A virtuous and valiant soldier. Unlike his friend Maximus—who is overwhelmed by his hatred of the tyrannous Emperor Valentinian following his rape of Maximus' chaste and virtuous wife Lucina and her subsequent death—Aėtius is unfailingly loyal to Valentinian, stoically maintaining that a tyrant may be brought to his senses by the honest actions of his subjects. Aėtius criticizes Valentinian to his face and at first earns the Emperor's admiration and respect for his honesty. However, a forged letter circulated by Maximus makes Valentinian suspicious of Aėtius; he hires Pontius—a discontented soldier whom Aėtius had once accused of treason—to kill the loyal subject whom he has begun to see as a threat. Instead of following orders, Pontius stabs himself before Aėtius' eyes to defy his past misjudgment of him. Aėtius, awed by Pontius' heroic self-sacrifice, commits suicide in the same manner. He is avenged by the soldiers Phidias and Aretus, who murder Valentinian for his involvement in the death of Aėtius, escaping punishment by committing suicide themselves.
AFFRANIUS
A high-ranking army officer, he is the leader of the military rebellion that enables Maximus' ascent to the throne. Although Affranius is thereby instrumental in Maximus' rise, he dislikes the new Emperor from the beginning and criticizes especially his ruling that all friends and followers of Valentinian be killed. Finally, Affranius defends Eudoxa, Valentinian's widow, against the enraged army loyal to Maximus, who threaten to kill her after she has confessed to having poisoned the new Emperor.
ARDELIA
One of two old panderesses trying to arrange an affair between the chaste and virtuous Lucina and the Emperor Valentinian. She is killed in the wake of the military rebellion that enables Maximus' ascent to the throne.
ARETUS
A noble soldier, friend of Phidias and supporter of Aėtius. He avenges Aėtius' suicide by poisoning Valentinian before Maximus can use this death as a pretext to murder the Emperor and simultaneously commits suicide with a slow-working poison.
BALBUS
One of the Roman freedmen who help to prepare Valentinian's rape of Lucina, Maximus' chaste and virtuous wife. A coward, he is unable to kill Aėtius at Valentinian's behest and instead is slain by the valiant Pontius during the attempted assassination of Aėtius.
CHILAX
A Greek freedman, who helps to prepare Valentinian's rape of Lucina, Maximus' chaste and virtuous wife. A coward, he is unable to kill Aėtius at Valentinian's behest and instead is slain by the valiant Pontius during the attempted assassination of Aėtius.
CLAUDIA
One of Lucina's two bawdy waiting women. Together with Marcellina she accompanies her mistress to the court, but is separated from her. While Lucina is raped by Valentinian, Claudia and Marcellina are possibly seduced by Valentinian's panders, Balbus, Chilax, Lycinius and Proculus. Claudia announces her mistress's death to Lucina's husband Maximus.
EUDOXA
The Empress and wife of Valentinian. After his death she obligingly marries Maximus but poisons the usurper during his inauguration ceremony. Threatened with death by the enraged army loyal to Maximus, she is defended by the noble Affranius and finally made Empress.
FULVIUS
One of the senators who aid and legitimize Maximus' rise to the throne.
LUCINA
A woman of great beauty and chastity. The wife of Maximus, a Roman soldier of equal nobility, she resists the attempts on the part of the Emperor Valentinian to make her his mistress but is finally lured to the court with the aid of a ring that the Emperor won from her husband during a game of dice. Valentinian rapes her and, mortified by her disgrace, she dies after having confessed to her husband. Her death sets off Maximus' vendetta against Valentinian and everybody who stands in the way of his revenge, which leads to his usurpation of the throne and subsequent death at the hand of Eudoxa.
LUCIUS
One of the senators who aid and legitimize Maximus' ascent to the throne.
LYCIAS
A eunuch, used by the Emperor Valentinian to lure Lucina, Maximus' chaste and virtuous wife, to the court, with the aim of making her his mistress.
LYCINIUS
One of the Roman freedmen who help to prepare Valentinian's rape of Lucina, Maximus' chaste and virtuous wife. A coward, he is unable to kill Aėtius at Valentinian's behest and flees the scene of the attempted assassination of Aėtius, where Balbus and Chilax are slain by Pontius. He finally abandons the court to save his skin during the military rebellion that enables Maximus' rise to the throne.
LYCIPPUS
A court gentleman who commissions the poet Paulus to write a masque for Maximus' inauguration ceremony. The exchanges between the two men create a comic contrast to the chain-reaction of violence instigated by Maximus after the rape and death of Lucina, his chaste and virtuous wife.
MARCELLINA
One of Lucina's two bawdy waiting women. Together with Claudia she accompanies her mistress to the court but is separated from her. While Lucina is raped by Valentinian, Marcellina and Claudia are possibly seduced by Valentinian's panders Balbus, Chilax, Lycinius and Proculus.
MAXIMUS
A noble soldier and husband of the chaste and virtuous Lucina. During a game of dice he loses his ring to the Emperor Valentinian, who uses it to lure Lucina to the court, where he rapes her. She later dies from her shame and grief. Distraught by his wife's death and guilty over having been made unwitting pander to her violation, Maximus begins his vendetta against Valentinian and everybody who stands in the way of his revenge. His irrational anger alienates him from his stoic friend Aėtius, whose loyalty to the Emperor causes Maximus to plot his death. To make Valentinian suspicious of Aėtius, he circulates a forged letter about Aėtius' traitorous intentions, and the Emperor duly hires the discontented soldier Pontius to kill him. Maximus' plans to murder Valentinian, however, are preempted by Aretus and Phidias. Made Emperor after Valentinian's death, Maximus is inaugurated in a grand ceremony during which his new wife, the widowed Empress Eudoxa, poisons him.
PAULUS
A poet commissioned by Lycippus to compose a masque for Maximus' inauguration ceremony.
PHIDIAS
A soldier; friend of Aretus and supporter of Aėtius. Following the death of Aėtius, he helps to contrive the murder of Valentinian that is finally achieved by Aretus, and stabs himself to escape punishment.
PHORBA
One of two old panderesses trying to arrange an affair between Lucina and the Emperor Valentinian. She is killed during the military rebellion that enables Maximus' ascent to the throne.
PONTIUS
A valiant albeit discontented soldier falsely accused of treason by Aėtius. Hired by the increasingly suspicious Emperor Valentinian to assassinate Aėtius, Pontius first kills Valentinian's freedmen Balbus and Chilax and then stabs himself before Aėtius' eyes in order to defy the Aėtius' past misjudgment of him. Awed by this heroic self-sacrifice, Aėtius responds by committing suicide in turn.
PROCULUS
One of the Roman freedmen who help to prepare the rape of Lucina, Maximus' chaste and virtuous wife, by the Emperor Valentinian. A coward, he flees the court to save his skin during the military rebellion that enables Maximus' ascent to the throne.
SEMPRONIUS
One of the senators who aid and legitimize the ascent of Maximus to the throne.
VALENTINIAN
The tyrannous Emperor of Rome; effeminate, self-centered and of an almost infantile willfulness, he is also paranoically afraid of treason. At first impressed by Aėtius' virtuous honesty, he becomes suspicious of him when he receives a forged letter, circulated by Maximus, suggesting Aėtius' traitorous intentions, and hires the discontented soldier Pontius to kill him. Besotted with Lucina, Maximus' chaste and virtuous wife, whom he craves for her chastity and (moral and physical) health, Valentinian is able to lure her to the court with the aid of a ring won from her husband during a game of dice. Lucina resists his advances, and he ends by raping her. Although her death from shame soon afterwards sets off Maximus' vendetta against Valentinian, he is finally poisoned by Aretus, who thereby avenges Aėtius. Valentinian is succeeded briefly by Maximus and then by his widow Eudoxa.