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See Also in
Notorious Lives

Caligula

Commodus

Domitian

Elagabalus

Fulvia

Justin II

Nero

Lucius Cornelius Sulla

Theodora.

Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives

Galerius

by Sara Elise Phang

Roman emperor (r. 305-311 c.e.)

Cause of notoriety: Galerius is remembered for his hatred and persecution of Christians.

Active: 303-311 c.e.

Locale: Roman Empire

Early Life

Little is known of the early life of Galerius (gal-AYR-ee-uhs) in the Roman province of Dacia, now Romania. His mother, Romula, was a pagan priestess. Galerius, a herdsman, enlisted in the Roman army and was rapidly promoted during the external and civil wars of the late third century c.e.

Political Career

Galerius was given the rank of caesar (junior emperor) in the First Tetrarchy (293-305), a political junta of two Augusti (senior emperors) and two caesars, devised by the emperor Diocletian (284-305). The caesars were expected to succeed to the Augusti, who would retire. The other Augustus was Maximian (285-305), and the other caesar was Constantius I, the father of Constantine the Great. Diocletian and Galerius were based in the East, Maximian and Constantius in the West. Galerius married Diocletian’s daughter Valeria.

Galerius, as shown on a coin minted c. 311 c.e.

ph_0111326689-Galerius.jpg

The role of the caesar was military. Galerius campaigned against the Persians in Mesopotamia and was defeated somewhere between Callinicum and Carrhae in 297. At first angry, Diocletian gave Galerius another chance; Galerius successfully attacked the Persians through Armenia and northern Mesopotamia, capturing Ctesiphon, a major Persian city, in 298. This conquest returned Mesopotamia to Roman rule. Galerius then campaigned against the Sarmatians and Carpi on the Danube. Galerius, a fanatical pagan, allegedly pressured Diocletian to persecute the Christians. The Christian author Lactantius depicts Galerius as hating the Christians, while Diocletian was more moderate. The “Great Persecution” (303-311) had four edicts: first, destruction of churches, with confiscation and destruction of Scriptures; second, arrest of the clergy; third, an amnesty releasing clergy who offered sacrifice to the pagan gods; and fourth, in early 304, an empire-wide order to sacrifice to the gods. After the first edict, a fire broke out in Diocletian’s palace in Nicomedia; Lactantius claims that Galerius engineered it as an excuse to persecute more severely. Probably most victims of the Great Persecution incurred martyrdom because of their intransigence.

Diocletian fell seriously ill in 303-304, and Galerius is alleged to have increasingly dominated him, forcing him and Maximian to abdicate in favor of Galerius and Constantius in 305. Galerius also imposed his own choice of caesars, Maximinus (his nephew) and Severus, on Diocletian. Other sources than Lactantius suggest that Diocletian controlled the Tetrarchic succession.

The Second Tetrarchy was short-lived. Constantius died in 306, and his son Constantine was acclaimed Augustus at York in Britain. Galerius reluctantly accepted Constantine as caesar; however, Maximian’s son Maxentius revolted, causing a civil war from which Galerius was forced to retreat. At Carnuntum, Austria, in 308 Galerius summoned the present and former Tetrarchs to a meeting, begging Diocletian to resume imperial rule. Diocletian refused, and Galerius appointed a new senior emperor, Licinius.

Galerius fell ill from either intestinal cancer or an infected wound (accounts differ) and died in great pain, infested by worms; the Christian authors emphasize his agony. On April 30, 311, he issued the Edict of Toleration ending the persecution, allegedly in a spirit of repentance, and died soon after. The edict states that though the emperors intended to restore traditional Roman religion, it was worse that the Christians neither revered these gods nor could worship their own deity.

Impact

Galerius is represented by the Christian authors Lactantius and Eusebius as a cruel and barbarous tyrant, the archetype of a persecutor. His “death by worms” echoes that of other tyrants in antiquity, including Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla, and Herod the Great. The Great Persecution, however, was unsuccessful in eliminating Christianity.

Further Reading

1 

Africa, Thomas. “Worms and the Death of Kings: A Cautionary Note on Disease and History.” Classical Antiquity 1 (1982): 1-17. Examines ancient stereotypes of the deaths of tyrants, including Galerius.

2 

Corcoran, Simon. The Empire of the Tetrarchs: Imperial Pronouncements and Government, A.D. 284-324. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. This scholarly work analyzes sources for this period.

3 

Eusebius. The History of the Church. New York: Penguin Books, 1989. Translated by G. A. Williamson, edited by Andrew Loeth. Primary source. The Church historian Eusebius was a contemporary of Constantine the Great (306-337) and describes the Great Persecution in books 8 and 9.

4 

Grant, Michael. The Collapse and Recovery of the Roman Empire. New York: Routledge, 1999. A history of this period for the general reader.

5 

Lactantius. De mortibus persecutorum. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1984. Edited and translated by J. L. Creed. Primary source. The contemporary Christian rhetorician Lactantius (writing after 312) describes the policies, personalities, and demises of the persecutors.

Citation Types

MLA 9th
Phang, Sara Elise. "Galerius." Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives, edited by Carl L. Bankston III, Salem Press, 2007. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GLN_1223.
APA 7th
Phang, S. E. (2007). Galerius. In C. L. Bankston III (Ed.), Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Phang, Sara Elise. "Galerius." Edited by Carl L. Bankston III. Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2007. Accessed September 17, 2026. online.salempress.com.