ABSTRACT
Diocletian had lived to see the disintegration of the Tetrarchy and the recognition of a religion that he himself had persecuted. He saw his own great fame fade into obscurity before the blazing light of Constantine’s rising sun and died in the belief that he had worked in vain. Maximinus Daia was undoubtedly a man of some principle, military competence, and statesmanship, but he is understandably vilified by Christian writers. Despite the publication of Galerius’ Edict of Toleration, Daia had sporadically persecuted the Christians in his dominions or subjected them to humiliating indignities. The peaceful compromise was neither destined nor intended to last. After a few years of apparent harmony and cooperation, relations between the two emperors slowly deteriorated. Constantine did not really want peace. Licinius’ eventual reversal of the policies agreed upon in Milan presented Constantine a ready-made, though specious, pretext for the war that gave him the whole Empire.
