Maximinus (diplomat)

Maximinus (Greek: Μαξιμίνος) was a 5th-century East Roman official, serving as ambassador to Attila the Hun and as a senior minister at Constantinople.

In 448, Theodosius II (r. 402–450) sent him to Attila; Orestes and Edeko, the Hunnic ambassadors at Constantinople, returned with him to Pannonia.

Edeko had been bribed by the emperor's chief minister, Chrysaphius, to murder Attila, but on his arrival in Pannonia informed his master of the plot, of which Maximinus was totally ignorant.

This embassy of Maximinus is described by his secretary, Priscus, to whom is owed nearly all modern knowledge of Attila's person and private life.

Afterwards, Maximinus became one of the four principal ministers of the emperor Marcian (r. 450–457) and in later years held the supreme command in Egypt whence he made a successful campaign against the Ethiopians.