Maximinus was a 5th-century East Roman official, serving as ambassador to Attila the Hun

Attila the Hun

Attila , more frequently referred to as Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in 453. He was leader of the Hunnic Empire, which stretched from the Ural River to the Rhine River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. During his reign he was one of the most feared...

 and as a senior minister at Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

.

Maximinus was lieutenant of Ardaburius in the Roman–Persian war in 422. In 448, Theodosius II

Theodosius II

Theodosius II , commonly surnamed Theodosius the Younger, or Theodosius the Calligrapher, was Byzantine Emperor from 408 to 450. He is mostly known for promulgating the Theodosian law code, and for the construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople...

 (r. 408–450) sent him to Attila; Orestes and Edicon, the Hunnic

Huns

The Huns were a group of nomadic people who, appearing from east of the Volga River, migrated into Europe c. AD 370 and established the vast Hunnic Empire there. Since de Guignes linked them with the Xiongnu, who had been northern neighbours of China 300 years prior to the emergence of the Huns,...

 ambassadors at Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

, returned with him to Pannonia

Pannonia

Pannonia was an ancient province of the Roman Empire bounded north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia....

. Edicon had been bribed by the emperor's chief minister, Chrysaphius

Chrysaphius

Chrysaphius was a eunuch at the Eastern Roman court, who became the chief minister of Theodosius II . Effectively the ruler of the empire during his ascendancy, he pursued a policy of appeasement towards the Huns, which cost the empire far more gold than any military campaign, while amassing a...

, to murder Attila, but on his arrival in Pannonia informed his master of the plot, of which Maximinus was totally ignorant. Attila was well aware of this, and consequently turned his resentment only against the emperor and his minister, disdaining even to punish Vigilius, who was the entire promoter of the scheme, and who was entrapped in his turn by Attila. This embassy of Maximinus is described by his secretary, Priscus

Priscus

Priscus of Panium was a late Roman diplomat, sophist and historian from Rumelifeneri living in the Roman Empire during the 5th century. He accompanied Maximinus, the ambassador of Theodosius II, to the court of Attila in 448...

, to whom is owed nearly all modern knowledge of Attila's person and private life.

Maximinus became afterwards one of the four principal ministers of the emperor Marcian

Marcian

Marcian was Byzantine Emperor from 450 to 457. Marcian's rule marked a recovery of the Eastern Empire, which the Emperor protected from external menaces and reformed economically and financially...

 (r. 450–457) and in later years held the supreme command in Egypt whence he made a successful campaign against the Ethiopians. He is invariably represented as a virtuous, firm, and highly talented man. (Priscus, p. 39, 40, 48—70 ; Socrat. Hist. Eccles., vii. 20; Priscus.)