Giants have not generally much intellect; but this young Goth had great activity and energy of mind. His courage resembled that of a ferocious wild beast. He could tire out a horse in a race. He could break the leg of a horse with a blow of his hand. He could throw successively, with apparently the greatest ease, thirty of the ablest wrestlers who could be brought against him. He demanded for his daily food forty pounds of meat and twelve quarts of wine. Extraordinary as these statements appear, they seem to be well authenticated. Such was the young barbarian, who, rollicking, leaping, and gambolling around the emperor, attracted the attention of the vast crowd of soldiers and spectators who were spread over the plain.
Soon the games were introduced on the model of the world-renowned Olympic games of Greece. They consisted of all athletic sports of leaping, wrestling, boxing. This young Goth, Maximin by name, distanced all competitors. Sixteen of the stoutest wrestlers were brought forward to contend against him. Almost without exertion, he laid them, one after another, upon their backs.
Gunpowder has equalized strength. A small man can pull a trigger as well as a large one. The bullet shot from a rifle will accomplish equal execution, let the rifle be held by a dwarf or a giant. But in those days, before the invention of gunpowder, when men fought with clubs and battle-axes, with massive swords and heavy cross-bows, agility and strength were essential to the successful warrior.
The emperor gazed upon the feats of Maximin with astonishment and admiration. The giant was an unmitigated barbarian, whose father was a Goth, and whose mother was from a still more savage tribe, called the Alani. The emperor took Maximin into his service, loaded him with honors, and rapidly promoted him from post to post in the army, until he became one of the highest generals. The Roman soldiers, accustomed to do homage to the military prowess of muscles and sinews, regarded Maximin with great veneration.
Alexander had taken with him his Christian mother. She had great influence over her son. A very sumptuous tent was provided for her, which was always pitched in the middle of the camp. This ungrateful Goth, Maximin, conspired against his benefactor. “Why,” said he, “should a Roman army be subject to an effeminate Syrian, the slave of his mother? Soldiers should be governed by soldiers; by one reared in the camp; by one who knows how to distribute among his comrades the treasures of the empire.”
By these means a mutiny was excited. The mutineers rushed upon Alexander, beat him down with their clubs, and hewed him to pieces with their battle-axes. With hideous clamor, the army proclaimed Maximin their emperor. This assassination of Alexander, and enthronement of the barbarian Goth, took place on the 19th of March, A.D. 235.
Maximin, invested with the imperial purple, was ashamed of his low origin, of his ignoble birth. He endeavored to put every one to death who knew him when he was an untamed savage. Four thousand were thus handed over to the assassin and the executioner. Conscious of his low breeding, his ignorance, and his ungainly address, he would not allow any person of cultivated mind or polished manners to appear in his presence, lest others should notice the contrast. He did not live in the gorgeous saloons of the palace, surrounded by a splendid court, where he would not be at home, and where he knew not how to behave, but remained in the camp, surrounded by soldiers who were ever ready to obey his most ferocious bidding. He avoided every thing which could bring him too broadly in contrast with metropolitan refinement.
This cruel despot was very ingenious in devising modes of torture for those whom he even suspected of being unfriendly to him. There was no form of cruel death to which he did not resort to avenge himself upon his enemies. Maximin was insatiate in his grasping for wealth. He even robbed idolatrous temples, and melted down into coin the exquisite statues of gold and silver. He hated Christianity, and ordered the churches to be burned, and the pastors and officers of the churches to be put to death. This persecution was short in its duration, but terrible while it lasted. Maximin reigned thirteen years. It seems short, as we look back upon that period through the lapse of fifteen centuries; but it must have been awful for Christians to have endured thirteen years of bloody persecution under such a monster.
There occurred several disastrous earthquakes during his reign. He attributed them to the displeasure of the gods, in consequence of the Christians forsaking the idols. Thus the fanatic fury of the mob, as well as the cruel energies of the governmental arm, were turned against the disciples of Jesus. The mob pursued all Christians with the most cruel and revolting outrages, and their vilest atrocities were sustained and encouraged by the government. Such was the persecution which raged nearly sixteen hundred years ago, and is now nearly forgotten; indeed, many are not aware that it ever existed.
Maximin was with his army on the banks of the Danube. He rewarded his soldiers abundantly with license and plunder. There was another Roman army in Africa. The soldiers there rose in revolt against Maximin. They chose Gordian, governor of the province, emperor. He was a wealthy Roman gentleman, eighty years of age. A son of his was to share with his father the cares of empire.