The Panegyric of 307 and Maximian's Visits to Rome

Bibliographic Data

ID3937497
AuthorsC E V Nixon (corresponding author)
Year1981
Volume35
Issue1
Pages70
Publication date1981-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhoenix (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0031-8299 • E-ISSN: 1929-4883
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1087138
OpenAlexW2334216903
LanguageEN
Citations received26

IN A CAREFULLY ARGUED ARTICLE1 G. S. R. Thomas has sought to demonstrate that the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian in 305 was not the result of a plan drawn up a long time in advance, as the Panegyrist of 307 avers,2 and that Maximian did not give Diocletian his oath that he would resign in the temple of Jupiter the Capitoline, as the Panegyrist of 310 claims,3 but rather that Diocletian yielded to pressure put upon him by Galerius in the months immediately preceding the abdication. Thomas values highly the evidence of Lactantius, with good reason, and emphasizes (239-240) the tendentiousness and inconsistency of the Panegyrics in question. To accept the version of the Panegyrics, for they can be held to complement each other, one would have to find a suitable occasion which Diocletian and Maximian could have met and discussed the matter. The one chosen by a large number of scholars4 is the celebration of Diocletian's vicennalia in Rome in November 303,1 an obvious choice. In his assault the orthodox version Thomas argues that Maximian was not even in Rome in November 303. No source specifically states so; indeed on salt qu'il y etait en 298; la seconde fois qu'il visita cette ville, ce fut en 304, alors qu'il etait consul pour la huitieme fois.6 The passage upon which this claim is based is Pan. 6/7.8.7-8

Art · Literature · Panegyric · Poetry · Byzantine Studies and History · Classical Studies and Legal History · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · Medicine

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