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After Diocletian’s passing, Maxentius (283-312) entrenched himself as a representative of the Roman senatorial class, upset by the loss of power after Diocletian’s reforms. In the process, he became Constantine’s biggest rival in the contest for ultimate power.
Like Constantine, Maxentius was the son of a Tetrarch who hadn’t originally been contemplated as a possible successor to the throne1, either as Augustus or Caesar, and was in fact distrusted and kept away from his father as something of a hostage; when Constantine, having fled Rome to join his father in Britain in 305, leveraged his ample military experience to sway the army in his favor and secure power ahead of his younger, more reputed brothers2, Maxentius saw the light.
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