monarch would be less exposed to the rude licence
of the people and the soldiers, as his person was
secluded from the public view; and that habits
of submiflion would insenfibly be productive of
sentiments of veneration. Like the modesty
affected by Augustus, the state maintained by
Diocletian was a theatrical representation; but
it must be consessed, that of the two comedies,
the former was of a much more liberal and manly
character than the latter. It was the aim of the
one to disguise, and the object of the other to
display, the unbounded power which the em-
perors possessed over the Roman world.
Ostentation was the first principle os the new
system instituth by Diocletian. The second was
division. He divided the empire, the provinces,
and every branch of the civil as well as military
administration. He multiplied the wheels of the
machine of government, and rendered its ope-
rations less rapid but more secure. Whatever
advantages and whatever defects might attend
these innovations, they must be ascribed in a very
great degree to the first inventor; bur as the new
frame of policy was gradually improved and
completed by succeeding princes, it will be more
satisfactory to delay the consideration of it till
the season of its full maturity and 'perfection 'oh
Reserving, therefore, for the reign of Constan-