278
MOVEMENTS ON THE RHINE.
retreat; the second was quite annihilated; and the third,
which was commanded by the emperor himself, did not
accomplish its object. This account is contradicted by an
official document addressed by the emperor to the senate, in
which he ascribes to himself the most complete victory6, for
which the senate granted him the honour of a triumph.
Gibbon and Eckhel, the two most distinguished writers on
the history of the Roman empire, are of different opinions
upon this point; and I feel obliged to adopt that of Gibbon
notwithstanding my great veneration for EckheL7 The
latter looks upon it as a moral impossibility that the emperor
should have invented his report ; but the vague and pompous
phraseology of the document itself excites our suspicion, that
the emperor only intended to gloss over his defeat. Herodian,
moreover, lived so near the time of those events, and in the
things which he knows he shews so much good sense, that his
minute account cannot be set aside to make room for the
emperor’s bulletin. Alexander Severus returned to Rome in
triumph, and must have concluded a peace with the Persians,
since we find peace existing until the time of Gordian, and
Maximinus is not known to have sought laurels on the eastern
frontiers. Rome must on that occasion have lost many parts
of her eastern possessions.
At the same time the movements of the barbarians in the
north of Europe called for the emperor’s presence, and even if
Alexander had been successful against the Persians, he would
have been obliged to quit Asia, and to take the field against
the Germans. He accordingly marched from the East to the
Rhine, but after having taken up his winter quarters there, he
gave the army cause for complaint : the soldiers had to endure
great hardships, and felt, as Herodian says, that they had no good
guide. The minds of the soldiers, thus prepared for an insur-
6 Lampridius, Alexander Sever. 56.
7 Eckhel is a man of whom Germany may be proud. He occupies a very
high rank on account both of his learning, and of the extraordinary power and
soundness of his judgment. His merits have never yet been duly recognised.
His excellent work uDoctrina Kumorum Veterum ” is of the highest value.
The history of the emperors, and the critical investigations concerning chrono-
logy, although they form in reality only a subordinate part of the work, arc of
the highest excellence. His freedom from prejudice, his justice and love of
truth, are qualities of the greatest importance in an historical inquirer. There
are few men among modern scholars to whom I am so much indebted as to
Eckhel.—K.
MAXIMINUS.
279
rection, were stimulated still more by Maximinus, the first
really barbarian adventurer that was raised to the imperial
throne. Up to that time all the Eoman sovereigns had be-
longed to distinguished families, perhaps with the exception
of Maerinus, in regard to whom this can neither be asserted
nor denied. Pertinax, it is true, was not a noble by birth,
but he had been gradually raised, and, at the time when he
became emperor, was a man of high rank. Maximinus, on
the other hand, was a mere adventurer, and had risen from
the very lowest condition. He was a native of Thrace; his
mother was an Alanian woman, and his father a Goth, so at
least it was said, though perhaps merely ad invidiam aurjendamy
a thing not at all impossible with the wretched authors of the
uHistoria Augusta.8” In the reign of Septimius Severus he
had been a peasant, and had enlisted in the Roman army, where
he was distinguished among the soldiers for his gigantic stature
and herculean strength, and excited general admiration. His
courage and valour accorded with his figure, and with them he
combined all the qualities of a good subaltern officer. Septimius
Severus raised him from one post to another ; and Alexander
Severus, whose attention was drawn towards him, promoted him
to the command of a legion, the discipline of which was soon re-
stored by Maximinus. This shews that he cannot, after all, have
been an ord⅛aτy man; he must have had a true soldier’s
nature; a person who was able to make himself popular with
a demoralised army, notwithstanding his strictness and cruelty,
must have possessed some extraordinary qualities. He was the
first Roman emperor who was altogether without a literary
education ; nor did he try to obtain that culture in which he
was wanting; he did not even understand Greek;9 for the
Thracians were no longer Greeks, but Wallachians, and spoke
a sort of vulgar Latin, though in the coast towns and in the
large cities of the interior, such as Adrianople, Greek may still
have been spoken. Maximinus had attracted the attention not
only of the common soldiers, but of the court also, and that
to such a degree that Alexander Severus contemplated giving
his sister in marriage to a son of Maximinus, an amiable and
refined young man, and he hesitated only on account of the
father’s rudeness.10 Had this been done, it would undoubtedly
β J. CapitoIin. Maximin. 1, foil. Comp. Herodian, vi. 8.
9 J. Capitolin. Maximin. 9. ‘° J. Capitolin. Maximin. Jun. 3.