Ma'ximus Tyrannus
Roman emperor, was raised to the supreme power, in A. D. 408, by Gerontius when this general rebelled in Spain against Constantine. Olympiodorus says that Maximus was the son of Gerontius, but it seems more probable that he was only an officer in the army and his tool, and in the latter quality he behaved during the short time he bore the imperial title. When immediately after his revolt Gerontius marched: into Gaul, Maximus remained at Tarragona, )but could not prevent the Alans, Suevians, Vandals, and other barbarians from invading Spain in 409.
After the defeat of Gerontius at Aries, and his death, in 411, Maximus was compelled to yield to the victorious Constantine, who forced him to renounce the imperial title, but granted him life and liberty on account of his incapacity for important affairs. Maximus retired among the barbarians and lived an obscure life in a corner of Spain. As Orosius speaks of him as a living person, he was consequently alive in 417, the year in which that writer composed his work. Prosper states that in 419 (418?) he rebelled and made himself master of the Roman portion of Spain; but this rebellion was a trifling affair, and he perhaps only got possession of some small district. Failing in his enterprise he was seized, carried to Italy, and, in 422, put to death at Ravenna together with Jovinus. [GERONTIUS.] (Sozom. 9.12-15; Orosius,
7.42,
43; Olympiodors apud Phot.
Biblioth. cod. 80; Greg. Turon. 50.2.100.9; Prosper, Marcellinus, Idatius,
Chronica.)
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W.P]
