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Italy: Icon of Maxentius (278-312), 56th Roman emperor, from the book Icones imperatorvm romanorvm (Icons of Roman Emperors), Antwerp, c. 1645

Maxentius (278-312) was the son of former Emperor Maximian, and son-in-law to Emperor Galerius. When his father and Emperor Diocletian stepped down, Maxentius was passed over in the new tetrarchy established by Emperors Constantius and Galerius, the latter nominating Severus and Maximinus Daia as junior co-emperors. Galerius hated Maxentius and used his influence to halt his succession.

When Constantius died in 306 and his son Constantine was crowned emperor and accepted into the tetrarchy, Maxentius was publicly proclaimed emperor later in the same year by officers in Rome. Severus marched to Rome in 307 to punish Maxentius, but most of his army defected when they arrived, having served under his father Maximian for many years. Maxentius invited his father back to the capital and named him co-emperor, though this lasted less than a year before Maximian fled to the court of Constantine after a failed coup.

Maxentius ruled over his portion of the empire for roughly six years, and was mostly preoccupied with a civil war against Emperors Constantine and Licinius. He allied himself with Emperor Maximinus II to secure his power, but he eventually perished during the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 against Constantine, where he supposedly drowned in the Tiber River while attempting to retreat.