Notwithstanding this general popularity of Maximi nus, he had lost the affections of his subjects, and many partial but ill-devised conspiracies were formed against him. The plot contrived by Magnus, of abandoning the emperor to the enemy, by breaking down a wooden bridge after he had crossed it, was discovered, and on this ground alone he put to death about 4000 of his troops.
In the African provinces, the spirit of discontent arose to a still higher pitch. Roused by his cruelties and inordinate exactions, they first slew his procurator, and then proclaimed a new emperor. The person on whom this choice fell was Gordian, the proconsul of Africa, who had now reached his sOth year, and whose talents and virtues were well known in the empire.— The soldiers and the people literally forced upon him this unexpected honour; and he and his son, who was then forty-six years of age, were declared emperors. Gordian lost no time in acquainting the senate with these events. He assured them of his aversion to such an office, and stated that he would retain his authority no longer than till he had freed the empire of its pre sent oppressor. The senate and the people unani mously confirmed the election of Gordian. They de clared Maximinus an enemy and a traitor. They dis placed his governors, and commanded the provinces to acknowledge Gordian.
No sooner did Maximinus hear of these transactions, than he threw himself into a fury which nothing could control. He is said to have raged like a wild animal, and to have beat his head upon the wall; but when he recovered from this fit of distraction, he harangued his army, promised them the estates of his enemies, and resolved to march to Rome to deal out slaughter and revenge among his enemies. During his progress through the provinces, he learned with joy that Cape lianus, the governor of Numidia, had continued faith ful to his cause, that he had slain the younger Gordian in battle and destroyed his arm), and that the elder Gordian had strangled himself when he heard of the death of his son.
These unlooked-for events, while they raised the hopes of the tyrant, produced the most terrible con sternation in Rome. Without the aid of Gordian, and without time to prepare effectually for their defence, the senate assembled in the temple of Jupiter, and after the most solemn deliberation, they elected Pupienus and Balbinus joint emperors.
Accustomed to the government of provinces, and the command of armies, the new emperors raised levies with the utmost expedition; and Pupienus marched at the head of them to oppose the entrance of Maxi minus. No sooner had they left the city, than two of Maximinus's soldiers who had entered the senate house were slain by two of the senators. The Prwto rian troops took offence at this event. Rome became the scene of a bloody tumult, and the city was set on fire by the soldiers.
The news of his having been deposed by the senate, threw Maximinus into the most violent rage. He hurried on his army for the purpose of revenge; but instead of finding repose, food, and supplies, in the fertile vales of Italy, he was obstructed by the strong holds of the country, into which the senate had taken the precaution of carrying every kind of sustenance.— Aquileia, which he expected to enter without opposi tion, was defended by Crispinus and Menophilis, who ordered scalding pitch and sulphur to be thrown clown upon the scaling parties, and thus forced them to aban don the assault. Dreading the cruelties of Maximinus, the old men and women were seen fighting on the ram parts; and the women are said to have cut off their hair to furnish the soldiers with bow-strings. The enraged emperor attributed the resistance of the be sieged to the incapacity of his own generals, and put many of them to death; and the discontent which this occasioned soon swelled into a mutiny, from the famine and fatigue with which the troops were ex hausted. The mutineers were at first afraid to attack a man of such gigantic strength, but having enlisted his own body guards in their cause, they slew both him and his son when they were asleep at noon in their tent; and thus freed the empire from the greatest scourge with which it had yet been afflicted. Maxi minus perished in the third year of his usurpation, and in the sixty-fifth year of his age. His body was left to be devoured by dogs and birds of prey.