MAXIMOPOLIS
78
MAXIMUS
through 'riinu'c in ■.•02. Maxirnimis. a shepherd of
eiioriuous stature and strength, distinguished liiniself
in a contest, with the soldiers by su<-li Herculean
strength and bravery that the emperor enrolled him
in the Roman body-guard. Refusing to serve uniler
the worthless emperors. Macrinus and Heliogal)alus,
he withdrew from the army; but vmder the righteous
Alexander Scverus he was entrusted with the com-
mand of the newly raised Pannonian troops. These,
desiring a real warrior at their head instead of the
youthful and timid .Mi'xander, who was entirely sub-
ject to his mother.hilia Manuea, invested him with the
purple at Mainz, in March, 2:).5, at the same time pro-
claiming his son Ma.xinms co-regent. The adlierents
of the former Syrian dynasty and of the senate tried
imsuceessfully to overthrow him. Maximinus taking
the field with' great energy and persistence against the
Germans across the Rhine, regained the district of the
Agri Dirtimalrx and then waged successful war against
the Sarniatians and the Dacians on the Danube. As-
suming the names of Germanicus and Sarmaticus, he
proceeded with sentences of death and confiscation
against the patrician Romans, who disliked him as
a wild and uncultured barbarian; on the other hand
he distributed the State revenues among the sokliers
who were devoted to him. He had the bronze statues
of the gods and their treasures melted down and
coined; he plundered cities and temples, and caused
so much discontent that a rebellion broke out in
February, 238, among the peasantry in Africa. The
procurator and the octogenarian consul at Carthage
were killed.
M. Antonius Gordianus and his son of the same name, were made co-regent emperors. The Roman senate willingly recognized them, because they prom- ised, like the Antonines in former times, to govern ac- cording to its decisions; the people despising Maxi- minus, who had never once set foot in the capital of the empire, agreed with the senate. Maximinus was outlawed, and his tleath was rumoured, but he sent Capellianus, Procurator of Numidia, against the ad- herents of the Gordiani, and in the struggle, the younger Gordian lost his life whereupon the senior hanged himself in despair. Their reign had lasted Uttle more than a month. The senate now decitled to elect two emperors with equal authority, M. Clodius Pupienus Maximus who was to exercise the military power de facto, and Decimus Cslius Balbinus who was to direct the civil government in the capital. The Romans dissatisfied with this arrangement, for they had expected great advantages from the rule of the African emperors, raised to the rank of Caesar the elder Gordian's twelve year old grandson (afterwards Gor- dian III), then residing in Rome. Severe street figlit- ing occurred in Rome between the veterans of Maxi- minus and the people. Owing to scanty commissariat Maximinus could only move his troops slowly from Pannonia. Meanwhile the senate levied troops, con- structed arsenals, and by creating twenty military districts, placed Italy in a satisfactory defensive posi- tion. When Maximinus arrived in Upper Italy, he could not at once cross the Isonzo on account of the floods and his attacks on the stronghold of Aquileia were repulsed. Under the foolish impression that his officers were the cause of his misfortunes, he had several of them executed, thereby arousing discontent among the soldiers, especially in the Second Parthian Legion whose wives and children were in the power of the Roman Senate at Albano. A mutiny suddenly occurring, Maximin and his son were murdered. Pupienus, who hastened thither from Ravenna, re- warded the tr()o[)s liberally and administered to them the oath of fidelity on behalf of the three senator em- perors resident in Rome.
MoMMSF.N, Riimische Geschichte, V (Berlin, 1885); Schiller Gesch. d. T&m. Kaiserzeit, vol. I, pt. II (Gotha, 1883); Doma- BZEWSKI, Gesch. tier rum. Kaiserzeit. II (LcipziK. 1909).
Kaul Hoebeh.
Maximopolis, :i titular see of .Arabia, suffragan of
Rostra. The true name of the city is Maximianopolis,
and it so appears in the "Notilia episcupatumn" of
the Patriarch .Vnastasius in the sixth century ("Echos
d'Orient", X, Paris, 1907, 145). Pursuant to a decree
of the Propaganda (1SS5), the title is to be suppressed
in future; Torquato Armellini having confounded
this town with Maximianopolis in Palestina Secunda
("Catalogodci vescovati titolari". Home, ISSl, a])pen-
dix8). Its last titular was consecrated in ISTti. Two
ancient bishops of this sei- a re known : Severus, a signa-
tory of the Council of Chalcedon in 451 (Mansi, "Coll.
Cone", VII, 168), and Peter, known by an inscription
(Waddington, " Inscriptions grecques et latines de
Greceet rAsie-Mineure",no.2;3(U). The name which
preceded that of Maximianopolis is not known, and we
are equally ignorant of its actual ident i Real ion, though
many authorities place it at Shcikli-Miskin, a locality
in the Hauran, famous for the extent .and beauty of its
ruins, where an inscription has been foimd liearing the
name of Bishop Thomas ("Bulletin de corres]). hcUe-
nique," Paris, 1897, 52). S. V.vilhio.
Maximus of Constantinople, S.mnt, known as the Theoi.ocian and as Maximij.s CoNFES.son, b. at Con- stantinople about 580; d. in exile l:! .\ugust, 662. He is one of the chief names in the Monc >t liclitc controversy, one of the chief doctors of the thcoli)f;y of t he Incarna- tion and of ascetic mysticism, and remarkable as a wit- ness to the respect for the papacy held by the Greek Church in his day. This great man was of a noble family of Constantinople. He became first secretary to the Emperor Heraclius, who prized him much; but he quitted the world and gave himself up to contem- plation in a monastery at Chrysopolis, opposite Con- stantinople. He became abbot there; but seems to have left this retreat on account of its in.security from hostile attacks. He speaks of the Palestinian ascetic, St. Sophronius, afterwards Patriarch of Jerusalem, as his master, father, and teacher (Ep. 13), so that he probably passed some time with him, and he was with him in Africa with other monks during the prepara- tions which issued in the "watery union" by which Cyrus the Patriarch reconciled a number of Monophy- siles to the Church by rejecting the doctrine of " two operations" in Christ (see Monotheli.sm). The first action of St. Maximus that we know of in this affair is a letter sent by him to Pyrrhus, then an al ibot at Chry- sopolis, a friend and supporter of Sergius, Patriarch of Constantinople, the patron of the Monothelite expres- sion "two operations". As the letter is said to have entailed a long voyage on the monks who carried it, St. Maximus was perhaps already in Africa when he wrote it. Pyrrhus had published a work on the Incar- nation, for which St. Maximus gives him rather ful- some praise, as an introduction to the question (which he puts with much diffidence and many excuses) what Pyrrhus means by one ivip-^eia or Ivipyni^a.. Maxi- mus is clearly anxioiis to get him to withdraw or ex- plain the mistaken expression, without exasperating him by contradiction.
The Ecthesis of Heraclius was published in 638, and Sergius and Pope Honorius both died in that year. A letter of Maximus tells us on the authority of his friends at Constantinople, that the Roman apoerisiarii who had come thither to obtain the emperor's confir- mation for the newly elected Pope Severinus, were met i>y the clergy of Constantinople with the demand that they should promise to obtain the pope's signature to the" Ecthesis, otherwise they should receive no assist- ance in the matter for which they had made so long a voyage: "Having discovered the tenor of the docu- ment, since by refusing they would have caused the first and Mother of Churches, and the city, to remain so long a time in widowhood, they replied quietly: We cannot act with authority in this matter, for we have received a commission to execute, not an order to
