Valerius Licinianus Licinius (/lɪˈsɪniəs/;[4]Greek: Λικίνιος; c. 265 – 325) wasRoman emperor from 308 to 324. For most of his reign, he was the colleague and rival ofConstantine I, with whom he co-authored theEdict of Milan that granted official toleration to Christians in the Roman Empire. He was finally defeated at theBattle of Chrysopolis (AD 324), and was later executed on the orders of Constantine.
Born to aDacian[3][5] peasant family inMoesia Superior, Licinius accompanied his close childhood friend and future emperorGalerius, on the Persian expedition in 298.[3] He was trusted enough by Galerius that in 307 he was sent as an envoy toItaly, to attempt to reach some sort of agreement with the usurperMaxentius.[3] When Galerius went to deal with Maxentius personally after the death ofSeverus II, he left the eastern provinces in Licinius's care.[6]
Upon his return to the east Galerius elevated Licinius to the rank ofAugustus in the West on 11 November 308, and under his immediate command were the Balkan provinces ofIllyricum,Thrace andPannonia.[5] In 310 he took command of the war against theSarmatians, inflicting a severe defeat on them.[7] On the death of Galerius in May 311,[8] Licinius entered into an agreement withMaximinus Daza to share the eastern provinces between them. By this point, not only was Licinius the officialAugustus of the west but he also possessed part of the eastern provinces as well, as theHellespont and theBosporus became the dividing line, with Licinius taking the European provinces and Maximinus taking the Asian.[5]
An alliance between Maximinus and Maxentius forced the two remaining emperors to enter into a formal agreement with each other.[6] So, in March of 313, Licinius marriedFlavia Julia Constantia, half-sister ofConstantine I,[citation needed] atMediolanum (now Milan); they had a son,Licinius the Younger, in 315. Their marriage was the occasion for the jointly-issued "Edict of Milan" that reissued Galerius's previous edict allowingChristianity (and any religion one might choose) to be professed in the Empire,[5] with additional dispositions that restored confiscated properties to Christian congregations and exempted Christian clergy from municipal civic duties.[9] The redaction of the edict as reproduced byLactantius – who follows the text affixed by Licinius inNicomedia on 14 June 313, after Maximinus's defeat – uses neutral language, expressing a will to propitiate "any Divinity whatsoever in the seat of the heavens".[10]
Maximinus Daza in the meantime decided to attack Licinius. Leaving Syria with 70,000 men, he reachedBithynia, although the harsh weather he encountered along the way had gravely weakened his army. In April 313, he crossed theBosporus and went toByzantium, which was held by Licinius's troops. Undeterred, he took the town after an eleven-day siege. He moved to Heraclea, which he captured after a short siege, before moving his forces to the first posting station. With a much smaller body of men, possibly around 30,000,[13] Licinius arrived atAdrianople while Daza was still besiegingHeraclea. Before the decisive engagement, Licinius allegedly had a vision in which an angel recited him a generic prayer that could be adopted by all cults which Licinius then repeated to his soldiers.[14] On 30 April 313, the two armies clashed at theBattle of Tzirallum, and Daza's forces were crushed. Daza escaped, disguised as a slave, and fled toNicomedia,[6] where he fortified the area around theCilician Gates. Licinius's army broke through and Daza retreated toTarsus, where Licinius continued to press him on land and sea. The war between them ended only with Daza's death in August 313.[5]
Licinius sought out and killed multiple relatives of the Tetrarchs: Daza's wife and two children, Severus's sonFlavius Severianus, Galerius's sonCandidianus, Diocletian's wifePrisca, andGaleria Valeria, daughter of Diocletian and wife of Galerius.[15]
Given that Constantine had already crushed his rival Maxentius in 312, the two men decided to divide the Roman world between them. As a result of this settlement, theTetrarchy was replaced by a system of two emperors, calledAugusti: Licinius becameAugustus of the East, while his brother-in-law, Constantine, becameAugustus of the West.[8]
After making the pact, Licinius rushed immediately to the East to deal with another threat, an invasion by the PersianSassanid Empire.[6]
In 316, a civil war erupted between Licinius and Constantine, in which Constantine used the pretext that Licinius was harbouring Senecio, whom Constantine accused of plotting to overthrow him.[6] Constantine prevailed at theBattle of Cibalae inPannonia (8 October 316).[5] As a result of this defeat Licinius namedValerius Valens as his co-emperor (whom he originally intended to replace Constantine), only for Licinius to suffer a humiliating defeat on the plains in theBattle of Mardia (also known as the Battle of Campus Ardiensis) inThrace which occurred either in late 316 or early 317. The two emperors were reconciled after these two battles and Licinius had his co-emperor Valens killed.[5]
Over the next seven years, the two imperial colleagues maintained an uneasy truce.[6] Licinius kept himself busy with a campaign against the Sarmatians in 318,[5] but temperatures rose again in 321 when Constantine pursued some Sarmatians, who had been ravaging some territory in his realm, across the Danube into what was technically Licinius's territory.[5] When he repeated this with another invasion, this time by theGoths who were pillagingThrace under their leaderRausimod, Licinius complained that Constantine had broken the treaty between them.
Constantine wasted no time going on the offensive. Licinius's fleet of 350 ships was defeated by Constantine's fleet in 323. Then in 324, Constantine, tempted by the "advanced age and unpopular vices"[8][6] of his colleague, again declared war against him and having defeated his army of 165,000 men[16] at theBattle of Adrianople (3 July 324), succeeded in shutting him up within the walls ofByzantium.[8][5] The defeat of the superior fleet of Licinius in theBattle of the Hellespont byCrispus, Constantine's eldest son andCaesar, compelled his withdrawal toBithynia, where a last stand was made; theBattle of Chrysopolis, nearChalcedon (18 September),[8] resulted in Licinius's final submission.[6] In this conflict Licinius was supported by the Gothic princeAlica. Due to the intervention of Flavia Julia Constantia, Constantine's sister and also Licinius's wife, both Licinius and his co-emperorMartinian were initially spared, Licinius being imprisoned inThessalonica, Martinian inCappadocia; however, both former emperors were subsequently executed. After his defeat, Licinius attempted to regain power with Gothic support, but his plans were exposed, and he was sentenced to death. While attempting to flee to the Goths, Licinius was apprehended atThessalonica. Constantine had him hanged, accusing him of conspiring to raise troops among the barbarians.[6][17]
One of a hoard of five or six identical silver plates celebrating Licinius's 10th anniversary as Emperor, discovered inNiš, Serbia, and now in theBritish Museum in London[18]
As part of Constantine's attempts to decrease Licinius's popularity, he actively portrayed his brother-in-law as a pagan supporter. This may not have been the case; contemporary evidence tends to suggest that he was at least a committed supporter of Christians at one point.[citation needed] He co-authored the Edict of Milan which ended theGreat Persecution, and re-affirmed the rights of Christians in his half of the empire. He also added the Christian symbol to his armies, and attempted to regulate the affairs of the Church hierarchy just as Constantine and his successors were to do. His wife was a devout Christian.[19]
It is possible that he converted.[20] However,Eusebius of Caesarea, writing under the rule of Constantine, charges him with expelling Christians from the Palace and ordering military sacrifices to pagan gods, as well as interfering with the Church's internal procedures and organization.[21] It has been theorized that he originally supported Christians along with Constantine, but later in his life turned against them and to paganism.[20]
Finally, on Licinius's death, his memory was branded with infamy; his statues were thrown down; and by edict, all his laws and judicial proceedings during his reign were abolished.[6] Such official erasure from the public record has come to be calleddamnatio memoriae.
^Timothy Barnes (New Empire, 33–34) questions the parentage of Theodora shown here. He proposes that Maximian is her natural father (and that her mother is possibly a daughter of Afranius Hannibalianus). Substituting Afranicus Hannibalianus and switching the positions of Maximian and Eutropia would produce a diagram that matches the alternative lineage.
Bibliography:
Barnes, Timothy D.The New Empire of Diocletian and Constantine. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982.ISBN0-7837-2221-4
^Carrié, Jean-Michel; Rousselle, Aline (1999).L'Empire Romain en mutation: des Sévères à Constantin, 192–337. Paris: Éditions du Seuil. p. 228.ISBN2-02-025819-6.
^Lactantius,De Mort. Pers., ch. 48, cf. Internet History Sourcebooks Project, Fordham University,[1]. Accessed 31 July 2012
^James Richard Gearey, "The Persecution of Licinius". MA thesis, University of Calgary, 1999, Chapter 4. Available at[2]Archived 20 December 2014 at theWayback Machine. Accessed 31 July 2012.
