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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Gavin Richardson, post: 6429626, member: 83956&quot;]Still working on this mystery. Roma&#039;s reply got me rethinking assumptions, such as whether or not Maximinus II Daia and Maxentius were allies. Lactantius says that they were, though it&#039;s fair to question Lactantius. But I suspect this is the early source that makes that connection:</p><p><br /></p><p><b>DE MORTIBUS PERSECUTORUM, CHAP. XLIII.</b></p><p>...</p><p><b>Daia had entertained jealousy and ill-will against Licinius from the time that the preference was given to him by Galerius; and those sentiments still subsisted, notwithstanding the treaty of peace lately concluded between them. When Daia heard that the sister of Constantine was betrothed to Licinius, <span style="color: #ff0000">he apprehended that the two emperors, by contracting this affinity, meant to league against him; so he privily sent ambassadors to Rome, desiring a friendly alliance with Maxentius: he also wrote to him in terms of cordiality. The ambassadors were received courteously, friendship established, and in token of it the effigies of Maxentius and Daia were placed together in public view</span>. Maxentius willingly embraced this, as if it had been an aid from heaven; for he had already declared war against Constantine, as if to revenge the death of his father Maximian....</b></p><p><br /></p><p>Interestingly enough, Lactantius suggests that Constantine was not immediately aware of the alliance of Maxentius and Maximinus II, coming to discover it sometime after his victory at the Milvian Bridge. I&#039;m intrigued by the possibility that my OP coin was struck during a time when Constantine was still unaware of Maximinus’s support of Maxentius:</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Lactantius: DE MORTIBUS PERSECUTORUM, CHAP. XLIV:</b></p><p><b>&nbsp;</b></p><p><b>…..</b></p><p><b>&nbsp;</b></p><p><b>This destructive war being ended, Constantine was acknowledged as emperor, with great rejoicings, by the senate and people of Rome.<span style="color: #ff0000"> And now he came to know the perfidy of Daia; for he found the letters written to Maxentius, and saw the statues and portraits of the two associates which had been set up together.</span> The senate, in reward of the valour of Constantine, decreed to him the title of Maximus (the Greatest), a title which Daia had always arrogated to himself. Daia, when he heard that Constantine was victorious and Rome freed, expressed as much sorrow as if he himself had been vanquished; but afterwards, when he heard of the decree of the senate, he grew outrageous, avowed enmity towards Constantine, and made his title of the Greatest a theme of abuse and raillery.</b>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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