In every engagement, where
the conflict was hottest, Max'imin was seen fighting in person, and
destroying all before him; for, being bred a barbarian, he considered
it his duty to combat as a common soldier, while he commanded as a
general.
14. In the mean time his cruelties had so alienated the minds of his
subjects, that secret conspiracies were secretly aimed against him.
None of them, however, succeeded, till at last his own soldiers, long
harassed by famine and fatigue, and hearing of revolts on every side,
resolved to terminate their calamities by the tyrant's death. 15. His
great strength, and his being always armed, at first deterred them
from assassinating him; but at length the soldiers, having made his
guards accomplices in their designs, set upon him while he slept at
noon in his tent, and without opposition slew both him and his son,
whom he had made his partner in the empire. 16. Thus died this most
remarkable man, after an usurpation of about three years, in the
sixty-fifth year of his age. His assiduity when in a humble station,
and his cruelty when in power, serve to evince, that there are some
men whose virtues are fitted for obscurity, as there are others
who only show themselves great when placed in an exalted station.
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