ath, and on whose account also the
Romans celebrate the annual festival named from the defeat of Maximus.
This younger Maximus was married to a woman discreet in her ways and
exceedingly famous for her beauty. For this reason a desire came over
Valentinian to have her to wife. And since it was impossible, much as he
wished it, to meet her, he plotted an unholy deed and carried it to
fulfilment. For he summoned Maximus to the palace and sat down with him
to a game of draughts, and a certain sum was set as a penalty for the
loser; and the emperor won in this game, and receiving Maximus' ring as
a pledge for the agreed amount, he sent it to his house, instructing the
messenger to tell the wife of Maximus that her husband bade her come as
quickly as possible to the palace to salute the queen Eudoxia. And she,
judging by the ring that the message was from Maximus, entered her
litter and was conveyed to the emperor's court. And she was received by
those who had been assigned this service by the emperor, and led into a
certain room far removed from the women's apartments, where Valentinian
met her and forced her, much against her will. And she, after the
outrage, went to her husband's house weeping and feeling the deepest
possible grief because of her misfortune, and she cast many curses upon
Maximus as having provided the cause for what had been done. Maximus,
accordingly, became exceedingly aggrieved at that which had come to
pass, and straightway entered into a conspiracy against the emperor; but
when he saw that Aetius was exceedingly powerful, for he had recently
conquered Attila, who had invaded the Roman domain with a great army of
Massagetae and the other Scythians, the thought occurred to him that
Aetius would be in the way of his undertaking. And upon considering this
matter, it seemed to him that it was the better course to put Aetius out
of the way first, paying no heed to the fact that the whole hope of the
Romans centred in him. And since the eunuchs who were in attendance upon
the emperor were well-disposed toward him, he persuaded the emperor by
their devices that Aetius was setting on foot a revolution. And
Valentinian, judging by nothing else than the power and valour of Aetius
that the report was true, put the man to death. [Sept. 21, 454 A.D.]
Whereupon a certain Roman made himself famous by a saying which he
uttered. For when the emperor enquired of him whether he had done well
in putting Aetius to death, he