First, because the prophecies of his father were still warmCf. xxii. 12, 2; xxii. 16, 17. in his ears, a man exceedingly skilful in interpreting omens from the flight or the notes of birds, who declared he would attain to high power, but would die by the sword of the executioner; secondly, because he had got hold of a man from Sardinia who was highly skilled in calling up baneful spirits and eliciting predictions from the ghosts of the dead. This man he himself afterwards put to death, so the rumour went, in a treacherous fashion,—so long as he survived, Maximinus was more yielding and mild, for fear that he might be betrayed—finally, because while creeping through low places like a serpent under groundI.e., while holding offices of minor importance. he could not yet stir up causes for death on a larger scale.

The first opportunity to widen the sphere of his operations arose from the following affair. Chilo, a former deputy-governor, and his wife Maxima made complaint before Olybrius, at that time prefect of the city,Rome in 368. declaring that their life had been attempted by poison; and they managed that those whom they suspected should at once be seized and put in prison. The accused were an organ-builderCf. Suet., , 41, 2; 44, 1; xiv, 6, 18. Sericus, a wrestlerOr wrestling-teacher. Asbolius, and a soothsayer Campensis.

But as the affair languished because of a severe illness with which Olybrius was long affected, those who had brought the charge, impatient of delay, presented a petition, asking that the examination of the dispute should be turned over to the prefect of the grain supply; and from a desire for a speedy decision this was granted.

Thus Maximinus gained the power of doing harm and poured out the natural cruelty implanted in his hard heart, as often happens with wild beasts in the amphitheatre, when they break in pieces the back-gates and are at last set free. And while the business was being looked into in many ways, as if in a kind of preliminary practice, and some persons, whose sides had been torn into furrows, had named certain nobles as having, through their clients and other common people who were notorious as malefactors and informers, made use of men skilled in harmful practices, the hellish judge,going beyond his lastOn supra plantain see Val. Max. viii. 12, ext. 3, artifex (Apelles) qui in opere suo moneri se a sutore de crepida et ansulis passus, de crure etiam disputare incipientem, supra plantam ascendere vetuit. In the form supra crepidam, it became proverbial (Pliny, xxxv. 85). Here it means beyond the powers which had been given him. (as the saying is), in a malicious report to the emperor informed him that the offences which many men had committed at Rome could not be investigated or punished except by severer measures.Suppliciis refers both to tortures in order to exact information and executions accompanied by torture.

On hearing this, the emperor, in anger, being rather a cruel than a strict foe of vices, gave one general judicial sentence to cover cases of the kind, which he arbitrarily fused with the design of treason, and ruled that all those whom the justice of the ancient code and the edicts of deified emperors had made exempt from inquisitions by torture should, if circumstances demanded, be examined with torments.

And that with doubled power and higher rank Maximinus might patch together a greater heap of calamities, the emperor gave him a temporary appointment as acting prefect at Rome;During the illness of Olybrius.371–72 A.D. and he associated with him in the investigation of these charges which were being devised for the peril of many the secretary Leo, afterward chief-marshal of the court,Cf. xxx. 2, 10. a Pannonian and a grave-robber,Cf. tartareus, xv. 6, 1; funereus, xxix. 5, 46; bustuariusis also used of a gladiator who fought at funeral games, Cic. In ,9, 19. snorting forth cruelty from the grinning jaws of a wild beast, and no less insatiable in his thirst for human blood than Maximinus.

The persistent natural bent of Maximinus to cruel conduct was increased by the coming of a colleague of the same character and by the charm of a commission conferring lofty rank. Therefore, full of joy, he turned his steps this way and that, seeming to dance rather than walk, and seeking to imitate the Brahmins, who march (as some say) above the earth among their altars.Philostratus, , iii. 15, says that the Brahmins sometimes levitated themselves two cubits high from the ground . . . walking with the sun.

And now, as the trumpets sounded the signal for the murder of citizens and all were stupified by the horrible situation, besides many harsh and merciless acts, which because of their variety and number cannot be enumerated, the execution of Marinus, a public advocate, was conspicuous. This man was accused of having dared by forbidden arts to try to gain a certain Hispanilla as his wife, and when the truthfulness of the evidence had been perfunctorily examined, Maximinus condemned him to death.

And since I think that perchance some of my readers by careful examination may note and bring it against me as a reproach that this, and not that, happened first, or that those things which they themselves saw are passed over, I must satisfy them to this extent: that not everything which has taken place among persons of the lowest class is worth narrating; and if this were necessary to be done, even the arrays of facts to be gained from the public records themselves would not suffice, when there was such a general fever of evils, and a new and unbridled madness was mingling the highest with the lowest; for it was clearly evident that it was not a judicial trial which was to be feared, but a suspension of legal proceedings.One of Ammianus’ few word-plays; but see Blomgren, pp. 128 ff.

Then Cethegus, a senator, was accused of adultery and beheaded, Alypius, a young man of noble birth, was banished for a trifling fault, and others of lower rank were publicly put to death; and every one, seeing in their unhappy fate the picture (as it were) of his own danger, dreamt of the torturer and of fetters and lodgings of darkness.

At the same time, the case of Hymetius also, a man of distinguished character, was tried, of which we know this to have been the course of events. When he was governing Africa as proconsul he took from the storehouses grain intended for the Roman peopleEgypt and Africa supplied the Romans with grain until the division of the empire, after which Africa supplied Rome, and Egypt Constantinople. and sold it to the Carthaginians, who were by that time worn out from lack of food, and a little later, when the crops were again abundant, without any delay completely restored what he had taken.

Moreover, since ten bushels had been sold to the needy for one gold-piece, while he himself now bought thirty,For the same amount; i.e., one gold-piece. he sent the profit from the difference in price to the emperor’s treasury.I.e., to the treasury in charge of the praetorian prefect, who had general supervision of the grain-supply; see Introd., Vol. I, pp. xxxi.-xxxii. And so Valentinian, suspecting that he had sent less than he should have sent as the result of his trafficking, punished him with a fine of a part of his property.

To add to his calamity, this also had happened at that same time, which was not less fatal. The soothsayer Amantius, at that time especially notorious, was betrayed on secret evidence of having been employed by the said Hymetius, for the purpose of committing certain criminal acts, to perform a sacrifice; but when brought to trial, although he stood bent double upon the rack,Tortured until he was permanently disfigured. For sub eculeo see xxvi. 10, 13, note. he denied it with obstinate insistence.

Upon his denial, his secret papers were brought from his house and a memorandum in the handwriting of Hymetius was found, begging him that by carrying out a solemn sacrifice he should prevail upon the deity to make the emperorsValentinian and Gratian. milder towards him; and at the end of the document were read some reproaches of Valentinian as avaricious and cruel.

When the emperor learned this from the report of the judges, who gave what had been done a harsh interpretation, he issued orders that the affair should be investigated with excessive strictness. And since Frontinus, an adviserFor consiliarius = minister, cf. Suet., 55; 12, 2. He was one of the governor’s assistants, appointed to aid him in making judicial decisions, and corresponding to the members of the emperor’s consistorium; see Index II, Vol. I, s.v. consiliarius. of the said Hymetius, was charged with having drawn up the form of prayer that was made, he was mangled with rods, and having confessed his guilt, was exiled to Britain; but Amantius was later found guilty of a capital crime and executed.

After this course of events Hymetius was taken to the town of Ocriculum,Modern Otricoli. to be heard by Ampelius, prefect of the city,He was city prefect in 371 and 372. Ammianus includes the whole time of the investigation. and Maximinus, the deputy-prefect; and when it was evident that he would immediately be condemned to death, he boldly appealed to the emperor’s protection, when the opportunity was given him, and, defended under the refuge of that name, saved his life.

When the emperor was consulted368 ff. A.D. about this matter, he referred the business to the senate. And when they had weighed the case in the scales of justice and learned the truth and had exiled the accused to Boae,An island on the Dalmatian Coast. a place in Dalmatia, they could hardly bear the wrath of the emperor, who was greatly incensed on learning that a man whom he had intended to be condemned to death had been punished with a milder sentence.