In 537, during the Siege of Rome in the Gothic War, Maximus was expelled from the city along with other senators at the behest of Belisarius, who was afraid that they would collaborate with the Gothic besiegers, only to return at the end of the siege in 538. On 17 December 546, however, King Totila was able to take the "Urbs", and Maximus and other "patricii" hid in Old St. Peter's Basilica. Captured and sent to Campania, he was still there when, in 552, Narses conquered Rome; the senators were preparing to return to Rome, but the Goths who guarded them, enraged by the death of Totila, killed them all.