Galerius, << guh LIHR ee uhs, >> (?-A.D. 311) served as co-emperor of Rome from A.D. 305 to 311. He ruled as part of a tetrarchy (rule of four men). The tetrarchy included two emperors, in the East and West. Each emperor appointed a deputy called a Caesar.
Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus was born in the 250’s in what is now eastern Serbia. He later renamed the place Romulianum after his mother, Romula, and built a palace and mausoleum for himself there. Today, the place is called Gamzigrad.
Galerius rose to high command in the Roman army. In 293, the joint emperors Diocletian and Maximian resolved to create a tetrarchy. Diocletian chose Galerius as his Caesar. Galerius divorced his wife and married Diocletian’s daughter, Valeria.
Galerius was assigned to defend the Roman Empire’s eastern frontier against attacks by the Persian King Narses. The Persians repulsed the Romans during Galerius’s first campaign in 296. But Galerius was able to reverse this humiliation with reinforcements from Diocletian. He defeated Narses in battle in 298, captured his harem and treasury, and reached the Persian capital of Ctesiphon, near present-day Baghdad, Iraq. The Persians had to hand over much territory to the Romans. Galerius made Thessaloniki, Greece, his capital. An arch erected by Galerius there commemorates his victory over the Persians.
Galerius and Diocletian shared a hostility toward religions they viewed as diminishing devotion to traditional Roman gods. Christianity was considered especially threatening. According to hostile ancient accounts, Galerius and his mother strongly urged Diocletian to resume an empire-wide persecution of Christians that the emperor Valerian had enforced. Valerian’s policy had ended after the Persians captured him in 260. From 303, Diocletian issued a new series of persecution edicts (public orders).
Diocletian died in 305 and Galerius succeeded him as emperor in the East. Galerius continued to persecute Christians energetically. Meanwhile, the tetrarchs in the West abandoned such policies. Galerius died in 311. Shortly before his death, he grudgingly ended his persecution of Christians.
See also Diocletian ; Persia, Ancient ; Rome, Ancient (The decline of the empire) .
