Res Gestae

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 communication[*](I.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

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.

Through these and other equally lamentable crimes, which were a blot on the fair aspect of the Eternal City, this man, to be named only with groans, made his violent way over the ruins of many fortunes, passing beyond the limits afforded by the courts. For he is said to have had a cord hanging from a secluded window of his palace, the lower end of which could pick up certain seemingly incriminating charges, supported, it is true, by no evidence, but nevertheless likely to injure many innocent persons.[*](The text is very uncertain, and probably corrupt; see the crit. note. The general meaning is clear.) And sometimes he ordered Mucianus and Barbarus, his attendants, who were most skilled in deception, severally to be cast out of his house.

These two then, as if bewailing the fate by which they pretended to be overwhelmed, exaggerated the cruelty of the judge and often repeated the assertion that the accused had no other means of saving their lives than by charging men of high rank with serious crimes; for they declared that by involving such men in the same accusations with themselves they could easily secure an acquittal.

Because of this, with a ruthlessness now passing all bounds, the hands of very many were bound in fetters, and men of noble birth were seen in mourning garb and in distress. And none of them could rightly be blamed, since very often when waiting upon him with bodies bent so as almost to touch the ground, they constantly heard that brigand with the heart of a wild beast shout that no one could be found innocent without his consent.

Such words, which accomplishment quickly followed, would surely have terrified men like Numa Pompilius, and a Cato. For, in fact, the business was conducted in such a way that some people could not even contemplate the ills of others with dry eyes, a thing which often happens in the many difficult trials of life.

Nevertheless, the iron-hearted judge, often as he deviated from law and justice, was endurable in what may be called one special thing. For at times he could be prevailed upon to show mercy to some; although this, we read in the following passage in Cicero,[*](Ad Quint. Frat. i. 1, 13, 39.) is almost a vice: For, he says, when anger is implacable, there is extreme severity; but if it yields to entreaties, the greatest inconstancy: yet the latter, as a choice of evils, is to be preferred to severity.

After this, Maximinus received a successor,[*](Ursicinus; see § 44, below.) and was summoned to the emperor’s court, as Leo[*](Cf. 1, 12, above.) had been before him; and there, being promoted to the praetorian prefecture, he was no whit milder, but like the basilisk,[*](Cf. xxii. 15, 27, and Spenser, F.Q. iv. 8, 39: Like as the Basiliske, of serpents seede,From powrefull eyes close venim doth conveyInto the lookers hart, and killeth farre away.) was harmful even from a distance.

At that time, or not much earlier, the brooms with which the assembly-hall of the nobles was swept were seen to bloom, and this was an omen that some men of the most despised station would be raised to high rank in the offices of state.

Although it is high time to return to the course of the history which we have begun, yet, in order not to interfere with the connection of events, I shall linger over a few of the wrongful acts committed by the iniquity of the vice-prefects in the city, since it was according to the nod and wish of Maximinus that they were done by those same subordinates—I might say attendants.