for four hundred miles together, and formed a
resolution of subduing all the northern nations, as far as the ocean.
13. In these expeditions, in order to attach the soldiers more firmly
to him, he increased their pay; and in every duty of the camp he
himself took as much pains as the meanest sentinel in his army,
showing incredible courage and assiduity. In every engagement, where
the conflict was hottest, Max'imin was seen fighting in person, and
destroying all before him; for, being bred a barbarian, he considered
it his duty to combat as a common soldier, while he commanded as a
general.

14. In the mean time his cruelties had so alienated the minds of his
subjects, that secret conspiracies were secretly aimed against him.
None of them, however, succeeded, till at last his own soldiers, long
harassed by famine and fatigue, and hearing of revolts on every side,
resolved to terminate their calamities by the tyrant's death. 15. His
great strength, and his being always armed, at first deterred them
from assassinating him; but at length the soldiers, having made his
guards accomplices in their designs, set upon him while he slept at
noon in his tent, and without opposition slew both him and his son,
whom he had made his partner in the empire. 16. Thus died this most
remarkable man, after an usurpation of about three years, in the
sixty-fifth year of his age. His assiduity when in a humble station,
and his cruelty when in power, serve to evince, that there are some
men whose virtues are fitted for obscurity, as there are others
who only show themselves great when placed in an exalted station.

[Sidenote: U.C. 991. A.D. 238.]

17. The tyrant being dead, and his body thrown to dogs and birds of
prey, Pupie'nus and Balbie'nus, who had usurped the imperial purple,
continued for some time emperors, without opposition. 18. But,
differing between themselves, the praetorian soldiers, who were the
enemies of both, set upon them in their palace, at a time when their
guards were amused with seeing the Capit'oline games; and dragging
them from the palace towards the camp, slew them both, leaving their
dead bodies in the street, as a dreadful instance of unsuccessful
ambition.

[Sidenote: U.C. 991. A.D. 238.]

19. In the midst of this sedition, as the mutineers were proceeding
along, they by accident met Gor'dian, the grandson of him who was
slain in Africa: him they declared emperor on the spot. 20. This
prince was but sixteen