VII. had not he fill retained too much of his CHAP. favage origin, the Emperor might perhaps have given his own fifter in marriage to the fon of Maximin 4. of Maxi min. Instead of fecuring his fidelity, these favours Confpiracy ferved only to inflame the ambition of the Thracian peafant, who deemed his fortune inadequate to his merit, as long as he was constrained to acknowledge a fuperior. Though a ftranger to real wifdom, he was not devoid of a felfish cunning, which fhewed him that the Emperor had loft the affection of the army, and taught him to improve their difcontent to his own advantage. It is eafy for faction and calumny to fhed their poifon on the adminiftration of the best of princes, and to accufe even their virtues, by artfully confounding them with those vices to which they bear the nearest affinity. The troops liftened with pleasure to the emiffaries of Maximin. They blushed at their own ignominious patience, which, during thirteen years, had fupported the vexatious difcipline impofed by an effeminate Syrian, the timid flave of his mother and of the fenate. It was time, they cried, to caft away that useless phantom of the civil power, and to elect for their prince and general a real foldier, educated in camps, exercifed in war, who would affert the glory, and distribute among his companions the treafures of the empire. A great army was at that 4 See the original letter of Alexander Severus, Hift. Auguft. p. 149. VII. CHA P. time affembled on the banks of the Rhine, under the command of the Emperor himself, who, almost immediately after his return from the Perfian war, had been obliged to march against the barbarians of Germany. The important care of training and reviewing the new levies was intrusted to Maximin. One day, as he entered the field of exercife, the troops, either from a fudden impulfe, or a formed confpiracy, faluted him Emperor, filenced by their loud ac clamations his obftinate refufal, and haftened to A.D. 235. confummate their rebellion by the murder of March 19. Alexander Severus. Alexander Severus. Murder of The circumftances of his death are variously related. The writers, who fupposed that he died in ignorance of the ingratitude and ambition of Maximin, affirm that, after taking a frugal repaft in the fight of the army, he retired to fleep, and that, about the feventh hour of the day, a part of his own guards broke into the Imperial tent, and, with many wounds, affaffinated their virtuous and unfufpecting prince'. If we credit another, and indeed a more probable account, Maximin was invefted with the purple by a numerous detachment, at the distance of feveral miles from the head-quarters; and he trusted for fuccefs rather to the fecret wishes, than to the 5 Hift. Auguft. p. 135. I have foftened fome of the most improbable circumstances of this wretched biographer. From this illworded narration, it fhould feem that the prince's buffoon having accidentally entered the tent, and awakened the flumbering monarch, the fear of punishment urged him to perfuade the difaffected foldiers to commit the murder. VII. public declarations of the great army. Alex- c H A P. ander had fufficient time to awaken a faint fenfe of loyalty among his troops; but their reluctant profeffions of fidelity quickly vanished on the appearance of Maximin, who declared himself the friend and advocate of the military order, and was unanimously acknowledged Emperor of the Romans by the applauding legions. The fon of Mamæa, betrayed and deferted, withdrew into his tent, defirous at least to conceal his approaching fate from the infults of the multitude. He was foon followed by a tribune and fome centurions, the minifters of death; but instead of receiving with manly refolution the inevitable ftroke, his unavailing cries and entreaties difgraced the last moments of his life, and converted into contempt fome portion of the juft pity which his innocence and misfortunes muft infpire. His mother Mamæa, whose pride and avarice he loudly accufed as the cause of his ruin, perished with her fon. The most faithful of his friends were facrificed to the firft fury of the foldiers. Others were referved for the more deliberate cruelty of the ufurper: and those who experienced the mildest treatment, were stripped of their employments, and ignominiously driven from the court and army". of Maxi The former tyrants, Caligula and Nero, Com- Tyranny modus and Caracalla, were all diffolute and un- min. experienced youths', educated in the purple, 6 Herodian, l. vi. p. 223—227. 7 Caligula, the eldest of the four, was only twenty-five years of age when he ascended the throne; Caracalla was twenty-three, Commodus nineteen, and Nero no more than seventeen. VII. CHAP. and corrupted by the pride of empire, the luxury of Rome, and the perfidious voice of flattery. The cruelty of Maximin was derived from a different fource, the fear of contempt. Though he depended on the attachment of the foldiers, who loved him for virtues like their own, he was confcious that his mean and barbarian origin, his favage appearance, and his total ignorance of the arts and institutions of civil life, formed a very unfavourable contraft with the amiable manners of the unhappy Alexander. He remembered, that in his humbler fortune he had often waited before the door of the haughty nobles of Rome, and had been denied admittance by the infolence of their flaves. He recollected too the friendship of a few who had relieved his poverty, and affifted his rifing hopes. But thofe who had fpurned, and those who had protected the Thracian, were guilty of the fame crime, the knowledge of his original obfcurity. For this crime many were put to death; and by the execution of feveral of his benefactors, Maximin published, in characters of blood, the indelible history of his bafeness and ingratitude'. The dark and fanguinary foul of the tyrant, was open to every fufpicion against those among his fubjects who were the most distinguished by their birth or merit. Whenever he was alarmed It appears that he was totally ignorant of the Greek language; which, from its univerfal use in conversation and letters, was an effential part of every liberal education. 9 Hift. Auguft. p. 141. Herodian. 1. vii. p. 237. The latter of these hiftorians has been most unjustly cenfured for sparing the vices of Maximin. VII. with the found of treafon, his cruelty was un- CHA P. bounded and unrelenting. A confpiracy against his life was either discovered or imagined, and Magnus, a confular fenator, was named as the principal author of it. Without a witness, without a trial, and without an opportunity of defence, Magnus, with four thoufand of his fuppofed accomplices, were put to death. Italy and the whole empire were infefted with innumerable spies and informers. On the slightest accufation, the first of the Roman nobles, who had governed provinces, commanded armies, and been adorned with the confular and triumphal ornaments, were chained on the public carriages, and hurried away to the Emperor's prefence. Confifcation, exile, or fimple death, were esteemed uncommon inftances of his lenity. Some of the unfortunate fufferers he ordered to be fewed up in the hides of flaughtered animals, others to be expofed to wild beafts, others again to be beaten to death with clubs. During the three years of his reign, he difdained to vifit either Rome or Italy. His camp, occafionally removed from the banks of the Rhine to thofe of the Danube, was the feat of his ftern defpotifm, which trampled on every principle of law and juftice, and was fupported by the avowed power of the fword". No man of noble 10 The wife of Maximin, by infinuating wife counfels with female gentleness, sometimes brought back the tyrant to the way of truth and humanity. See Ammianus Marcellinus, 1. xiv. c. 1. where he alludes to the fact which he had more fully related under the reign of the Gordians. We may collect from the medals, that Paullina was the name of this benevolent Empress; and from the title of Diva, that she died before Maximin. (Valefius ad loc. cit. Ammian.) Spanheim de U. et P. N. tom. ii. p. 300. T 4 birth, |