The History of Christianity - John S. C. Abbott (bookstand for reading .txt) 📗

Maximin the Goth.—​Brutal Assassination of Alexander.—​Merciless Proscription.—​Revolt of the Army on the Danube.—​Rage of Maximin.—​His March upon Rome.—​Consternation in the Capital.—​Assassination of Maximin.—​Successors to the Throne.—​Popular Suffrage unavailing.—​Persecution under Decius.—​Individual Cases.—​Extent of the Roman Empire.—​Extent of the Persecution.—​Heroism of the Christians.

HE last chapter closed with the reign of Alexander Severus, in the year of our Lord 235. His mother being a Christian, her son, though still, for popularity’s sake, supporting idolatry, was induced, out of respect to his mother, to ingraft upon the errors of paganism many of the noble teachings of Christianity. His death is associated with one of the most wild and wondrous of the tales of ancient times.

Alexander Severus, or the Severe, as he was called, from his puritanic severity of morals, was returning with his army from a war expedition to the East. On the plains of Thrace he stopped to celebrate the birth of a son. In commemoration of the joyful event, there was a display of all the military pageants and gymnastic games then in vogue.

The whole army, in gorgeous display, was drawn up on a spacious plain. Thousands of the neighboring people were assembled to witness the splendors of the fête. It was a clear and beautiful morning. All eyes were riveted upon the emperor, as, followed by a magnificent retinue, he came galloping upon the field.

Suddenly there sprang from the crowd of spectators a gigantic barbarian, a Goth. With the speed of an antelope, he bounded to the side of the emperor’s horse. Apparently without the slightest exertion, or the least loss of breath, he kept pace with the fleet Arabian charger, as, with almost the swiftness of the wind, the magnificent steed careered over the plain. This brawny young savage was eight feet tall, and was as admirably proportioned as the colossal statue of the Apollo Belvedere.

Giants have not generally much intellect; but this young Goth had great activity and energy of mind. His courage resembled that of a ferocious wild beast. He could tire out a horse in a race. He could break the leg of a horse with a blow of his hand. He could throw successively, with apparently the greatest ease, thirty of the ablest wrestlers who could be brought against him. He demanded for his daily food forty pounds of meat and twelve quarts of wine. Extraordinary as these statements appear, they seem to be well authenticated. Such was the young barbarian, who, rollicking, leaping, and gambolling around the emperor, attracted the attention of the vast crowd of soldiers and spectators who were spread over the plain.

Soon the games were introduced on the model of the world-renowned Olympic games of Greece. They consisted of all athletic sports of leaping, wrestling, boxing. This young Goth, Maximin by name, distanced all competitors. Sixteen of the stoutest wrestlers were brought forward to contend against him. Almost without exertion, he laid them, one after another, upon their backs.

Gunpowder has equalized strength. A small man can pull a trigger as well as a large one. The bullet shot from a rifle will accomplish equal execution, let the rifle be held by a dwarf or a giant. But in those days, before the invention of gunpowder, when men fought with clubs and battle-axes, with massive swords and heavy cross-bows, agility and strength were essential to the successful warrior.

The emperor gazed upon the feats of Maximin with astonishment and admiration. The giant was an unmitigated barbarian, whose father was a Goth, and whose mother was from a still more savage tribe, called the Alani. The emperor took Maximin into his service, loaded him with honors, and rapidly promoted him from post to post in the army, until he became one of the highest generals. The Roman soldiers, accustomed to do homage to the military prowess of muscles and sinews, regarded Maximin with great veneration.

Alexander had taken with him his Christian mother. She had great influence over her son. A very sumptuous tent was provided for her, which was always pitched in the middle of the camp. This ungrateful Goth, Maximin, conspired against his benefactor. “Why,” said he, “should a Roman army be subject to an effeminate Syrian, the slave of his mother? Soldiers should be governed by soldiers; by one reared in the camp; by one who knows how to distribute among his comrades the treasures of the empire.”

By these means a mutiny was excited. The mutineers rushed upon Alexander, beat him down with their clubs, and hewed him to pieces with their battle-axes. With hideous clamor, the army proclaimed Maximin their emperor. This assassination of Alexander, and enthronement of the barbarian Goth, took place on the 19th of March, A.D. 235.

Maximin, invested with the imperial purple, was ashamed of his low origin, of his ignoble birth. He endeavored to put every one to death who knew him when he was an untamed savage. Four thousand were thus handed over to the assassin and the executioner. Conscious of his low breeding, his ignorance, and his ungainly address, he would not allow any person of cultivated mind or polished manners to appear in his presence, lest others should notice the contrast. He did not live in the gorgeous saloons of the palace, surrounded by a splendid court, where he would not be at home, and where he knew not how to behave, but remained in the camp, surrounded by soldiers who were ever ready to obey his most ferocious bidding. He avoided every thing which could bring him too broadly in contrast with metropolitan refinement.

This cruel despot was very ingenious in devising modes of torture for those whom he even suspected of being unfriendly to him. There was no form of cruel death to which he did not resort to avenge himself upon his enemies. Maximin was insatiate in his grasping for wealth. He even robbed idolatrous temples, and melted down into coin the exquisite statues of gold and silver. He hated Christianity, and ordered the churches to be burned, and the pastors and officers of the churches to be put to death. This persecution was short in its duration, but terrible while it lasted. Maximin reigned thirteen years. It seems short, as we look back upon that period through the lapse of fifteen centuries; but it must have been awful for Christians to have endured thirteen years of bloody persecution under such a monster.

There occurred several disastrous earthquakes during his reign. He attributed them to the displeasure of the gods, in consequence of the Christians forsaking the idols. Thus the fanatic fury of the mob, as well as the cruel energies of the governmental arm, were turned against the disciples of Jesus. The mob pursued all Christians with the most cruel and revolting outrages, and their vilest atrocities were sustained and encouraged by the government. Such was the persecution which raged nearly sixteen hundred years ago, and is now nearly forgotten; indeed, many are not aware that it ever existed.

Maximin was with his army on the banks of the Danube. He rewarded his soldiers abundantly with license and plunder. There was another Roman army in Africa. The soldiers there rose in revolt against Maximin. They chose Gordian, governor of the province, emperor. He was a wealthy Roman gentleman, eighty years of age. A son of his was to share with his father the cares of empire.

But Maximin was not to be trifled with. Raging like a wild beast, and gnashing his teeth with fury, he put his army on a rapid march for Africa. In one bloody battle the troops of Gordian were almost annihilated. The son was slain in battle: the father in despair committed suicide.

The senate in Rome, detesting Maximin, the brutal barbarian monster, had ventured to espouse the cause of Gordian. The maddened Maximin turned his march towards Rome. The powerless senate was in utter dismay. Not only confiscation and death awaited them and their families, but death in its most cruel form. The whole city was agitated with terror.

There was every reason to fear that the barbarian, with his demoniac soldiery, marching beneath the blood-red banner of plunder and slaughter, would put the inhabitants to the sword, and commit the city to the flames. It was the customary vengeance for conquerors in those days to burn every dwelling of their foes, and to put every man, woman, and child to death, excepting a few of the young and beautiful, who were reserved to groom their horses, and to fill their harems.

The senate, in terror, made desperate efforts to meet the emergency. The populace of Rome were aware of their danger. A new army was very quickly raised. Two emperors were chosen: one, a wealthy Roman noble, by the name of Balbinus, was to remain at Rome, and attend to the civil administration there; the other, Maximus, a brave and veteran soldier, was placed in command of the army, which consisted of the Pretorian Guard of sixteen thousand men, encamped just outside the walls of Rome, and such recruits as could be added to them.

Maximin, almost literally roaring with rage, was pressing forward by forced marches. Plunder, slaughter, and smouldering ruins, marked his path. He had crossed the Julian Alps. The wretched inhabitants fled before him. But at length his atrocities created a mutiny among his own soldiers. A fiendlike band rushed into his tent, pierced him through and through with their javelins, cut off his head, and, with derision and insult, paraded it on a pike through the camp.

All Rome rang with shouts of joy, and blazed with illuminations, when it was reported that the tyrant was dead. But anarchy ensued. The soldiery, composed principally of the most desperate vagabonds of the city, were not disposed to accept an emperor elected by the senate. Conscious of their power, they resolved to place one of their own favorites upon the imperial throne.

In a resistless, organized mob, they strode into the city in solid battalions, battered down the doors of the palace where the two emperors were in council, pierced them with a thousand spears, dragged their mangled bodies, by ropes tied to their heels, with hideous yells through the streets, and threw the gory remains into a ditch, to be devoured by dogs. In six months, five Roman emperors had thus perished by violence. Think how vast the change which the teachings of Jesus have introduced, refining manners, giving laws, purifying morals!

When we reflect upon such scenes, it is impossible to deny that