MASSIMINO the Thracian, ROMAN EMPEROR - Bust - Rome, Capitoline Museum.
therefore to march on Rome, but at Aquileia he was killed by his own soldiers.
Towards Christianity, also in reaction to the religious policy of his predecessor, M. showed himself hostile, issuing an edict of persecution directed against the heads of the Churches. In Rome its victims were Pope Ponziano and the priest Ippolito, who were exiled to Sardinia, where they died. In Pontus and Cappadocia the legate Sereniano, yielding to popular fury, claimed victims. At Alexandria, the friends of Origene, Ambrogio and Protocteto, were arrested. The persecution, however, was not general, and soon came to an end with the death of the tyrant.
BIBL.: Firmiliano, Epist.; CSEL, II, II, p. 816 ff.; Eusebio, Hist. eccl., VI, 28; A. Manaresi, L'Impero romano e il cristianesimo, Torino 1914, pp. 307-15; E. Hohl, in Pauly-Mosova, X, cols. 852-70; P. Allard, Storia critica delle persecuzioni, Italian trans., II, Firenze 1935, pp. 187-202. Agostino Amore