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Historical person

Magnus Maximus

335–388

Magnus Maximus was a Roman general in Britain who was proclaimed emperor in 383 and ruled parts of the western empire. His career became important in later Welsh and British legend as well as in the politics of the late Roman West.

Magnus Maximus also held the offices or ranks of Augustus, Roman emperor, Roman consul, and Roman usurper. Magnus Maximus belonged to the Theodosian dynasty and operated within Ancient Rome. Magnus Maximus was born in Hispania and died in Aquileia.

John Broughton’s The Great Conspiracy follows Valdor from service in late Roman Britain into Magnus Maximus’s campaigns and the usurper’s challenge to Gratian. Adam Lofthouse’s Wolf and the Crown approaches the same rise from Hadrian’s Wall, where Maximus’s ambition begins to threaten the loyalties of officers who have served under him, and Tribune and the Sword carries the civil war into Gaul after he has been proclaimed emperor. Gordon Doherty’s The Emperor's Shield makes Maximus the western rival whose power in 386 forces the eastern court to prepare for renewed conflict. M. J. Trow’s The Watchmen places the removal of British troops for Maximus’s continental bid for power inside the wider weakening of Roman authority in Britannia.

Periods

Periods linked to Magnus Maximus

Theodosian Civil Wars383–394 CE

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Magnus Maximus (4 series)

Legionary in Order

by Gordon Doherty 11 books 4.4(14,164)

The Legionary series follows Numerius Vitellius Pavo from slavery into the ranks and command of the XI Claudia during the late fourth-century crisis of the Roman Empire. Its main sequence begins on the Danube in 376 CE and carries Pavo through the Gothic War, the disaster at Adrianople,…

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Shadow of Rome in Order

by Adam Lofthouse 4 books 4.4(2,448)

Shadow of Rome is set in the late Roman Empire and follows soldiers, frontier commanders and barbarian recruits through Britain, Gaul, Constantinople and the imperial civil wars of the late fourth century. The series begins with the Great Conspiracy in Roman Britain and moves towards the struggles of…

All books in this series

Britannia in Order

4 books 3.9(1,971)

The Britannia novels follow four Roman soldiers and the people around them as imperial authority in Britain begins to fracture during the late fourth century. Starting with the Great Conspiracy of 367, Justinus, Paternus, Leocadius and Vitalis are drawn from frontier service into invasions, military revolt and political…

All books in this series

The Saxon Shore Trilogy in Order

by John Broughton 3 books 4.0(173)

The Saxon Shore Trilogy traces the weakening of Roman authority in Britain from the breakaway empire of Carausius to the political world remembered in Arthurian legend. Successive generations of Valdor’s family serve as soldiers and commanders while imperial rivalry, frontier warfare and the withdrawal of Roman forces transform…

All books in this series

Non Fiction

Non Fiction featuring Magnus Maximus (1 book)

Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.