habebat imperium commune cum filio. Sed iuveni magis parebatur quam seni, quippe cum prior ‹esset› et maior filii potestas, qui etiam patri reddiderat imperium. [2] Ferebat iniquo animo senex quod non posset libere facere quae vellet, et filio suo puerili aemulatione invidebat. Cogitabat ergo expellere adulescentem, ut sibi sua vindicaret: quod facile videbatur, quia milites ‹ei› erant qui Severum reliquerant. [3] Advo cavit populum ac milites quasi contionem de praesentibus rei publicae malis habiturus. De quibus cum multa dixisset, convertit ad filium manus et illum esse dicens auctorem malorum, illum principem calamitatum, quas res publica sustineret, deripuit ab humeris eius purpuram. [4] Exutus ille praecipitem se de tribunali dedit et a militibus exceptus est. Quorum ira et clamore perturbatus est senex impius et ab urbe Roma tamquam Superbus alter exactus [est].