Galerius, on becoming the eastern Augustus in 305, had adopted his half-sister’s son Maximinus, who had risen to high distinction after he had joined the army, and had raised him to the rank of caesar (in effect, the junior eastern Emperor), with the government of Syria and Egypt.

Galerius’ plan soon fails.

The news of Licinius’ promotion to Augustus is no sooner carried into the East, than Maximinus rejects his position as Caesar, and, notwithstanding the prayers as well as the arguments of Galerius, Maximinus, like Constantine, is declared a fili Augustorum ("son of the Augusti").

In 308, as he had in 306, Maximinus orders a general sacrifice to the pagan gods; Christian recusants are mutilated and sent to the mines and quarries.

For the first, and indeed for the last time, six emperors administer the Roman world.

And though the opposition of interest and the memory of a recent war divides the empire into two great hostile powers, their mutual fears and the fading authority of Galerius produces an apparent tranquility in the imperial government.