Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Maximinus Thrax 259 cm tall men

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Tall men --Italy Italy

Maximinus Thrax 259 cm Emperor of Rome, first ever recorded person with gigantism. Height however may have been exaggerated.Gaius Iulius Verus Maximinus (c. 173–238), also known as Maximinus Thrax (i.e. Maximinus the Thracian) and Maximinus I, was Roman Emperor from 235 to 238.

Maximinus is described by several ancient sources (none of which, except for Herodian's Roman History, was actually contemporary with Maximinus) as the first barbarian who wore the imperial purple and the first emperor never to set foot in Rome. He was the first of the so-called barracks emperors of the 3rd century; his rule is often considered to mark the beginning of the Crisis of the Third Century. The 3rd tall men in the world.

Rise to power

According to the notoriously unreliable Historia Augusta (Augustan History), Maximinus was born in Thrace or Moesia to a Gothic father and an Alanic mother; however, the supposed parentage is highly unlikely, as the presence of the Goths in the Danubian area is first attested after the beginning of the Crisis of the Third Century.


Sir Ronald Syme, writing that "the word 'Gothia' should have sufficed for condemnation" of the passage in the Augustan History, felt that the burden of evidence from Herodian, Syncellus and elsewhere pointed to Maximinus having been born in Moesia. Most likely he was of Thraco-Roman origin (believed so by Herodian in his writings), and the references to his "Gothic" ancestry might refer to a Thracian Getae origin (the two populations were often confused by later writers, most notably by Jordanes in his Getica), as suggested by the paragraphs describing how "he was singularly beloved by the Getae, moreover, as if he were one of themselves" and how he spoke "almost pure Thracian".


His background was, in any case, that of a provincial of low birth, and Maximinus, similarly to later Thraco-Roman Roman emperors of the 3rd-5th century (Licinius, Galerius, Aureolus, Leo the Thracian, etc.), would elevate himself, via a military career, from the condition of a common soldier in one of the Roman legions to the foremost positions of political power. He joined the army during the reign of Septimius Severus, but did not rise to a powerful position until promoted by Alexander Severus. Maximinus was in command of the recruits from Pannonia, who were angered by Alexander's payments to the Alemanni and his avoidance of war. The troops, among whom included the Legio XXII Primigenia, elected the stern Maximinus, killing young Alexander and his mother at Moguntiacum, also a site where many Christians were martyred (Mainz) in 235. The Praetorian Guard acclaimed him emperor, and their choice was grudgingly confirmed by the Senate, who were displeased to have a peasant as emperor. His son Maximus became caesar.
According to British historian Edward Gibbon:
[H]e was conscious that his mean and barbarian origin, his savage appearance, and his total ignorance of the arts and institutions of civil life, formed a very unfavourable contrast with the amiable manners of the unhappy Alexander. He remembered that, in his humbler fortune, he had often waited before the doors of the haughty nobles of Rome, and had been denied admittance by the insolence of their slaves. He recollected too the friendship of a few who had relieved his poverty, and assisted his rising hopes. But those who had spurned, and those who had protected, the Thracian, were guilty of the same crime, the knowledge of his original obscurity. For this crime many were put to death; and by the execution of several of his benefactors Maximin published, in characters of blood, the indelible history of his baseness and ingratitude.

See also
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Posted by Caitrinas