Diocletian and the Bagouti

After being named caesar, maximian had travelled north to gaul where he set up a capital in mines. His first major test came against a collection of peasants and soldiers called the bagouti. With roman attention focused on the interior, tribes of alamani and burgundians began raiding into the empire. Compounding this threat along the upper rhine was the new threat of frankish and saxon pirates who were based around the lower rhine. Maximian may have been a rough soldier, but a sense of honor pervaded his commitment to the empire. And this is where his lack of political savy doomed maximian.