Maximin’s Defeat and Death

What drove him to this was something like the following. He was not able to bear the greatness of the rule entrusted to him beyond his deserts. For lack of sober and kingly judgment he handled affairs in a vulgar way, and in everything his mind was lifted up without reason by boastful arrogance. And now even against his partners in the empire—who surpassed him in everything: in birth, upbringing, education, worth and understanding, and, the crown of all, in self-control and in reverence for the true God—he set out to act with brazen daring and to proclaim himself first in honor. [a] Pushing his madness to the point of reckless frenzy, he broke the treaty he had made with Licinius and started a war with no truce. Then in a short time he threw everything into confusion, stirred up every city, gathered his whole army, countless tens of thousands strong, and went out to battle against him, drawn up in line, his spirit lifted high by his hopes in demons, whom he took to be gods, and by his tens of thousands of soldiers. [b]

When he joined battle, he was left bereft of God’s oversight, and the victory was awarded, by the one and only God of all himself, to the one who held power at that time. [c] First he lost the army in which he had trusted. His bodyguards left him stripped and utterly alone and fled over to the victor. Then the wretch slipped out of the imperial dress that did not suit him as fast as he could, and in a cowardly, low-born and unmanly way slunk into the crowd. After that he ran away, hiding in the fields and villages, and, scheming for his own safety, only just escaped the hands of his enemies. So he proved by his very deeds that the divine oracles are entirely faithful and true, in which it is said: “A king is not saved by a large army, and a giant will not be saved by his great strength. A horse is a false hope for safety, and by its great power it will not be saved. [e] Look, the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those who hope in his mercy, to rescue their souls from death.” [f]

So the tyrant, covered with shame, went back to his own territory. There, first, in a mad rage, he put to death many priests and prophets of the gods he had long admired, whose oracles had fanned him into making war, as sorcerers and frauds and, above all, as the betrayers of his safety. Then he gave glory to the God of the Christians and laid down a law for their freedom in the most complete and fullest terms. At once he met a hard death, with no time of respite granted him, and ended his life. The law he sent out read as follows: [g]

“The Emperor Caesar Gaius Valerius Maximinus, Germanicus, Sarmaticus, Pious, Fortunate, Unconquered, Augustus. We believe it is clear that no one is unaware—indeed, that every person who looks back over what has happened knows and is sure in himself—that in every way we continually take thought for the good of our provincials, and wish to give them whatever best secures the advantage of all, whatever serves their common benefit and usefulness, and whatever suits the public welfare and is agreeable to the mind of each. [i] Before this, then, it became clear to us that, on the pretext of the order given by the most divine Diocletian and Maximian, our parents, that the meetings of the Christians should be abolished, many extortions and robberies had been committed by the officials; that this was going on further against our provincials, for whom we are especially anxious that proper care be taken; and that their own property was being worn away. So last year letters were sent to the governors of each province, and we laid it down that if anyone wished to follow such a custom or the same observance of religion, he should hold to his purpose without hindrance and be impeded or prevented by no one, and that all should be free to do, without any fear or suspicion, whatever each one pleased. [j] Yet even now it has not escaped us that some of the judges have misconstrued our commands, have caused our people to doubt our ordinances, and have made them slower to approach those religious rites that were pleasing to them.

So that every suspicion or doubt arising from fear may be removed in the future, we have ordered this decree to be published, so that it may be clear to all that those who wish to follow this sect and religion are permitted, by this gift of ours, to approach this religion, which each has chosen to practice by custom, just as each one wishes or as is pleasing to him. It is also granted that they may build their own houses of the Lord. [l] And so that this gift of ours may be greater still, we have seen fit to lay this down as well: if any houses and lands that rightly belonged to the Christians before this had, by the order of our parents, passed into the ownership of the treasury, or had been seized by any city—whether they have since been sold or given to anyone as a gift—we have ordered that all of them be restored to the Christians as their former lawful property, so that in this too everyone may perceive our piety and our care.”

These are the words of the tyrant, coming not quite a whole year after the decrees against the Christians that he had set up on pillars. By the very man to whom, a little before, we seemed impious and godless and the ruin of all human life, so that we were not allowed to live, I will not say in a city, but even in the countryside or the desert—by this same man decrees and laws were drawn up on behalf of the Christians. Those who shortly before were being destroyed before his eyes by fire and sword and as food for wild beasts and birds, and who endured every kind of punishment and torture and the most pitiful deaths as godless and impious men, are now acknowledged by the same man to practice a religion, and are allowed to restore their houses of the Lord; and the tyrant himself admits that they have certain rights. [m] After making such admissions, as if he had received some kindness for this very reason, he suffered, no doubt, less than he ought to have suffered. Struck by a sudden scourge from God, he met his end in the second encounter of the war.

His end did not come as it has often come to generals and commanders who play the man in war for virtue and for their friends and boldly meet a glorious death. Like the impious fighter against God he was, while his army was still drawn up in front of the field, he stayed at home in hiding and received the punishment he deserved. He was struck all at once by a scourge from God over his whole body, so that, driven by terrible pains and agonies, he fell flat on his face. He wasted away with hunger, and all his flesh was melted by an unseen fire sent from God, so that the whole look of his former shape dissolved and vanished, and nothing was left of him but dry bones, like a figure worn down to a skeleton by long years. Those who were present could only think that his body had become the tomb of his soul, buried in a body already dead and completely melted away. As the heat burned him still more fiercely from the depths of his marrow, his eyes started out and fell from their sockets, leaving him blind. Still breathing after this, he made confession to the Lord and called for death. At the very last he confessed that he suffered these things justly because of his violent outrages against Christ, and gave up his soul.