Maran (Vit. Bas. xxiv.) notes that he knows nothing about Palmatius, and supposes that by “persecutions” are meant not persecutions in the ecclesiastical sense, but severities in the exaction of tribute.  In Letter cxlvii. Basil calls Maximus “a very good man,” praise which he is not likely to have given to a persecutor.  Maximus succeeded Elias, and probably inaugurated a new régime of strict exaction.