MAXIMINUS of Salona. — Dominican, biographer of St. Catherine of Siena.
In 235 he led the revolt that killed Alexander Severus and was acclaimed emperor. Though remaining outside Italy to fight the Germans, Sarmatians, and Dacians, he nevertheless consolidated his power through violence. His cruelties soon alienated public opinion, and when the Gordian revolt broke out in Africa, the Senate declared him a public enemy. After suppressing the revolt, MAXIMINUS had to contend against Pupienus, Balbinus, and Gordian III, whom the Senate had set up against him. He prepared to march on Rome, but at Aquileia he was slain by his own soldiers.
Toward Christianity, partly in reaction to the religious policy of his predecessor, he showed hostility by issuing a persecution edict directed against the leaders of the Churches. In Rome the pope, Pontian, and the priest Hippolytus were among the victims, being exiled to Sardinia where they died. In Pontus and Cappadocia the legate Serenianus, abetting popular fury, made many victims. At Alexandria the friends of Origen, Ambrosius and Protocetus, were arrested. The persecution, however, was not general and soon came to an end with the tyrant’s death.