Spalato.* Its ruins were studied a century ago by Adams, † who by a comparison with the precepts of Vitruvius, made an ingenious restoration of the immense edifice, which formed an almost perfect square of from 600 to 700 feet, and covered a little more than eight acres. The building was composed of two principal parts, of which the one to the south contained the emperor's private apartments and two temples of Jupiter and Æsculapius. Two streets intersected one another at right angles in the centre of the building, the chief one leading from the Golden Gate to a spacious court before the vestibule of the principal apartments, where the other crossed it. The entrance next in importance was called the Silver Gate; and the other gates were flanked by pairs of octagonal towers, sixteen in all. Diocletian's palace marks an era in the transformation of the Greco-Roman into the Byzantine architecture. Columns and arches were combined in such a manner, that the arches were at first made to rest upon the entablature, and afterwards were even forced immediately to spring from the abacus; and at length the entablature itself took the form of an arch. But, although this architecture offends against the rules of good taste, yet these remains may serve to show how directly the Saracen and Christian architects borrowed from Roman models many of the characteristics which have been looked upon as the creation of their own imagination.§ The locality which Diocletian chose for this magnificent retreat is thus described by Mr. Adams:-"The soil is dry and fertile, the air is pure and wholesome, and, though extremely hot during the summer months, this country seldom feels those sultry and noxious winds, to which the coast of Istria and some parts of Italy are exposed. The views from the palace are no less beautiful than the soil and climate are inviting. Towards the west lies the fertile shore that stretches along the Adriatic, in which a number of small islands are scattered in such a manner as to give this part of the sea the appearance of a great lake. On the north side lies the * This name, often corrupted into Spalatro, is simply S. Palatium, i.e., Salonæ Palatium, the palace of Salona. Gibbon commemorates him as 66 an ingenious artist of our own time and country, whom a very liberal curiosity carried into the heart of Dalmatia.” Our time has had a similar advantage in the researches of Sir Gardiner Wilkinson. The temple of Jupiter is now the cathedral; that of Esculapius the church of St. John the Baptist; and the Golden Gate, which is nearly perfect, forms the entrance into the market-place of Spalato. § See Adams, Antiquities of Diocletian's Palace, 1764; Wilkinson, Dalmatia and Montenegro, vol. i. pp. 114-143; Fergusson, Handbook of Architecture, vol. i p. 356. A.D. 305.] DIOCLETIAN AND CHARLES V. 667 bay, which led to the ancient city of Salona; and the country beyond it, appearing in sight, forms a proper contrast to that more extensive prospect of water, which the Adriatic presents both to the south and to the east. Towards the north the view is terminated by high and irregular mountains, situated at a proper distance, and in many places covered with villages, woods, and vineyards." Very striking is the contrast of this scene to the gloomy cloister which, twelve and a-half centuries later, received the emperor whose abdication is so near a parallel to that of Diocletian. Both retired, in broken health and premature old age, from the attempt to subdue half the world to their despotic will. But the morose devotion of Charles V. will bear no favourable comparison with the natural pleasures which satisfied Diocletian. While the Austrian continued upon matter the experiments he had made on mind, till the truth dawned upon him that opinions are harder even than clocks to move to the standard of one time, the Illyrian derived from the growth of his garden the contentment he had never found in the prosperity of his empire. When solicited by the restless Maximian to reassume the purple, he observed, that if he could show his former colleague the cabbages he had planted with his own hands at Salona, he should no longer be urged to relinquish the enjoyment of happiness for the pursuit of power. Nor is the testimony less valuable, which he left to the blindness which must needs mislead the most sagacious and the best meaning despot. "How often "- he would exclaim in his familiar conversation-"How often is it the interest of four or five ministers to combine together to deceive their sovereign! Secluded from mankind by his exalted dignity, the truth is concealed from his knowledge; he can see only with their eyes, he hears nothing but their misrepresentations. He confers the most important offices upon vice and weakness, and disgraces the most virtuous and deserving among his subjects. By such infamous arts the best and wisest princes are sold to the venal corruption of their courtiers." As objects, which have been seen indistinctly or with a distorted outline in the broad glare and tremulous atmosphere caused by a noon-day sun, stand out with startling clearness in the cool light. of evening, so do the illusions of empire vanish when looked back upon in the light of the sun that has just set, whether from the Adriatic coast or the Atlantic rock. But one illusion is always left for dethroned despots to impose on themselves, and if pos sible on the world, the fond idea that the experience gained so late would bear fruit, if the opportunity should be given them again, or that it will teach wisdom to their imitators and admirers. While leaving to future despots, with their flatterers and apologists, this condemnation of the system he had spent his life in framing, Diocletian could not shut out all its evil results from the retirement into which he had escaped. "A just estimate of greatness, and the assurance of immortal fame, improve our relish for the pleasures of retirement; but the Roman emperor had filled too important a character in the world to enjoy without alloy the comforts and security of a private condition. It was impossible that he could remain ignorant of the troubles which afflicted the empire after his abdication. It was impossible that he could be indifferent to their consequences. Fear, sorrow, and discontent sometimes pursued him into the solitude of Salona. His tenderness, or at least his pride, was deeply wounded by the misfortunes of his wife and daughter;* and the last moments of Diocletian were embittered by some affronts, which Licinius and Constantine might have spared the father of so many emperors, and the first author of their own fortune. A report, though of a very doubtful nature, has reached our times, that he prudently withdrew himself from their power by a voluntary death."+ He died in the ninth year after his abdication, just after Constantine had shattered, by his victory over Maxentius, the imperial fabric framed by Diocletian, and had reversed his religious policy by the Edict of Milan (A.D. 313). *See Chap. xliv. + Gibbon, chap. xiii. A.D. 305.] CONSTANTIUS AND GALERIUS AUGUSTI. 669 CHAPTER XLIV. REUNION OF THE EMPIRE, AND ESTABLISHMENT OF "God forbid that I should glory, save in the CROSs of our Lord Jesus Christ." "HOC SIGNO VINCES." ST. PAUL, Gal. vi. 14. Motto of Constantine. CONSTANTIUS AND GALERIUS BECOME AUGUSTI-GALERIUS MAKES MAXIMIN AND SEVERUS CESARS IN THE EAST AND ITALY-CONSTANTINE THE GREAT HIS BIRTH AND EARLY CAREER-HIS FLIGHT FROM NICOMEDIA TO BOULOGNE-DEATH OF CONSTANTIUS AT YORK-CONSTANTINE PROCLAIMED IN BRITAIN HIS GERMAN VICTORIES AND CRUELTIES-MAXENTIUS PROCLAIMED AT ROME-MAXIMIAN REASSUMES THE PURPLE -DEFEAT AND DEATH OF SEVERUS-GALERIUS ENTERS ITALY AND RETREATS HE MAKES LICINIUS AUGUSTUS-SIX ROMAN EMPERORS AT ONCE-MAXIMIAN EXPELLED FROM ITALY: REBELS IN GAUL: IS DEFEATED AND PUT TO DEATH BY CONSTANTINE-DEATH OF GALERIUS-WAR OF CONSTANTINE AGAINST MAXENTIUS-VICTORIES OF TURIN AND SAXA RUBRA, NEAR ROME, AND DEATH OF MAXENTIUS-CONSTANTINE AT ROME-THE PRÆTORIANS ABOLISHED, AND ROME LEFT DEFENCELESS CLOSE ALLIANCE OF CONSTANTINE AND LICINIUS-DEFEAT AND DEATH OF MAXIMIN-TYRANNY OF LICINIUS IN THE EAST-EDICT OF MILAN-REVIEW OF THE DIOCLETIAN PERSECUTION-IN THE WEST: MARTYRS OF SPAIN AND BRITAIN: ST. ALBAN-IN ITALY AND AFRICA: THE PERSECUTION STOPPED BY MAXIMIAN-IN THE EAST: SEVERE PERSECUTION: GALERIUS, DYING, ISSUES AN EDICT OF TOLERATION-CONDUCT OF MAXIMIN-CONVERSION OF CONSTANTINE-STORY OF HIS VISION OF THE CROSS-QUESTION OF HIS CHRISTIANITY-HE PROCLAIMS UNIVERSAL TOLERATION-FIRST WAR WITH LICINIUS-CRISPUS, CONSTANTINE II., AND LICINIUS II. MADE CESARS-VICTORIES OF CRISPUS AND CONSTANTINE ON THE RHINE AND DANUBEFINAL WAR WITH LICINIUS-BATTLE OF HADRIANOPLE-NAVAL VICTORY OF CRISPUS-BATTLE OF CHRYSOPOLIS-SUBMISSION AND DEATH OF LICINIUS-CHOICE OF BYZANTIUM FOR A NEW CAPITAL-THE COUNCIL OF NICE: ARIAN CONTROVERSY-FAMILY OF CONSTANTINE-DEATHS OF CRISPUS, THE YOUNGER LICINIUS, AND FAUSTA-DEDICATION OF CONSTANTINOPLE-ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE-GOTHIC AND SARMATIAN WAR-DEATH OF CONSTANTINE- CONSTANTINUS II., CONSTANTIUS II., AND CONSTANS -PERSIAN WAR-DEATH OF CONSTANTINE II.-WARS OF CONSTANS IN THE WEST-HIS DEATH-USURPATION AND DEFEAT OF MAGNENTIUS-ATHANASIUS AND THE ARIANS-RISE OF JULIAN: HIS WARS WITH THE GERMANS: AND PROCLAMATION AT PARIS-PERSIAN WAR -DEATH OF CONSTANTIUS-JULIAN THE APOSTATE-HIS ACTS IN FAVOUR OF THE PAGANS HIS PERSIAN EXPEDITION AND DEATH-REIGN and death OF JOVIAN-ELECTION OF VALENTINIAN. THE frail tenure of the security provided by Diocletian's elaborate plan was at once proved by the confusion that followed his abdication. The nine remaining years of his seclusion witnessed a succession of civil wars for the power he had resigned; nor was it till ten years after his death that peace was restored, with the restoration of a single government (A.D. 323). The first step was taken in due order; Galerius in the East, and Constantius in the West, succeeded to the dignity of the two Augusti, and the latter, though the successor of Maximian, seems to have been invested with the precedence due to his superior age and merit. But he had no inclination to change the distant sphere of government, in which he wielded a compact and almost independent authority over attached subjects, for Italy and Rome. This decision at once deranged the balance adjusted by Diocletian, by leaving the ancient heart of the empire without the presence of an Augustus; and the result was virtually a new partition, in which Italy and Africa became dependencies of the East. Galerius seems to have taken this view, when he assumed the power of nominating both the Cæsars. The one was his own sister's son, who now exchanged the name of Daza, which he had borne in his original condition of an Illyrian peasant, for that of Galerius Valerius MAXIMINUS, but without changing a nature as savage and untutored as that of the first Maximin. The assignment to him of Syria and Egypt proved the resolution of Galerius to keep in his own hands the provinces which might soon be threatened either by the tribes of the North or the emperor of the West. Galerius placed Italy and Africa under SEVERUS, a faithful servant of his own; though the power was formally conferred by Maximian, and held in nominal subordination to Constantius. "According to the forms of the constitution, Severus acknowledged the supremacy of the western emperor: but he was absolutely devoted to the commands of his benefactor Galerius, who, reserving to himself the intermediate countries from the confines of Italy to those of Syria, firmly established his power over three-fourths of the monarchy. In the full confidence that the approaching death of Constantius would leave him sole master of the Roman world, we are assured that he had arranged in his mind a long succession of future princes, and that he meditated his own retreat from public life after he should have accomplished a glorious reign of about twenty years." These appointments were the more significant, as both the late and present Augusti of the West had sons, who might have expected the dignity of Cæsars. We shall presently see how the affront was resented by Maximian and his son Maxentius, who, in spite of personal faults like those which were even more conspicuous in Maximin, had been deemed worthy of becoming the son-inlaw of Diocletian. It was probably the failing health of Constantius, and perhaps his reluctance to be the first to break the imperial harmony established by Diocletian, that made him leave the assertion of his own cause to the son whom he knew to be worthy to maintain it, and who arrived from the East just in time to assume the mantle as it fell from his dying father. |