442 HISTORY OF 



out of his place. Pliny also tells us of one 

 Athanatus, who walked across the stage at Rome, 

 loaded with a breast-plate weighing five hundred 

 pounds, and buskins of the same weight. But of 

 all the prodigies of strength, of whom we have 

 any accounts in Roman history, Maximin the 

 emperor is to be reckoned the foremost. What- 

 ever we are told relative to him is well attested ; 

 his character was too exalted not to be thorough- 

 ly known ; and that very strength for which he 

 was celebrated, at last procured him no less a re- 

 ward than the empire of the world. Maximin 

 was above nine feet in height, and the best pro- 

 portioned man in the whole empire. He was 

 by birth a Thracian j and, from being a simple 

 herdsman, rose, through the gradations of office, 

 until he came to be emperor of Rome. The first 

 opportunity he had of exerting his strength, was 

 in the presence of all the citizens in the theatre, 

 where he overthrew twelve of the strongest men 

 in wrestling, and outstript two of the fleetest 

 horses in running, all in one day. He could 

 draw a chariot loaden, that two strong horses 

 could not move; he could break a horse's jaw 

 with a blow of his fist, and its thigh with a kick. 

 In war, he was always foremost and invincible : 

 happy had it been for him and his subjects, if, 

 from being formidable to his enemies, he had not 

 become still more so to his subjects : he reigned, 

 for some time, with all the world his enemy ; all 

 mankind wishing him dead, yet none daring to 

 strike the blow. As if fortune had resolved, that 

 through life he should continue unconquerable, 



