COINS OF THE ROMAN CAISER TIME. Magnus Maximus, 383-388. AR-Siliqua, 383/388, Treveri; 2,17 g. Draped bust r. with perldiadem//Roma sits v. v., head l., with globe and spear. RIC 84 b. Kl. Schrötlingsriss, wink. Scratches, excellent/excellent stamped gloss Acquired in April 1992 from the company Aufhäuser, Munich. After Magnentius, Magnus Maximus was once again able to hold a counter-emperor for several years in the west of the empire. The general stationed in Britain was proclaimed Emperor in 383 by his troops. He ruled with his son Flavius Victor before being defeated by Theodosius I in the battles of Siscia and Poetovio in 388. Magnus Maximus is particularly known for the persecution of heresy. His motivation was on the one hand to gain church support, on the other hand, but also the desire to fill up the clumsy state treasury by confiscating the property of the condemned. A prominent example was Priscillianus, who was sentenced and executed in 385 in Trier. Legally, the emperor used maleficium (a worldly crime of capital), not heresy (i.e., an inner-church question of faith). The indictment of maleficium had the advantage that the judiciary allowed the application of the torture, so the conviction was safe and as inevitable legal consequence led to the confiscation of the property of the convicted in favour of the fiscus. Magical accusations had previously been used by Christians for persecutions of other believers and judicial murders against their opponents, especially the Platonics (including Sopatros of Apameia and Maximos of Ephesus). What e.g. Eunapios of Sardeis bitterly laments from his Platonic point of view as the attempt to extinguish the light of wisdom was ironically applied against the Christians themselves, which was criticized, for example, by Ambrose of Milan.