294

CHAP.

vir.

Maximinpreparesto attackthe senateand theiremperors.

'IHE DECLINE AND FALL.

equestrian order, Maximus and Balbinus at-tempted to cut their way through the seditiousmultitude. The multitude, armed with sticksand stones, drove them back into the capitol.It is prudent to yield when the contest, what-ever may be the issue of it, must be fatal to bothparties. A boy, only thirteen years of age, thegrandson of the elder, and nephew of theyounger, Gordian, was produced to the people,invested with the ornaments and title of Caesar.The tumult was appeased by this easy conde-scension ; and the two emperors, as soon as theyhad been peaceably acknowledged in Rome ,prepared to defend Italy against the commonenemy.

Whilst in Rome and Africa revolutions suc-ceeded each other with such amazing rapidity,the mind of Maximin was agitated by the mostfurious passions. He is said to have received thenews of the rebellion of the Gordians, and of thedecree of the senate against him, not with thetemper of a man, but the rage of a wild beast;which, as it could not discharge itself on the dis-tant senate, threatened the life of his son, of hisfriends, and of all who ventured to approach hisperson. The grateful intelligence of the deathof the Gordians was quickly followed by the as-surance that the senate, laying aside all hopesof pardon or accommodation, had substituted intheir room two emperors, with whose merit hecould not be unacquainted. Revenge was theonly consolation left to Maximin, and revengecould only be obtained by arms. The strengthof the legions had been assembled by Alexander