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BANDITS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE
it provides us with a very lively representation of how of a tyrannus latro
was conceived of from a senatorial point of view. Firmus, the latro improbus,
is characterised by his monstrous size and his terrifying appearance. He
was a glutton, but resolute of spirit and so something of a bluff fellow,
who thought nothing of leaning backwards, face up, supporting his weight
on his hands, having an anvil placed on his chest, and having it struck
firmly. 99
This graphic description provides the picture of a half-barbarian, uneducated
but strong. The emperor Maximinus Thrax, was, according to his
biographer, a man of the same stamp. 100 We have already touched upon him
in the case of Viriatus, as a herdsman and leader of a gang of young bandits.
101 His biographer claims that Maximinus was particularly good at his
military service, the first stage of which he spent in the cavalry, not only
because of his huge size, his outstanding bravery, his fine manly figure, his
untamed character, and his rough, arrogant and contemptuous bearing, but
also because of the sense of justice which he frequently demonstrated. 102 This
extensive catalogue of the physical and mental characteristics of a not entirely
disagreeable ‘barbarian’ or ‘semi-barbarian’ who scarcely knew his Latin 103 is
then rounded off with reports that Maximinus, thanks to his superhuman
strength, could take on sixteen sutlers or seven of the bravest soldiers at
once, 104 and that he could tolerate no person of noble birth in his presence,
in this respect ruling just like Spartacus or Athenion. 105
Given such a profusion of patently clichéd attributes, which do no more
than turn Maximinus Thrax into a stylised embodiment of ‘the Barbarian’
(albeit positively, as the noble savage), we can hardly determine the true
nature of his character. Not even the description of the circumstances in
which Maximinus spent his youth is above suspicion. His nickname of
‘Thrax’, indicating that he came from Thrace, derives in fact in the first
instance from the Historia Augusta, the author of which also claimed to know
the names and origins of his parents – his father was ostensibly a Goth called
Micca and his mother an Alan called Ababa. 106 Whatever, Maximinus, supposed
to have once been a bandit herdsman, became a latro again when the
Senate declared him a public enemy. Maximus and Balbinus were therefore
called upon to free the state from the ‘brigand’ and to command the war
against him. 107
The Epitome de Caesaribus tells us that Philip the Arab, too, had the
humblest of origins, ‘his father being a famous bandit chief’. 108 Though the
charge was levelled against the father, who was probably in his own community
a highly respected man, the target of the smear was obviously the son,
the later emperor. This allows us to establish a further principle, according
to which a ruler of this period could be branded a latro. To call someone a
bandit, or the son of a bandit, was a literary convention beloved of writers
of Late Antiquity when they wanted to disparage particular third-century
emperors as ignorant upstarts: here Philip the Arab, elsewhere Maximinus
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