Maxentius Slaughters the People of Rome

So all people, both the common people and the magistrates, of high and low degree alike, trembled for fear of the man whose daring wickedness was such as I have described, and they were oppressed by his harsh tyranny. Yet though they submitted quietly and endured this bitter slavery, there was still no escape from the tyrant’s bloodthirsty cruelty. For once, on some trivial pretext, he handed the people over to be slaughtered by his own bodyguard, and countless multitudes of the Roman people were killed in the very middle of the city by the lances and weapons, not of Scythians or barbarians, but of their own fellow citizens. And besides this, it is impossible to count the senators whose blood was shed so that he could seize their estates, for at different times and on various invented charges great numbers of them were put to death. [a]