GAIUS

See also:

• JULIUS

JULIUS VERUS

See also:

• MARIMINUS [MAxnIIN], GALERIUS VALERIUS
• GAIUS JULIUS VERUS MARIMINUS

MARIMINUS  , Roman emperor from A.D . 235 to 238, was born in a village on the confines of Thrace . He was of barbarian parentage and was brought up as a shepherd . His immense stature and enormous feats of strength attracted the attention of the emperor Septimius Severus . He entered the army, and under Caracalla rose to the rank of centurion . He carefully absented himself from court during the reign of Heliogabalus, but under his successor Alexander Severus, was appointed supreme commander of the Roman armies . After the murder of Alexander in Gaul, hastened, it is said, by his instigation, Maximinus was pro-claimed emperor by the soldiers on the 19th of March 235 . The three years of his reign, which were spent wholly in the camp. were marked by great cruelty and oppression; the wide-spread discontent thus produced culminated in a revolt in Africa and the assumption of the purple by Gordian (q.v.) . Maximinus, who was in Pannonia at the time, marched against Rome, and passing over the Julian Alps descended on Aquileia; while detained before that city he and his son were murdered in their tent by a body of praetorians . Their heads were cut off and despatched to Rome, where they were burnt on the Campus Martius by the exultant crowd . Capitolinus, Maximini duo; Herodian vi . 8, vii., viii .

1–5;

Zosimus i . 13-15) .