rs were still unsettled, to begin any other disturbance, decided to
get the best of the man by cajoling and flattering him rather than by
punishment, and to bind him by oaths to loyalty toward the government.
Accordingly, since it was an old custom among all Romans that no one
should become a body-guard of one of the commanders, unless he had
previously taken the most dread oaths and given pledges of his loyalty
both toward his own commander and toward the Roman emperor, he summoned
Maximinus, and praising him for his daring, directed him to be one of
his body-guards from that time forth. And he, being overjoyed at the
extraordinary honour, and conjecturing that his project would in this
way get on more easily, took the oath, and though from that time forth
he was counted among the body-guards of Germanus, he did not hesitate to
disregard his oaths immediately and to strengthen much more than ever
his plans to achieve the tyranny.

Now the whole city was celebrating some general festival, and many of
the conspirators of Maximinus at about the time of lunch came according
to their agreement to the palace, where Germanus was entertaining his
friends at a feast, and Maximinus took his stand beside the couches with
the other body-guards. And as the drinking proceeded, someone entered
and announced to Germanus that many soldiers were standing in great
disorder before the door of the court, putting forward the charge that
the government owed them their pay for a long period. And he commanded
the most trusty of the guards secretly to keep close watch over
Maximinus, allowing him in no way to perceive what was being done. Then
the conspirators with threats and tumult proceeded on the run to the
hippodrome, and those who shared their plan with them gathered gradually
from the houses and were assembling there. And if it had so chanced that
all of them had come together, no one, I think, would have been able
easily to destroy their power; but, as it was, Germanus anticipated
this, and, before the greater part had yet arrived, he straightway sent
against them all who were well-disposed to himself and to the emperor.
And they attacked the conspirators before they expected them. And then,
since Maximinus, for whom they were waiting to begin the battle for
them, was not with them, and they did not see the crowd gathered to help
them, as they had thought it would be, but instead even beheld their
fellow-soldiers unexpectedly fighting ag