Chap. L.

Thus did God subdue all those who persecuted His name, so that neither root nor branch of them remained; for Licinius, as soon as he was established in sovereign authority, commanded that Valeria should be put to death. Daia, although exasperated against her, never ventured to do this, not even after his discomfiture and flight, and when he knew that his end approached. Licinius commanded that Candidianus also should be put to death. He was the son of Galerius by a concubine, and Valeria, having no children, had adopted him. On the news of the death of Daia, she came in disguise to the court of Licinius, anxious to observe what might befall Candidianus. The youth, presenting himself at Nicomedia, had an outward show of honour paid to him, and, while he suspected no harm, was killed. Hearing of this catastrophe, Valeria immediately fled. The Emperor Severus left a son, Severianus, arrived at man’s estate, who accompanied Daia in his flight from the field of battle. Licinius caused him to be condemned and executed, under the pretence that, on the death of Daia, he had intentions of assuming the imperial purple. Long before this time, Candidianus and Severianus, apprehending evil from Licinius, had chosen to remain with Daia; while Valeria favoured Licinius, and was willing to bestow on him that which she had denied to Daia, all rights accruing to her as the widow of Galerius. Licinius also put to death Maximus, the son of Daia, a boy eight years old, and a daughter of Daia, who was seven years old, and had been betrothed to Candidianus. But before their death, their mother had been thrown into the Orontes, in which river she herself had frequently commanded chaste women to be drowned. So, by the unerring and just judgment of God, all the impious received according to the deeds that they had done.  

L. Hoc modo Deus universos persecutores nominis sui debellavit, ut eorum nec stirps, nec radix ulla remaneret. Nam Licinius summa rerum potitus, in 0272B primis Valerium, quem Maximinus iratus nec post fugam 0273A quidem, cum sibi videret esse pereundum, fuerat ausus occidere; item Candidianum, quem Valeria ex concubina genitum ob sterilitatem adoptaverat, necari jussit. Mulier tamen, ut eum vixisse cognovit, mutato habitu, comitatui ejus se miscuit, ut fortunam Candidiani specularetur; qui quia Nicomediae se obtulerat, et in honore haberi videbatur, nihil tale metuens, occisus est. Et illa, exitu ejus audito, protinus fugit. Idem Severi filium Severianum, jam aetate robustum, qui fugientem Maximinum fuerat ex acie sequutus, tamquam post obitum ejus de sumenda purpura cogitasset, capitali sententiae subjectum interemit. Qui omnes Licinium jam pridem, quasi malum metuentes, cum Maximino esse maluerant, praeter Valeriam, quae volens Licinio in 0273B omnes Maximiani haereditates jure suo cedere, idem Maximino negaverat. Ipsius quoque Maximini filium, tum maximum, agentem in annis octo, et filiam septennem, quae desponsa fuerat Candidiano, extinxit. Sed prius mater eorum in Orientem praecipitata est. Ibi saepe illa castas foeminas mergi jusserat. Sic omnes impii vero et justo judicio Dei eadem quae fecerant receperunt.