ABSTRACT
Maximinus the Thracian is the kind of emperor who dominated the third century: a career soldier, unencumbered by any loyalty to the Senate. His reign marks the beginning of a period in which the weaknesses of the Roman Empire, which until then could to some extent be papered over, became visible. This period of crisis, during which the armies called the shots, putting forward their commanders as new emperors, lasted fifty years. It was an age of violence. With a single exception every one of the soldier emperors met a violent end. Not one of them was able to stop the decline. The Empire sank deeper and deeper into a morass of political, military, economic and financial problems.
