ROME. 
283 
The Empire. 
it the age of sixteen, yet his mother Mammea, one of his 
advisers, was distinguished for her talents and virtues, and 
exerted every nerve to make the reign of her son honourable 
to himself, and useful as well as glorious for the empire. 
One of the first steps of Alexander was to reform the abuses 
of the preceding reign; to punish with severity every'magis¬ 
trate that took bribes; and to reward all those whose con¬ 
duct was marked with justice and integrity. The humanity 
of the emperor was not inferior to his justice. He put down 
the luxuries of his predecessor, and did every thing in his 
power to promote morality, and to repress those licentious 
pleasures which had debased his subjects. 
Under this beneficent sway, the Christians, who had 
suffered so many persecutions in Rome, were themselves pro¬ 
tected ; and in a dispute between the Christians and a com¬ 
pany of cooks respecting a piece of public ground, which 
the one party wished as a place of worship, while the other 
meant to employ it in the exercise of their profession, the 
emperor decided in his rescript, “ that it was better that God 
should be worshipped there in any manner, than that the 
spot should be devoted to drunkenness and debauchery.” 
The personal accomplishments of this monarch have been 
highly extolled by historians. He was not only a patron of 
literature, but he devoted his leisure hours to the study of the 
Greek and Latin historians, orators, and poets. He was 
skilled in mathematics, geometry, and music. In painting 
and sculpture he had great knowledge, and as a poet he is 
said to have had few rivals. 
In the arts of war as well as in those of peace, Alexander 
was pre-eminent. The tranquillity of the empire having 
been disturbed by the Persians, Alexander placed himself at 
the head of his army and marched into the East, A. D.234. 
He routed the Persians with great slaughter in a decisive 
battle; he took the cities of Ctesiphon and Babylon, and 
thus regained the territory which had been lost. When he 
returned to Antioch, his mother Mammea sent for the cele¬ 
brated Origen, to receive instructions from him respecting 
the principles of Christianity, and after various communi¬ 
cations with her, she sent him back with a proper guard, to 
his native city of Alexandria. The generals of Alexander 
who commanded in other provinces, were equally successful. 
Furius Celsus subdued the Mauritanians in Africa; Varius 
Macrinus obtained great successes in Germany; and Junius 
Palmatus triumphed in Armenia. 
Notwithstanding these successes, however, the empire 
was overrun by hordes from Upper Germany, and the north 
of Europe, who crossed the Rhine and the Danube in such 
swarms that they carried consternation even into the heart of 
Rome. Alexander increased his army and marched against 
them in person. He obtained various successes over the 
enemy; but the strict discipline which the state of his troops 
had rendered necessary, displeased his army, and excited a 
mutiny among the legions encamped about Moguntia, who 
had been accustomed to every kind of licence during the 
corruptions of the preceding reign. They openly declared 
that they were under the dominion of a woman without 
liberality, and a boy without spirit; and they announced 
their design of electing an emperor who needed no assistance 
on his throne. These dissentions were fomented by an old 
general Maximiuus, who held frequent communications with 
the troops. Resolved to destroy Alexander, they sent an 
executioner into his tent, who cut ofF his head, and put to 
death his mother and all his friends. As soon as the army 
heard of his fate, they punished with immediate death all 
who had been concerned in the murder, with the exception 
only of Maximinus, the principal abettor of the sedition, 
who was proclaimed emperor. His father was a Thracian 
shepherd, and he himself exercised the same humble profes¬ 
sion. Having frequently led his countrymen against the 
barbarians and robbers who infested the plains on which his 
flocks grazed, he had acquired a knowledge of irregular 
warfare, and was inflamed with a passion for military glory. 
He therefore entered the Roman army, where he soon became 
as remarkable for his courage and discipline, as he was for 
The Empire. 
his strength and gigantic stature. He was nearly eight feet 
and a half high, and his form was equally strong and sym¬ 
metrical. He was capable of drawing a load which two 
oxen could not move. He could break the thigh-bone of a 
horse by a kick, and strike out its teeth with a blow. He 
generally ate forty pounds of flesh every day, and drank six 
gallons of wine, without being exposed to the charge of 
intemperance. Maximinus first displayed his strength at the 
public games which the emperor Septimius Severus was cele¬ 
brating on the birth-day of his son Geta. The giant had 
requested permission to contend for the prizes, but Severus 
allowed him to combat only with slaves. In running he 
outstripped sixteen one after the other. He kept up with the 
emperor on horseback, and after being thus fatigued, he 
overcame seven of the most active soldiers. These feats of 
strength indueed the emperor to take him into his body 
guards. In Caracalla’s reign he was made a centurion; and 
in consequence of his good conduct and strict discipline, he 
was raised to the rank of a tribune. When Macrinus suc¬ 
ceeded to the empire. Maximinus refused to serve him, and 
retired to Thrace, where he purchased land and carried 
on some commercial pursuits. He returned to Rome on the 
accession of Heliogabalus, but the effeminacy of the em¬ 
peror soon made him quit the court. The emperor Alexander 
afterwards received him in the kindest manner, and gave 
him the command of the fourth legion, consisting of new 
raised troops, which he commanded with great honour 
against the Germans, having acquired the character of being 
the bravest and the most virtuous soldier in the Roman army. 
The ambition of power, or rather the possession of it, seems 
to have altered his nature. The base ingratitude to Alex¬ 
ander with which he marked the commencement of his new 
life, was followed by a system of tyranny and brutality 
which had scarcely been equalled even in the reigns of h:s 
most detested predecessors. 
The senate having refused to ratify his election, he deter¬ 
mined to reign without their concurrence. He put to death 
all the senators who were obnoxious to him, and resolved to 
force an unwilling obedience from every rank in the state. 
He slew the rich for the purpose of obtaining their estates. 
He persecuted the Christians; and, ashamed of the obscu¬ 
rity of his extraction, he put to death all those who were 
acquainted with him in early life. No fewer than 400 per¬ 
sons are said to have been sacrificed to the bare suspicion of 
their having conspired against his life. They were exposed 
not merely to death but to torments; and the imperial mon¬ 
ster is said to have entertained himself by killing some with 
blows; by exposing others to wild beasts; by nailing them 
on crosses, and by enclosing them in the bellies of animals 
newly slain. 
In his military capacity he now showed his early spirit, 
and his bravery and his skill remained the same. He defeated 
the Germans in several engagements, and cutting down the 
standing corn, and laying waste the country with fire and 
sword for 450 miles round, he wished to impress upon the 
Germans the punishment of rebellion. The soldiers were 
deeply attached to him, not only from the increase of pay 
which he allowed them in these expeditions, but from the 
zeal with which he partook of all the duties of a common 
soldier, being constantly found in the points of danger, and 
fighting as an individual soldier while he commanded as a 
general. 
Notwithstanding this general popularity of Maximinus, he 
had lost the affections of his subjects, and many partial but 
ill-devised conspiracies were formed against him. The plot 
contrived by Magnus, of abandoning the emperor to the 
enemy, by breaking down a wooden bridge after he had 
crossed it, was discovered, and on this ground alone he put 
to death above 4000 of his troops. 
In the African provinces, the spirit of discontent arose to 
a still higher pitch. Roused by his cruelties and inordinate 
exactions, they first slew his procurator, and then proclaimed 
a new emperor. The person on whom this choice fell was 
Gordian, the proconsul of Africa, who had now reached 
his 
