Maximin succeeded, whose feats of strength, when he first courted the
notice of the Emperor Severus, have been described by Gibbon. He was at
that period a Thracian peasant; since then he had risen gradually to high
offices; but, according to historians, he retained his Thracian brutality
to the last. That may have been true; but one remark must be made upon
this occasion: Maximin was especially opposed to the senate; and, wherever
that was the case, no justice was done to an emperor. Why it was that
Maximin would not ask for the confirmation of his election from the
senate, has never been explained; it is said that he anticipated a
rejection. But, on the other hand, it seems probable that the senate
supposed its sanction to be despised. Nothing, apparently, but this
reciprocal reserve in making approaches to each other, was the cause of
all the bloodshed which followed. The two Gordians, who commanded in
Africa, were set up by the senate against the new emperor; and the
consternation of that body must have been great, when these champions were
immediately overthrown and killed. They did not, however, despair:
substituting the two governors of Rome, Pupienus and Balbinus, and
associating to them the younger Gordian, they resolved to make a stand;
for the severities of Maximin had by this time manifested that it was a
contest of extermination.
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