THE SCENE: The first foreign emperor of Rome, Maximinus Thrax, first rose to prominence when, while just a rural peasant, he impressed the emperor Severus with his enormous size and skill at wrestling.
THE TEXT: It happened that the Emperor was giving military games. When Maximinus saw this, although he was a semi-barbarian youth, he besought the Emperor in his native tongue to give him permission to wrestle with the trained soldiers for the prizes offered. Severus, marveling much at his great size–for his stature, it is said, was more than eight feet–bade him contend in wrestling with the camp followers, in order that no injury might befall his soldiers at the hands of this wild fellow. Thereupon Maximinus threw sixteen attendants with so great ease that he conquered them one by one without taking any rest by pausing between the bouts. So then, when he had won the prizes, it was ordered that he should be sent into the army and should take his first campaign with the cavalry.
On the third day after this, when the Emperor went out to the field, he saw [Maximinus] coursing about in barbarian fashion and bade a tribune restrain him and teach him Roman discipline. When he understood it was the Emperor who was speaking about him, he came forward and began to run ahead of him as he rode. Then the Emperor spurred on his horse to a slow trot and wheeled in many a circle hither and thither with various turns, until he was weary. And then he said to him “Are you willing to wrestle now after your running, my little Thracian?” “As much as you like, O Emperor,” he answered. So Severus leaped from his horse and ordered the freshest soldiers to wrestle with him. But he threw to the ground seven very powerful youths, even as before, taking no breathing space between the bouts. So he alone was given prizes of silver and a golden necklace by Caesar. Then he was bidden to serve in the body guard of the Emperor.
– Getica, Jordanes, 6th Century AD
