Meantime, Maximin had broken up from Sirmium,
the capital of Pannonia, and had advanced to Aquileia,--that famous
fortress, which in every invasion of Italy was the first object of attack.
The senate had set a price upon his head; but there was every probability
that he would have triumphed, had he not disgusted his army by immoderate
severities. It was, however, but reasonable that those, who would not
support the strict but equitable discipline of the mild Alexander, should
suffer under the barbarous and capricious rigor of Maximin. That rigor was
his ruin: sunk and degraded as the senate was, and now but the shadow of a
mighty name, it was found on this occasion to have long arms when
supported by the frenzy of its opponent. Whatever might be the real
weakness of this body, the rude soldiers yet felt a blind traditionary
veneration for its sanction, when prompting them as patriots to an act
which their own multiplied provocations had but too much recommended to
their passions. A party entered the tent of Maximin, and dispatched him
with the same unpitying haste which he had shown under similar
circumstances to the gentle-minded Alexander.
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