Anicius Petronius Maximus Caesar, Consul of Rome (433, 443 CE), Praetorian Praefect of Italy (439 CE), Patrician (445 CE), and Emperor of Rome (455 CE). He seized power after the death of Valentinian III, and married Valentinian's widow Eudoxia against her will. She invited the Vandal king Gaiseric to come to her rescue. He did, looting the city of Rome. After a reign of 77 days, Maximus was torn to pieces and thrown into the Tiber river by palace slaves. He was succeeded by Avitus.

Petronius Maximus is speculated as the son of Ennodia Magna, and perhaps a descendant of Magnus Maximus. (Justin Swanström, 2010).

From the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy Medlands page on Italy Kings:

http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ITALY,%20Kings%20to%20962.htm#_Toc2...

PETRONIUS MAXIMUS ([396]-murdered 27 May 455).

Theophanes names "Maximus Maximi nepos" when recording that he murdered Emperor Valentinian[139]. A member of the Roman Anicii family[140]. Iordanes records that Maximus murdered Emperor Valentinian after invading the empire[141].

He succeeded in 455 as Emperor PETRONIUS MAXIMUS, Emperor in the West. After his accession, he forced his predecessor's widow to marry him, and her daughter Eudoxia to marry his son, triggering the invasion by Genseric King of the Vandals to whom the younger Eudoxia had been promised in marriage for his son.

He was killed by the Romans after he attempted to flee[142], although the primary sources on which this is based have not yet been identified.

m firstly ---.

• The first wife of Petronius Maximus was lured to the palace of Emperor Valentinian III who raped her[143], although the primary source on which this is based has not yet been identified.

m secondly ([Mar] 455) as her second husband, EUDOXIA, widow of Emperor VALENTINIAN III, daughter of Emperor THEODOSIUS II, Emperor in the East & his wife Eudoxia --- (422-after 462).

• After the murder of her first husband, she was forced to marry his successor, but was captured during the Vandal invasion and taken to north Africa with her two daughters[144]. Ioannes Malalas records the marriage of "Eudoxia Augusta, Valentiniani Regis vidua" and "Maximo Tyranno"[145].

Emperor Petronius Maximus & his first (unknown) wife had one child:

i) PALADIUS (-[murdered May 455]).

• The Chronicon of Bishop Idatius records that Maximus installed “filio suo ex priore coniuge Palladio” as cæsar in 455[146]. It is assumed that he was killed at the same time as his father[147].
• m ([Apr] 455) as her first husband, EUDOXIA, daughter of Emperor VALENTINIAN III, Emperor in the West & his wife Eudoxia . The Chronicon of Bishop Idatius records that Maximus arranged the marriage of “filio suo ex priore coniuge Palladio” and “Valentiniani filiam” in 455[148]. After the death of her father, his successor forced Eudoxia to marry his son, but she was captured by Genseric King of the Vandals during his attack on Rome and taken back to north Africa with her mother and sister[149]. The primary source which records her first marriage has not so far been identified. She married secondly ([455]%29 as his second wife, Huneric. The Victoris Tonnennensis Epsicopi Chronicon records that "Hugnericus" married "Valentiniani filiam" who had been abducted from Rome in captivity[150].

References:

• [139] Theophanes Vol. II, 5945/445, p. 71.
• [140] Zosso and Zingg (1995), p. 192.
• [141] Iordanes Getarum, MGH Auct. ant. V.1, p. 118.
• [142] Zosso and Zingg (1995), p. 192.
• [143] Zosso and Zingg (1995), p. 192.
• [144] Zosso and Zingg (1995), p. 192.
• [145] Ioannes Malalas XIV, p. 365.
• [146] Idatii Episcopi Chronicon, España Sagrada III, p. 369.
• [147] Zosso and Zingg (1995), p. 192.
• [148] Idatii Episcopi Chronicon, España Sagrada III, p. 369.
• [149] Zosso and Zingg (1995), p. 192.
• [150] Victoris Tonnennensis Episcopi Chronicon 464, MGH Auct. ant. XI, p. 187.

  ---

Anicius Petronius Maximus Caesar, Consul of Rome (433, 443 CE), Praetorian Praefect of Italy (439 CE), Patrician (445 CE), and Emperor of Rome (455 CE). He seized power after the death of Valentinian III, and married Valentinian's widow Eudoxia against her will. She invited the Vandal king Gaiseric to come to her rescue. He did, looting the city of Rome. After a reign of 77 days, Maximus was torn to pieces and thrown into the Tiber river by palace slaves. He was succeeded by Avitus. There has been some speculation that Petronius Maximus might have been a descendant of Magnus Maximus. (Justin Swanström, 2010).

From the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy Medlands page on Italy Kings:

http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ITALY,%20Kings%20to%20962.htm#_Toc2...

PETRONIUS MAXIMUS ([396]-murdered 27 May 455).

Theophanes names "Maximus Maximi nepos" when recording that he murdered Emperor Valentinian[139]. A member of the Roman Anicii family[140]. Iordanes records that Maximus murdered Emperor Valentinian after invading the empire[141].

He succeeded in 455 as Emperor PETRONIUS MAXIMUS, Emperor in the West. After his accession, he forced his predecessor's widow to marry him, and her daughter Eudoxia to marry his son, triggering the invasion by Genseric King of the Vandals to whom the younger Eudoxia had been promised in marriage for his son.

He was killed by the Romans after he attempted to flee[142], although the primary sources on which this is based have not yet been identified.

m firstly ---.

   The first wife of Petronius Maximus was lured to the palace of Emperor Valentinian III who raped her[143], although the primary source on which this is based has not yet been identified.

m secondly ([Mar] 455) as her second husband, EUDOXIA, widow of Emperor VALENTINIAN III, daughter of Emperor THEODOSIUS II, Emperor in the East & his wife Eudoxia --- (422-after 462).

   After the murder of her first husband, she was forced to marry his successor, but was captured during the Vandal invasion and taken to north Africa with her two daughters[144]. Ioannes Malalas records the marriage of "Eudoxia Augusta, Valentiniani Regis vidua" and "Maximo Tyranno"[145].

Emperor Petronius Maximus & his first (unknown) wife had one child:

i) PALADIUS (-[murdered May 455]).

   The Chronicon of Bishop Idatius records that Maximus installed “filio suo ex priore coniuge Palladio” as cæsar in 455[146]. It is assumed that he was killed at the same time as his father[147].

   m ([Apr] 455) as her first husband, EUDOXIA, daughter of Emperor VALENTINIAN III, Emperor in the West & his wife Eudoxia . The Chronicon of Bishop Idatius records that Maximus arranged the marriage of “filio suo ex priore coniuge Palladio” and “Valentiniani filiam” in 455[148]. After the death of her father, his successor forced Eudoxia to marry his son, but she was captured by Genseric King of the Vandals during his attack on Rome and taken back to north Africa with her mother and sister[149]. The primary source which records her first marriage has not so far been identified. She married secondly ([455]%29 as his second wife, Huneric. The Victoris Tonnennensis Epsicopi Chronicon records that "Hugnericus" married "Valentiniani filiam" who had been abducted from Rome in captivity[150].

References:

   [139] Theophanes Vol. II, 5945/445, p. 71.

   [140] Zosso and Zingg (1995), p. 192.

   [141] Iordanes Getarum, MGH Auct. ant. V.1, p. 118.

   [142] Zosso and Zingg (1995), p. 192.

   [143] Zosso and Zingg (1995), p. 192.

   [144] Zosso and Zingg (1995), p. 192.

   [145] Ioannes Malalas XIV, p. 365.

   [146] Idatii Episcopi Chronicon, España Sagrada III, p. 369.

   [147] Zosso and Zingg (1995), p. 192.

   [148] Idatii Episcopi Chronicon, España Sagrada III, p. 369.

   [149] Zosso and Zingg (1995), p. 192.

   [150] Victoris Tonnennensis Episcopi Chronicon 464, MGH Auct. ant. XI, p. 187.

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Rome was originally the capital of the Roman emperor. Later, it moved to Milan, and then Ravenna (A.D. 402-476). After the fall of Romulus Augustulus, in A.D. 476, Rome continued to have an emperor for almost another millennium, but that Roman emperor ruled from the East.

Julio-Claudians

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(ends with Vespasian) 68 - 69 Galba 69 Otho 69 Vitellius

Flavian Dynasty

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(The next cluster of emperors is not part of a specific dynasty or other common grouping, but includes 4 from the year of the 5 emperors, 193.) 177/180 - 192 Commodus 193 Pertinax 193 Didius Julianus 193 - 194 Pescennius Niger 193 - 197 Clodius Albinus

Severans

193 - 211 Septimius Severus 198/212 - 217 Caracalla 217 - 218 Macrinus 218 - 222 Elagabalus 222 - 235 Severus Alexander (More emperors without a dynastic label, although it includes the year of the 6 emperors, 238.) For more on this age of chaos, read Brian Campbell's excellent synopsis in The Romans and Their World.

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(More emperors without a dynastic label) 364-375 Valentinianus I 375 Firmus 364-378 Valens 365-366 Procopius 366 Marcellus 367-383 Gratian 375-392 Valentinianus II 378-395 Theodosius I 383-388 Magnus Maximus 384-388 Flavius Victor 392-394 Eugenius

[See: Table of Eastern and Western Emperors]

395-423 Honorius [Division of the Empire - Honorius' brother Arcadius ruled the East 395-408] 407-411 Constantine III usurper 421 Constantius III 423-425 Johannes 425-455 Valentinian III 455 Petronius Maximus 455-456 Avitus 457-461 Majorian 461-465 Libius Severus 467-472 Anthemius 468 Arvandus 470 Romanus 472 Olybrius 473-474 Glycerius 474-475 Julius Nepos 475-476 Romulus Augustulus

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Petronius Maximus

Petronius Maximus (Latin: Flavius Anicius Petronius Maximus Augustus) (c. 396-31 May 455) was Western Roman Emperor for two and a half months in 455. A wealthy senator and a prominent aristocrat, he was instrumental in the murders of the Western Roman magister militum, Flavius Aëtius, and the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III. Maximus was killed during the events culminating in the sack of Rome by the Vandals in 455.

Early career

Petronius Maximus was born in about 396. Although he was of obscure origin, it is now believed that he belonged to the Anicii family. Related to later Emperor Olybrius, Maximus was the son of Anicius Probinus, the son of Anicia Faltonia Proba and Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus, who was Prefect of Illyricum in 364, Prefect of Gaul in 366, Prefect of Italy in 368-375 and again in 383 and consul in 371, and the maternal grandson of Magnus Maximus.

Maximus achieved a remarkable career early in life. His earliest known office was praetor, held about 411; around 415 he served as a tribunus et notarius, which was an entry position to the imperial bureaucracy and led to his serving as Comes sacrarum largitionum (Count of the Sacred Largess) between 416 and 419.

From January/February 420 to August/September 421 he was praefectus urbi of Rome, an office he held again sometime before 439; as praefectus he restored the Old St. Peter's Basilica. He was also appointed praetorian prefect sometime between 421 and 439; it was either while holding this post or during his second urban prefecture that he was appointed consul for the year 433.

From August 439 to February 441 he held the praetorian prefecture of Italy, then a second consulship in 443. Between 443 (the year of his fourth prefecture and second consulship) and 445 (the year he was granted the title of Patrician) Maximus built a forum in Rome, on the Caelian Hill between via Labicana and the Basilica di San Clemente. During this year, he was briefly the most honored of all non-Imperial Romans, until the third consulate of Flavius Aëtius, generalissimo of the Western empire, the following year.

The enmity between Petronius Maximus and the powerful Patricius and magister militum of the West Aëtius clearly led to the events that gradually brought down the Western Roman Empire. Initially however, the principal beneficiary of this was Maximus, who came to the throne as a result of the murders of Aëtius in 454 and of the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III on 16 March 455.

Murder of Valentinian III and accession of Maximus

According to the historian John of Antioch, Maximus poisoned the mind of the Emperor against Aëtius, resulting in the murder of his rival at the hands of Valentinian III. John’s account has it that Valentinian and Maximus placed a wager on a game that Maximus ended up losing. As he did not have the money available, Maximus left his ring as a guarantee of his debt. Valentinian then used the ring to summon to court Lucina, the chaste and beautiful wife of Maximus, whom Valentinian had long lusted after. Lucina went to the court, believing she had been summoned by her husband, but instead found herself at dinner with Valentinian. Although initially resisting his advances, the Emperor managed to wear her down and succeeded in raping her.

Returning home and meeting Maximus, she accused him of betrayal, believing that he had handed her over to the Emperor. Although Maximus swore revenge, he was equally motivated by ambition to supplant "a detested and despicable rival," so he decided to move against Valentinian.

According to John of Antioch, Maximus was acutely aware that while Aëtius was alive he could not exact vengeance on Valentinian, so Aëtius had to be removed. He therefore allied himself with a eunuch of Valentinian's, the primicerius sacri cubiculi Heraclius, who had long opposed the general with the hope of exercising more power over the emperor. The two of them convinced Valentinian that Aëtius was planning to assassinate him and urged him to kill his magister militum during a meeting, which Valentinian did with his own hands, with the help of Heraclius, on September 21, 454.

Once Aëtius was dead, Maximus asked Valentinian to be appointed in his place, but the Emperor refused; Heraclius, in fact, had advised the Emperor not to allow anyone to possess the power that Aëtius had wielded. According to John of Antioch, Maximus was so irritated by Valentinian’s refusal to appoint him as his magister militum that he decided to have Valentinian assassinated as well. He chose as accomplices Optilia and Thraustila, two Scythians who had fought under the command of Aetius and who, after the death of their general, had been appointed as Valentinian’s escort.

Maximus easily convinced them that Valentinian was the only one responsible for the death of Aetius, and that the two soldiers must avenge their old commander, while at the same time also promising them a reward for the betrayal of the Emperor. On March 16, 455 Valentinian, who was in Rome, went to Campus Martius with some guards, accompanied by Optilia, Thraustila and their men. As soon as the Emperor dismounted to practice with the bow, Optilia came up with his men and hit him in the temple. As Valentinian turned to look at his attackers, Optilia killed him. At the same moment, Thraustila killed Heraclius. The two Scythians took the imperial diadem and robe and brought them to Maximus.

The sudden and violent death of Valentinian III left the Western Roman Empire without an obvious successor to the throne, with several candidates supported by various groups of the imperial bureaucracy and the military. In particular, the army’s support was split between three main candidates: Maximianus, the former domesticus ("bodyguard") of Aëtius, who was the son of an Egyptian merchant named Domninus who had become rich in Italy; the future emperor Majorian, who commanded the army after the death of Aetius and who had the backing of the Empress Licinia Eudoxia; and Maximus himself, who had the support of the Roman Senate and who in the end, on 17 March, defeated his rivals and secured the throne by distributing money to officials of the imperial palace.

Reign and death

After gaining control of the palace, Maximus consolidated his hold on power by immediately marrying Licinia Eudoxia, the widow of Valentinian III. She only married him reluctantly, suspecting that in fact he had been involved in the murder of her late husband; and indeed Maximus treated Valentinian III's assassins with considerable favor. The eastern court at Constantinople refused to recognize his accession, so to further secure his position, Maximus quickly appointed Avitus as Magister militum, and sent him on a mission to Toulouse to gain the support of the Visigoths. He also proceeded to cancel the betrothal of Licinia’s daughter, Eudocia, to Huneric, the son of the Vandal king Geiseric. This infuriated the Vandal king, who only needed the excuse of Licinia’s despairing appeal to the Vandal court for help to begin preparations for the invasion of Italy.

By May, within two months of Maximus gaining the throne, news reached Rome that Geiseric was sailing for Italy. As the news spread, panic gripped the city and many of its inhabitants took to flight. The Emperor, aware that Avitus had not yet returned with the expected Visigothic aid, decided that it was fruitless to mount a defense against the Vandals, so he attempted to organize his escape, urging the Senate to accompany him. However, in the panic, Petronius Maximus was completely abandoned by his bodyguard and entourage and left to fend for himself.

As Maximus rode out of the city on his own on May 31, 455, he was set upon by an angry mob, which stoned him to death. (Another account has it that he was killed by "a certain Roman soldier named Ursus") His body was mutilated and flung into the Tiber. He had reigned for only seventy-eight days. His son from his first marriage, Palladius, who had held the title of Caesar between March 17 and May 31, and who had married his stepsister Eudocia, was probably executed.

On June 2, 455, three days after Maximus’ death, Geiseric captured the city of Rome and thoroughly sacked it for two weeks. In response to the pleas of Pope Leo I, the Vandals desisted from more destructive behavior that often accompanied the sack of a city – arson, torture, and murder. Nevertheless, Geiseric eventually carried away a great amount of loot as well as the empress Licinia Eudoxia and her daughters Placidia and Eudocia. Eudocia married Huneric in 456 as had been originally intended.

Source :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petronius_Maximus