General Notes

Name Suffix:<NSFX> Roman Emperor
MAGNUS CLEMENS MAXIMUS (d. 388) ruled as usurping Roman Emperor from 383 to 388. Of Spanish birth, Magnus Maximus served in the Roman amy in Britain from 367 and rose to high military command. In 383 he proclaimed himself Emperor, crossed the Channel with an army and established his rule over Gaul and Spain. In 387 he moved into Italy but in 388 was defeated by the rightful Emperor, Theodosius I, and executed at Aquileia. His significance in British history is twofold. First, his withdrawals of troops from Britain made the province even more vulnerable that it already was to Pictish, Irish and Saxon marauders. Secondly, he was remembered (under the name Macsen) in medieval Welsh tradition as the ancestor of several British princely dynasties. Precisely what significance this may have is not clear, but it is possible that Maximus established reliable native subordinates for defensive purposes in positions of authority that later became hereditary. On both counts his unwitting contribution to the confused process called for convenience 'the end of Roman Britain' was considerable. [Who's Who in Roman Britain and Anglo-Saxon England, Richard Fletcher, Shephear-Walwyn Ltd., London, 1989]
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MAGNUS MAXIMUS, a native of Spain, who had accompanied Theodosius on several expeditions, and from 368 seems to have had some office in Britain, where he was proclaimed emperor by the disaffected troops. Denuding, as it would seem, Hadrian's Wall of its garrison, he crossed over to Gaul, and overthrew Gratian. Theodosius being unable to avenge the death of his colleague, an agreement was made (384 or 385) by which Maximus was recognized as Augustus and sole emperor in Gaul, Spain and Britain, while Valentinian II was to rule Italy and Illyricum. In 387 Maximus crossed the Alps and Valentinian was forced to fly to Theodosius. Advancing with a powerful Army, Theodosius defeated the troops of Maximus---at Siscia on the Save, and at Poetovio on the Danube. He then hurried to Aquileia, where Maximus had shut himself up, and had him beheaded. [Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. XV, p. 119, MAXIMUS, MAGNUS MAXIMUS]
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MAXIMUS, MAGNUS (d. Aug. 28, 388), usurping Roman emperor who ruled Britain, Gaul, and Spain from AD 383 to 388. A Spaniard of humble origin, Maximus commanded the Roman troops in Britain against the Picts and Scots. In the spring of 383, Maximus' British troops proclaimed him emperor, and he at once crossed to the European continent to confront his rival, the Western emperor Gratian. Maximus won over Gratian's advancing troops; Gratian fled but was overtaken and killed (Aug. 25, 383). Maximus took up residence at Trier (in present-day Germany) and entered into negotiations with the Eastern emperor, Theodosius I. Since hostile tribes were threatening his eastern frontier, Theodosius decided to recognize Maximus rather than fight a war in the West. Maximus also opened negotiations with Valentinian II, the young ruler who had been coemperor with Gratian, and made an uneasy peace with him. At this time Maximus elevated his son Flavius Victor to be coruler with him, and his elevation was recognized by the other two emperors. In the summer of 387 Maximus invaded Italy, forcing Valentinian to flee to Thessalonica. War broke out in 388 between Maximus and Theodosius, whose position had been strengthened by a treaty with the Persians. When his troops were defeated near Siscia and at Petovio, in Illyricum (in the Balkans), Maximus was captured and executed. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD '97, MAGNUS MAXIMUS.]
In the history or the mythology of the beginnings of the kingdoms of Wales, Magnus is a ubiquitous lurker. He also figures in stories of the saints; he appears in the early literature of Cornwall and in the traditions of the Men of the North and it is he who is the hero of the story "Breuddwyd Macsen." So great was his appeal to the Welsh imagina