Besides these also Tarracius Bassus, afterwards prefect of the city,In 390. his brother Camenius, a certain Marcianus, and Eusaphius, all men of senatorial rank, were brought to trial on the ground that they were said to be making much of the charioteerFor the bad repute of charioteers cf. 4, 25, below; xxvi. 3, 3. Auchenius, and were his accomplices in the use of poisons; but because the evidence was even then doubtful, they were acquitted, as widespread rumour declared, through the influence of Victorinus, who was the closest friend of Maximinus.

Not even women were more immune from similar calamities. For many of high birth belonging to this sex too were charged with the disgrace of adultery or of fornication, and put to death. Conspicuous among these were Charitas and Flaviana, of whom the latter, when she was led to death, was stripped of the clothing which she wore, being allowed not even to keep sufficient covering for the secret parts of her body. But for that reason the executioner was convicted of having committed a monstrous crime, and was burned alive.

Nay more, two senators, Paphius and Cornelius, both of whom confessed to having disgraced themselves by the wicked practices of poisons, by the sentence of the same Maximinus were put to death. Even the head of the mintCalled monetae praepositus, xxii. 11, 9. perished by a like fate. But Sericus and Asbolius, mentioned above,See 1, 8. because when he urged them to name indiscriminately such accomplices as they wished, he had declared on oath that he would order no one to be punished with fire or steel, he killed with heavy blows of lead.Probably with the knout, whips of leather with balls of lead on the ends of each lash; cf. xxix. 1, 40, and Zos. V. 2, σφαίραις μολιβδίναις αὐτὸν κατὰ τοῦ τένοντος ἐνεκελεύετο παίεσθαι. Cf. also note 1 on page 340. And after this he consigned the soothsayer Campensis to the flames, being bound in his case by no oath.

It is, I think, fitting now to set forth the cause which drove Aginatius headlong to death, a man of noble descent from his early ancestors, as persistent report declared; for as to this there is no trustworthy documentary evidence.

Maximinus, breathing blasts of arrogance, while he was still prefect of the grain supply, and finding no slight incentives to his audacity, went so far as to insult Probus,Cf. xxxvii. 11, 1. the most distinguished man among all the highest officials, and governing several provinces with the rank of praetorian prefect.

Aginatius, filled with indignation at this, and resentful because Maximinus, in conducting examinations, was preferred to him by Olybrius, although he himself was vice-prefect of Rome, secretly informed Probus in a confidential communicationI.e., by letter, see § 33. that the worthless man, one who quarrelled with high merits, could easily be brought low, if Probus decided that it should be done.

This letter Probus, as some maintained, without the knowledge of anyone except the bearer,For this meaning of baiuihs, cf. xv. 5, 10. sent to Maximinus, fearing him as a man already very highly trained in wickedness and in favour with the emperor. On reading the letter that savage man fell into such a blaze of anger, that from then on he set all devices in motion against Aginatius, after the manner of a serpent crushed by a wound from some unknown person.

There was added to this another more powerful impulse to treacherous attacks, which ruined the said Aginatius. For he accused Victorinus after his death of having sold decisionsI.e., favourable decisions, acquittals. of Maximinus during his lifetime, although he himself had received no contemptible legacies from Victorinus’ will; and with like impudence he threatened Anepsia also, Victorinus’s widow, with charges and litigious suits.

The woman, fearful of these troubles, and wishing to protect herself by the help of Maximinus, pretended that her husband in a will which he had made shortly before his death had left him 3000 pounds of silver. Maximinus then, enflamed with excessive greed—for he was not free from that vice also—demanded half of her inheritance. But by no means content even with this, which he thought too little, he devised another plan, honourable and safe (as he thought), and in order not to lose the opportunity which was offered him for profiting from rich estate, he asked for the hand of the step-daughter of Victorinus (Anepsia’s own child) for his son; and this was quickly secured with the woman’s consent.