15 Facts About Petronius Maximus

Petronius Maximus strengthened his position by forcing Licinia Eudoxia, Valentinian's widow, to marry him and forcing her daughter Eudocia to marry his son, cancelling her betrothal to the son of the Vandal king Genseric.

Petronius Maximus failed to obtain troops from the Visigoths and he fled as the Vandals arrived, became detached from his retinue and bodyguard in the confusion, and was killed by fellow Romans.

The reign of Petronius Maximus marked a significant period of instability and decline for the Western Roman Empire.

Petronius Maximus's earliest known office was praetor, held in about 411; around 415 he served as a tribunus et notarius, which was an entry position to the imperial bureaucracy and led to his serving as comes sacrarum largitionum between 416 and 419.

Petronius Maximus spent 4,000 gold librae on public games in 412 or 415.

Between 443 and 445 Petronius Maximus built a forum, the Forum Petronii Maximi, in Rome, on the Caelian Hill between the via Labicana and the Basilica di San Clemente.

John's account has it that Valentinian and Petronius Maximus placed a wager on a game that Petronius Maximus ended up losing.

Petronius Maximus therefore allied himself with a eunuch of Valentinian's, the primicerius sacri cubiculi Heraclius, who had long opposed the general, with the hope of exercising more power over the emperor.

Once Aetius was dead, Petronius Maximus asked Valentinian for Aetius's now-vacant position, but the Emperor refused; Moreover, Heraclius had advised the Emperor not to allow anyone to possess the power that Aetius had wielded.

Petronius Maximus chose as accomplices Optilia and Thraustila, two Scythians who had fought under the command of Aetius and who, after the death of their general, had been appointed as Valentinian's escort.

Petronius Maximus easily convinced them that Valentinian was the only one responsible for the death of Aetius, and that the two soldiers must avenge their old commander, while at the same time promising them a reward for the betrayal of the Emperor.

Petronius Maximus married him reluctantly, suspecting that he had been involved in the murder of her late husband; and indeed Maximus treated Valentinian III's assassins with considerable favour.

Petronius Maximus proceeded to cancel the betrothal of Licinia's daughter, Eudocia, to Huneric, the son of the Vandal king Geiseric, and married her to his own son.

However, in the panic, Petronius Maximus was abandoned by his bodyguard and entourage and left to fend for himself.

Petronius Maximus's body was mutilated and flung into the Tiber.