XII. CHA P. pavilion was strictly guarded by his most trusty adherents; and during many days, Aper delivered to the army the supposed mandates of their invisible sovereign *. Death of Numerian. It was not till eight months after the death of Carus, that the Roman army, returning by slow marches from the banks of the Tigris, arrived on those of the Thracian Bosphorus. The legions halted at Chalcedon in Asia, while the court passed over to Heraclea, on the European side of the Propontis t. But a report soon circulated through the camp, at first in secret whispers, and at length in loud clamours, of the emperor's death, and of the presumption of his ambitious minister, who still exercised the sovereign power in the name of a prince who was no more. The impatience of the soldiers could not long support a state of suspense. With rude curiosity they broke into the Imperial tent, and discovered only the corpse of Numerian ‡. The gradual decline of his health might have induced them to believe that his death was natural; but the concealment was interpreted as an evidence of guilt, and the measures which Aper had taken to secure his election, became the immediate occasion In the Persian war, Aper was suspected of a design to betray Carus. Hist. August. p. 250. We are obliged to the Alexandrian Chronicle, p. 274. for the knowledge of the time and place where Diocletian was elected emperor. Hist. August. p. 251. Eutrop. ix. 88. Hieronym. in Chron. According to these judicious writers, the death of Numerian was discovered by the stench of his dead body. Could no aromatics be found in the Imperial household? XII. occasion of his ruin. Yet, even in the transport C H A P. emperor cions, Diocletian ascended the tribunal, and rais-93 212,216 ing his eyes towards the Sun, made a solemn . Brod. $40, profession of his own innocence, in the presence of that all-seeing Deity *. Then, assuming the tone of a sovereign and a judge, he commanded that Aper should be brought in chains to the foot of the tribunal. "This man," said he, "is the murderer of Numerian ;" and, without giving him time to enter on a dangerous justification, drew his sword, and buried it in the breast of the unfortunate præfect. A charge supported by such decisive proof, was admitted without contradiction, and the legions, with repeated Aurel. Victor. Eutropius, ix. 20. Hieronym. in Chron. CHA P. peated acclamations, acknowledged the justice and authority of the emperor Diocletian *. XII. Defeat of Cari nus. Before we enter upon the memorable reign of and death that prince, it will be proper to punish and dismiss the unworthy brother of Numerian. Carinus possessed arms and treasures sufficient to support his legal title to the empire. But his personal vices overbalanced every advantage of birth and situation. The most faithful servants of the father despised the incapacity and dreaded the cruel arrogance of the son. The hearts of the people were engaged in favour of his rival, and even the senate was inclined to prefer an usurper to a tyrant. The arts of Diocletian inflamed the general discontent; and the winter was employed in secret intrigues, and open preA. D. 285. parations for a civil war. In the spring, the forces of the East and of the West encountered each other in the plains of Margus, a small city of Mæsia, in the neighbourhood of the Danube . The troops, so lately returned from the Persian war, had acquired their glory at the expence of health and numbers, nor were they in a condition to contend with the unexhausted strength of the legions of Europe. Their ranks were broken, and, for a moment, Diocletian despaired May. * Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 252. The reason why Diocletian killed Aper, (a wild boar,) was founded on a prophecy and a pun, as foolish as they are well known. + Eutropius marks its situation very accurately; it was between the Mons Aureus and Viminiacum. M. d'Anville (Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 304.) places Margus at Kas folatz in Servia, a little below Belgrade and Semendria. XII. despaired of the purple and of life. But the ad- c H A P, vantage which Carinus had obtained by the valour of his soldiers, he quickly lost by the infidelity of his officers. A tribune, whose wife he had seduced, seized the opportunity of revenge, and by a single blow extinguished civil discord in the blood of the adulterer *. * Hist. August. p. 254. Eutropius, p. ix. 20. Aurelius Victor. Victor in Epitome. CHAP. С НАР. XIII. Elevation racter of Diocletian. A.D. 285. CHA P. XIII. The Reign of Diocletian and his three Associates, As S the reign of Diocletian was more illustrious than that of any of his predecessors, was his birth more abject and obscure. and cha- The strong claims of merit and of violence had frequently superseded the ideal prerogatives of nobility; but a distinct line of separation was hitherto preserved between the free and the servile part of mankind. The parents of Diocletian had been slaves in the house of Annulinus, a Roman senator; nor was he himself distinguished by any other name, than that which he derived from a small town in Dalmatia, from which his mother deduced her origin *. It is, however probable, that his father obtained the freedom of the family, and that he soon acquired an office as scribe, which was commonly exercised * Eutrop. ix. 19. Victor in Epitom. The town seems to have been properly called Doclia, from a small tribe of Illyrians; (see Cellarius, Geograph. Antiqua, tom i. p. 393-) and the original name of the fortunate slave was probably Docles; he first lengthened it to the Grecian harmony of Diocles, and at length the Roman majesty of Diocletianus. He likewise assumed the Patrician name of Valerius, and it is usually given him by Aurelius Victor. |