Maximinus Thrax

Matthew King · 11 Jul 2008, 14:23 · from 2008-July.txt.gz

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From: automatthew at gmail.com (Matthew King)
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:23:42 -0500
Subject: (urth) Maximinus Thrax
Message-ID: <cdbc18280807110723o3748c8fy29f31582f83510c9 at mail.gmail.com>

Thrax, the name of the city to which Palaemon exiles Severian, is also
the Latin name for Thrace.  Alice Turner mentioned this in her mapping
of the geography of Urth onto Earth
(http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0001/0002.shtml).  Thrax was also
the name of a son of Ares.

Gaius Julius Verus Maximinus Thrax, a.k.a. Maximinus the Thracian,
rose from common birth to become emperor of Rome in the third century,
A.D.  Disreputable ancient historians claim him a giant, over eight
feet tall, known to eat forty pounds of meat in a day.  "[H]is thumb
was so huge that he used his wife's bracelet for a ring".  He was
intelligent and a notably good military commander.  During a war
against the Gauls, the legions mutinied, slew the reigning emperor,
and proclaimed Maximinus the new emperor.

I'm thinking of Baldanders, of course, but I don't recall anything in
BotNS that would clinch this as a connection.

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Maximini_duo*.html

Images of Maximinus Thrax
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=28983.msg188068#msg188068

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