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MAXIMIANVS (Galerius Valerius), the son of a peasant, was born near Sardica, in Dacia; he distinguished himself by his ability and valour under Aurelian and Probus; in the year of the Christian era, 292, he was declared Caesar, by Diocletian, who adopted him, and gave him his own daughter Valeria in marriage. A man of lofty stature and robust frame, his look, voice, and gesture inspired terror by their savage rudeness. Ignorant, arrogant, brutal, and cruel, his lust for power was equalled only by his ingratitude to his benefactors; he persecuted the Christians with unexampled barbarity; constrained Diocletian and Maximian to abdicate, and reigned in their place with the assumed dignity of Augustus, A.D. 305. This prince founded the colony of Valeria, in Illyria; defeted Narses, King of Persia, and forced him to conclude a peace favourable to the empire; declared Constantine Caesar, and Severus Augustus, A.D. 306; died in 311 of a most horrible disease, nineteen years after being nominated Caesar, and the seventh from Diocletian 's abdication. He was buried in the place of his birth, and placed in the rank of the gods by Maxentius.
The second and third brass coins of this Maximianus are common; his silver are rare, and gold rarer. On them he is styled GAL MAXIMIANVS CAES --IMP GAL VAL MAXIMIANVS P F AVG --DIVVS MAXIMIANVS SOCER (that is to say SOCER Maxentii.)