ue the Persians; and to repel barbarian inroads on the western
frontiers. It was while he was in Thrace that a young barbarian of
gigantic stature solicited permission to contend for the prize of
wrestling. Sixteen of the stoutest Roman soldiers he successively
overthrew, and he was permitted to enlist among the troops. The next day
he attracted the notice of the emperor, and again contended successfully
with seven of the Roman champions, and received, at the hand of the
emperor, a gold collar and a place in the body-guard. He rose, step by
step, till appointed to discipline the recruits of the army of the Rhine.
He became the favorite of the army, and was saluted as imperator. Severus
fled to his tent, and was assassinated, A.D. 235.

(M1112) The savage, Maximin, who now governed the empire, ruled like a
barbarian, as he was, disdaining all culture, and hostile to all
refinements. Confiscations, exile, or death awaited the few illustrious
men who adorned the age. Only brute force was recognized as a claim to
imperial favor. The sole object of Maximin was to secure the favor of the
soldiers, barbarians like himself, whom he propitiated with exorbitant
donations, extorted by fines and confiscations, and derived from the sack
of temples. He lived in the camp, and knew nothing of the cities he ruled.

(M1113) Such outrages of course provoked rebellion, and M. Antonius
Gordianus, the proconsul of Africa, a descendant of the Gracchi and of
Trajan, distinguished for wealth and culture, was proclaimed emperor, at
the age of eighty, who associated with him, in the government, his son.
The Senate confirmed the Gordians, who fixed their court at Carthage, but
Maximin suppressed the insurrection, and proceeded to Rome to satisfy his
vengeance. The Senate, in despair, conferred the purple on two members of
their own body, Maximus, an able soldier, and Balbinus, a poet and orator.
The praetorians supported their claims, and Maximin was assassinated in his
tent, A.D. 238. But the new emperors had scarcely given promise of a wise
administration, before they in turn were assassinated by the praetorians,
and Gordian, a grandson of the first of that name, was elevated to the
imperial dignity. He, again, was soon murdered in a mutiny of the
soldiers, who elected Philip as his successor, A.D. 244. This emperor,
whose reign was marked by the celebration of the secular games with
unwonted magnificence, to commemorate the one thousand years si