May 31, 455: Emperor Petronius Maximus was stoned to death by an angry mob while fleeing Rome.


May 31, 455: Emperor Petronius Maximus was stoned to death by an angry mob while fleeing Rome. His body was then mutilated and thrown into the Tiber. 

The Romans didn't mess around! Instrumental in the murders of the Western Roman magister militum, Aëtius, and the Western Roman emperor, Valentinian III, he secured the throne the day after Valentinian's death by ensuring the backing of the senate and by bribing the palace officials. 

He strengthened his position by forcing Valentinian's widow to marry him and forcing Valentinian's daughter to marry his son. He cancelled the betrothal of his new wife's daughter to the son of the Vandal king Genseric which infuriated both his stepdaughter and Genseric, who sent a fleet to Rome. 

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. 

https://roman-empire.net/people/petronius-maximus/

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