Maximian (born c. ad 250, Sirmium, Pannonia Inferior—died 310, Massilia [now Marseille, France]) was a Roman emperor with Diocletian from ad 286 to 305.
Born of humble parents, Maximian rose in the army, on the basis of his military skill, to become a trusted officer and friend of the emperor Diocletian, who made him caesar July 21, 285, and augustus April 1, 286. Maximian thus became in theory the colleague of Diocletian, but his role was always subordinate. Assigned the government of the West, Maximian defeated native revolts and a German invasion in Gaul, but he failed to suppress the revolt of Carausius in Gaul and Britain; after the institution of the tetrarch system (i.e., two augusti, each with one caesar under him), Constantius Chlorus, appointed caesar under Maximian in 293, took charge of these areas while Maximian continued to govern Italy, Spain, and Africa. Although long viewed by Christians as a persecutor of their religion, Maximian seems to have done no more than obediently execute in his part of the empire the first edict of Diocletian, which ordered the burning of the Scriptures and the closing of the churches. On May 1, 305, the same day that Diocletian abdicated at Nicomedia, Maximian abdicated, evidently reluctantly, at Mediolanum (modern Milan). As the new tetrarchy that succeeded them began to break down, Maximian reclaimed the throne to support his son Maxentius (307). Persuaded to abdicate once more by Diocletian in 308, he lived at the court of Constantine, who had recently married his daughter Fausta. Maximian committed suicide shortly after the suppression of a revolt raised by him against Constantine.