Tiberius Claudius Maximus


Tiberius Claudius Maximus was a cavalryman in the Imperial Roman army who served in the Roman legions and Auxilia under the emperors Domitian and Trajan in the period AD 85–117. He is noted for presenting Trajan with the head of Dacian king Decebalus, who had committed suicide after being surrounded by Roman cavalry at the end of Dacian Wars.

Origin

If the location of his tombstone represents his home-town, Maximus was born in Colonia Iulia Augusta Philippensis, a colony of Roman military veterans founded in 42 BC and much expanded under emperor Augustus. He was a Roman citizen at birth, as evidenced by his name and initial enlistment in a Roman legion, for which citizenship was required. It is thus possible that Maximus was a descendant of an Italian veteran settled at Philippi by Augustus. Maximus was probably born around AD 65.

Early military career

Maximus joined the army not later than AD 85. He served as an eques in the cavalry contingent of the legion VII Claudia, which was stationed at Viminacium from at least AD 66. He claims to have held three higher positions in the contingent, although it is unclear whether all of these were formal military ranks or simply roles that Maximus had performed.
  1. quaestor equitum, probably meaning treasurer of the cavalry contingent. This post is only attested in this inscription. There is an attested fisci curator in the Praetorian cavalry.
  2. singularis legati legionis : presumably a select detail, probably one of the 4 turmae in the contingent. It is unclear whether a particular turma performed this role, or whether the turmae simply took turns to guard the general. In the latter case, it was not a rank.
  3. vexillarius. This is the only one of the three positions which was certainly a military rank, a junior officer. In terms of pay, a legionary infantry vexillarius was probably a sesquiplicarius, i.e. entitled to 50% more pay than a ranker.
Maximus fought in the Dacian War of emperor Domitian. It is thus probable that he was present at the First Battle of Tapae and Second Battle of Tapae. He was decorated for bravery by Domitian.

Roman conquest of Dacia (AD 101–106)

Maximus served in the emperor Trajan's Dacian Wars. It was probably during these that Maximus was promoted by Trajan out of the legionary cavalry, whose role was limited to escort and communications, into the alae, the elite combat cavalry of the Auxilia corps. Maximus was gazetted as a duplicarius, a junior officer in the regiment Ala II Pannoniorum. This move probably resulted in a significant pay-rise for Maximus.
In AD 106, in the closing stage of the conquest of Dacia, Maximus, serving as an explorator with his unit, was involved in the pursuit of the defeated Dacian king Decebalus, by then a fugitive with only his personal bodyguard of Dacian noblemen left to him. It appears that Maximus and his men cornered Decebalus in a mountainous location. However, before Maximus could reach him, Decebalus committed suicide by cutting his own throat, an incident shown on Trajan's Column. Maximus severed Decebalus' head and presented it to the emperor Trajan at his campaign-base at Ranisstorum. As reward, Trajan decorated Maximus and promoted him to the rank of decurion, the cavalry equivalent of centurion in the infantry.

Trajan's Parthian War (AD 114–6)

Maximus later served in Trajan's Parthian War and was again decorated for valour by the emperor. Probably Maximus was already a voluntarius in this time, like he describes himself at his subsequent missio, because his contracted term of service should have expired some years before.

Retirement

Maximus was finally granted an honourable discharge in AD 116–7 by Decimus Terentius Scaurianus, one of Trajan's top generals and then commander of Roman forces in the newly established province of Mesopotamia Nova.
He died after AD 117. While still alive, he designed his own tombstone, which was found at Philippi in Greece. This bears a representation of 2 torcs that he was awarded for valour and states his claim to have captured Decebalus.

Death of Decebalus

There are two depictions of the incident that made Maximus famous, the pursuit and suicide of king Decebalus.
The bas-relief on his tombstone depicts Maximus, on horseback, bearing a sword as well as shield and two spears, approaching king Decebalus, shown wearing a Phrygian cap, the typical headgear of Dacian noblemen. Decebalus is shown lying on his back, holding a curved Dacian sword. This image seems stylised to reflect the Thracian Heros stereotype.
Another, much more detailed and less stylised, depiction of Decebalus' capture is provided by a panel on Trajan's Column. This should be viewed together with the two preceding panels, which show the sequence of events leading to Decebalus' death.

  1. In the first panel, Roman cavalry ride out in hot pursuit of Decebalus and his personal mounted bodyguard of select pileati.. Three of the Roman troopers are shown wearing mantles: in line with the stereotypes of military units as portrayed on the Column, these were probably members of the Emperor's own horseguards, the equites singulares Augusti, the cavalry arm of the Praetorian Guard, most of which had accompanied Trajan from Rome to Dacia. The rest of the troopers do not wear mantles, so their mail cuirasses and neck-kerchiefs are visible: these were presumably troopers of Maximus' own regiment, the Ala II Pannoniorum. It thus appears that the operation to capture Decebalus was entrusted to a joint task-force of elite Praetorian and Ala cavalrymen.
  2. The second panel shows the Roman cavalry catching up with and intercepting Decebalus' riders. The Roman troopers' weapons have disappeared due to stone erosion by pollution. The sequence of events shows that Decebalus' bodyguards were destroyed: note the one trampled under the Roman horses' hooves.
  3. According to the third panel, after the last of his bodyguards fell, the king escaped alone to a rocky place, where he was apparently reached by a Roman trooper who had dismounted and was leading his horse on foot, presumably because the terrain was too steep or rough to ride. This trooper may represent Maximus, given his role as scout-leader. An alternative view, supported by Speidel, is that the mounted trooper shown nearest to Decebalus was Maximus, as this figure appears replicated in Maximus' own funerary monument.
Most likely, troopers were under orders to capture Decebalus alive if possible, so that he could form the centrepiece of Trajan's forthcoming Triumph in Rome, to celebrate his Dacian victory.. In this case, it was Decebalus' head that ended up at the foot of the Steps.

As a result of these images, it has been suggested by some scholars that Decebalus was still alive when seized by the Romans. Maximus himself claimed to have "captured" Decebalus. But a passage in the Epitome of the History of Rome of Cassius Dio makes clear that he was already dead: "Decebalus, when his capital had been destroyed and his whole territory occupied, and he was himself in danger of being captured, killed himself. His head was brought to Rome".

Citations