A Herdsman's Son on the Danube
Galerius was born in the 250s in what later became the province of Dacia Ripensis, on the Danube frontier in what is now eastern Serbia. He came from a rural family and was mocked in later life with the nickname Armentarius, the herdsman. His mother, Romula, had fled across the Danube from raiders. Lactantius describes her as a fierce worshiper of the mountain gods who offered sacrifices almost daily and resented the Christians of her village for fasting and praying instead of joining her feasts. Galerius later built a palace at his birthplace and named it Romuliana in her honor, and there he was buried.
He rose through the army, and in 293 Diocletian chose him as junior emperor, or Caesar, in the East. According to Aurelius Victor, Galerius put away his first wife to marry Diocletian's daughter Valeria and took up the frontier wars.
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