Persuaded by Diocletian in 308 to abdicate…

Wang Jun's troops advance on the Jin capital Luoyang in 308, but are repelled.

This year, after capturing additional territory, Liu Yuan moves his capital to Puzi (in modern Linfen, Shanxi) and declares himself emperor, signifying an even more complete break from Jin.

Maxentius, the son of Maximian, at first controls Italy, Spain, and Africa, but the vicar of Africa, Lucius Domitius Alexander, revolts in 308 and proclaims himself Augustus.

With so many emperors now in existence, Galerius, together with the retired emperor Diocletian and the now active Maximian, calls an imperial 'conference' at Carnuntum on the River Danube to rectify the situation and bring some order back into the imperial government in 308.

(The altar to Mithra set up by them is an important historical source.)

Here, on November 11, it is agreed that Galerius’ longtime friend and military companion Valerius Licinianus Licinius, a soldier born of Illyrian peasant stock, who had been entrusted by Galerius with the defense of the Danube while Galerius had pursued his unsuccessful invasion of Italy, will become Augustus in the West, with Constantine as his Caesar.

In the East, Galerius remains Augustus and Maximinus remains his Caesar.

Maximian is to retire, and Maxentius is declared a usurper.

For now, Licinius must content himself with ruling Pannonia.

Five self-proclaimed emperors—Constantine, Galerius, Maxentius, Licinius, and Maximinus—now rule different parts of the empire, ridden with plots and intrigues.

Galerius, on becoming the eastern Augustus in 305, had adopted his half-sister’s son Maximinus, who had risen to high distinction after he had joined the army, and had raised him to the rank of caesar (in effect, the junior eastern Emperor), with the government of Syria and Egypt.

Galerius’ plan soon fails.

The news of Licinius’ promotion to Augustus is no sooner carried into the East, than Maximinus rejects his position as Caesar, and, notwithstanding the prayers as well as the arguments of Galerius, Maximinus, like Constantine, is declared a fili Augustorum ("son of the Augusti").

In 308, as he had in 306, Maximinus orders a general sacrifice to the pagan gods; Christian recusants are mutilated and sent to the mines and quarries.

For the first, and indeed for the last time, six emperors administer the Roman world.

And though the opposition of interest and the memory of a recent war divides the empire into two great hostile powers, their mutual fears and the fading authority of Galerius produces an apparent tranquility in the imperial government.

Wang Jun moves the capital once more to Pingyang (also in modern Linfen) in 309.

By this time, Liu Cong and Wang had eventually been able to control all of southern Shanxi for Han Zhao, and they again attack Luoyang, but are again repelled.

The last years of Galerius see him relinquishing his aspirations towards being the supreme emperor of the empire, though he manages to retain the position of first among equals.

Having thus moderated his ambition, he retires to the city Felix Romuliana (near present day Gamzigrad, Serbia) built by him to honor his mother Romula, and plans to devote the few remaining years of his life to enjoyment and ordering such significant public works as discharging into the Danube the superfluous waters of Lake Pelso (now lake Balaton), and the cutting down of the immense forests that encompass it.

One 'Amr, the leader of the large Arab tribe known as Banu Lakhm, had founded the Lakhmid Kingdom centered on the southern Mesopotamian city of al-Hirah, and after his son Imru' al-Qais converted to Christianity, the whole city had gradually converted to this faith.

Imru' al-Qais, dreaming of a unified and independent Arab kingdom, has seized many cities in Arabia and defeated Shemrir al-A'asha, the king of Himyar.

He has since formed a large army and developed his kingdom as a naval power, which consists of a fleet of ships operating along the Bahraini coast.

From this position, he attacks the coastal cities of Persia, which at this time is in civil war, due to a dispute as to the succession, even raiding the birthplace of the Sassanid kings, the province of Pars (Fars).

Persian nobles, at the death of Sassanid king Hormizd II in 309, kill his eldest son, blind the second, and imprison the third (Hormizd, who afterwards escapes to the Roman Empire).

The throne is reserved for the unborn child of one of the wives of Hormizd II.

It is said that Shapur II may have been the only king in history to be crowned in utero: the crown is placed upon his mother's belly.

This child, named Shapur, is therefore born king; the government is conducted by his mother and the magnates.

Liu Yuan grows ill in 310, and he creates his second wife Lady Dan empress and his oldest son Liu He (by his first wife Empress Huyan—who appears to have died by this point, although her death is not mentioned in history) crown prince.

When he dies later this year, Liu He becomes emperor.

However, only a week later, he is overthrown and killed by Liu Cong, who now becomes emperor.

The various agrarian rebel generals who are resisting Jin rule, whether ethnically Wu Hu or Han, often choose to come under Liu Yuan's Han banner as years pass.

Chief among these are the Han general Wang Mi and the Jie general Shi Le (both of whom had declared loyalty to Han Zhao in 307), who generally only nominally submit to Liu's orders while maintaining separate power structures but who also so appear to genuinely respect and fear Liu.

As for troops under his own control, Liu largely entrusts them to his son Liu Cong the Prince of Chu and his nephew Liu Yao the Prince of Shi'an.

The four generals, while unable to hold cities, are generally able to rove throughout northern and central China unimpeded by Jin forces, defeating most Jin generals who oppose them.