Maximinus thrax roman emperor augustus

The first of the "soldier-emperors," Gaius Julius Verus Maximinus spent all three years of his reign on campaign.

Although Rome's senatorial elite was eventually able to bring about the downfall of this non-aristocratic emperor, the victory was only a temporary check on the rising importance of the military in the third century.

Maximinus was born around the year 173 in a village in Thrace (roughly modern Bulgaria and the European portion of Turkey).

Little reliable evidence exists about his early life, and attempts to locate the village or scholarly claims that he was born outside of Thrace are not convincing.

Maximinus thrax roman emperor augustus

Stories circulated among contemporaries that his family were peasants and that growing up he worked as a shepherd. He was physically imposing as a young man and embarked on a career in the Roman army. His names recall those of Gaiu