great and unheard of, through his having, after executing many private
individuals, caused a large part of the population of Rome and all that
of Alexandria to be killed, that he became hated by all the world and
began to be feared by those about him to such an extent that he was
finally killed by a centurion in the midst of his army. Whence it is to
be noted that this kind of death, which proceeds from the deliberate
action of a determined man, cannot be avoided by princes, since any one
who does not fear death himself can inflict it, but a prince need not
fear much on this account, as such actions are extremely rare. He must
only guard against committing any grave injury to any one he makes use
of, or has about him for his service, like Antoninus had done, having
caused the death with contumely of the brother of that centurion, and
also threatened him every day, although he still retained him in his
bodyguard, which was a foolish and dangerous thing to do, as the fact
proved. But let us come to Commodus, who might easily have kept the
empire, having succeeded to it by heredity, being the son of Marcus,
and it would have sufficed for him to follow in the steps of his father
to have satisfied both the people and the soldiers. But being of a
cruel and bestial disposition, in order to be able to exercise his
rapacity on the people, he sought to amuse the soldiers and render
them licentious; on the other hand, by not maintaining his dignity,
by often descending into the theatre to fight with gladiators and
committing other contemptible actions, little worthy of the imperial
dignity, he became despicable in the eyes of the soldiers, and being
hated on the one hand and despised on the other, he was conspired
against and killed. There remains to be described the character of
Maximinus. He was an extremely warlike man, and as the armies were
annoyed with the effeminacy of Alexander, which we have already spoken
of, he was after the death of the latter elected emperor. He did not
enjoy it for long, as two things made him hated and despised: the
one his base origin, as he had been a shepherd in Thrace, which was
generally known and caused great disdain on all sides; the other,
because he had at the commencement of his rule deferred going to Rome
to take possession of the Imperial seat, and had obtained a reputation
for great cruelty, having through his prefects in Rome and other parts
of the empire committed many acts of cruelty. The whole world being
thus moved by indignation for the baseness of his blood, and also by
the hatred caused by fear of his ferocity, he was conspired against
first by Africa and afterwards by the senate and all the people of Rome
and Italy. His own army also joined them, for besieging Aquileia and
finding it difficult to take, they became enraged at his cruelty, and
seeing that he had so many enemies, they feared him less and put him to
death. I will not speak of Heliogabalus, of Macrinus, or Julian, who