Herodian Book VII [Maximinus the Thrax] 7.1
Keywords: Maximinus the Thrax, Alexander Severus, Thracian, Thrace, tyranny, Rome, Roman, emperor, Empire, Magnus, patrician consular, Germans, Germany, German, river, Osrhoene, Osrhoenian archers, consular, Quartinus, Macedo, Osrhoenians, Greek, barbarians
Book VII 1.1
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Book VII. 1.1
In the last book I described the life and death of Alexander in a reign of fourteen years. Once Maximinus had taken over the empire, he caused a great change, exercising his power cruelly and causing widespread fear. He tried to make a complete transformation from a mild tolerant autocracy to a savage tyranny, conscious of the hatred against him for being the first man to rise from the most humble origins to such a fortunate position.
1.2 But by his birth and normal behavior he was a barbarian. Possessing the bloodthirsty temperament derived from his ancestors and his country, he devoted himself to strengthening his rule by cruel actions. He was afraid that the senate and his subjects would despise him, forgetting his present good fortune and fixing their attention on the humble circumstances of his birth. There was a scandalous story widely circulated that he was supposed to have been a shepherd in the Thracian mountains until he offered himself for service in the small, local army because of his physical size and strength. It was the hand of chance that had brought him to rule the Roman empire.
1.3 He immediately disposed of all the friends accompanying Alexander, members of his council selected by the senate; some were sent to Rome, others he removed from the administration on some excuse. He wanted to be left on his own surrounded by his army, without anybody being near him who had the advantage of being aware of their own nobility. Like a man living in a fortress untroubled by the presence of anyone to whom he would have to pay respect, he could then be free to carry out his tyrannous activities.
1.4 The entire serving staff, who had been with Alexander for many years, were dismissed from the court. Most of them were executed on suspicion of treason since Maximinus knew they mourned the loss of Alexander. The disclosure of a plot formed against him, in which many centurions and people from the senate downwards joined, encouraged him to show still more brutality and bitterness towards everyone.
1.5 A man called Magnus, a patrician consular, was accused of gathering together a group round himself and prompting some soldiers to transfer power to himself. It was alleged that his plan was to be as follows. Once Maximinus bridged the river, he was on the point of crossing to attack the Germans.
1.6 For no sooner had he gained power, than he began his military campaign. Since he had apparently been selected for his size, strength, and military experience, he wanted to confirm his reputation and the soldier's opinion of him by action, thus attempting to prove that Alexander's hesitation and timidity over military operations had been justifiably censured. As a result he never stopped training and exercising the men, even getting into arms himself and urging the troops on.
1.7 That was the position when he completed the bridge and was set to cross over against the Germans. Magnus was alleged to have influenced some soldiers, not many of them, but key men whose particular duty was to keep a vigilant watch over the bridge; the men were induced to cut the bridge after Maximinus' crossing and betray him to the barbarians by denying him his return route.
1.8 Such was the story of the plot, which may have contained some truth, or was possibly manufactured by Maximinus. It is difficult to say with accuracy, because it remains unproven. Maximinus gave no once a chance to make a defense before a court, since everyone under suspicion was suddenly seized and ruthlessly executed.
1.9 There was also trouble among the Osrhoenian archers, who bitterly regretted Alexander's death. When they found one of Alexander's consular friends called Quartinus, who had been dismissed from the army by Maximinus, they seized upon him, and even though it was against his wishes and unplanned, they set him up as their leader. He was fitted out with the fatal trappings of power, the purple and a procession of fire, and, in spite of his wishes, brought to imperial rule. While he was sleeping in his tent one night, he was suddenly and treacherously assassinated by his companion, who was supposedly one of his friends, and formerly the leader in charge of the Osrhoenians. This man, whose name aws Macedo, had been the ringleader in the mutinous seizure of Quartinus, working in co-operation with the Osrhoenians. Yet, in spite of this, and without any reason for his hostility or hatred, he murdered the man he had forcibly persuaded to become emperor. Assuming that Maximinus would be enormously grateful, he cut off Quartinus' head and took it to him.
1.11 The emperor was pleased at the action, believing, as he did, that he was rid of a personal enemy, but, though Macedo had high hopes and expectations of gaining a fine reward, Maximinus executed him on charges of being a ringleader of the mutiny, of murdering the unwilling victim of his own prompting and proving to be a false friend.
1.12 This sort of provocation embittered Maximinus' feelings, making him even harsher and more savage than he was instinctively before. He was in any case a man of such frightening appearance and colossal size that there is no obvious comparison to be drawn with any of the best-trained Greek athletes or warrior elite of the barbarians.
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