Res Gestae

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.