..........

and cha

Diocle

tian,

CHAP. XIII.

The reign of Diocletian and his three associates, Maximian, Galerius, and Constantius.-General re-establishment of order and tranquility. -The Persian war, victory, and triumph. The new form of administration-Abdication and retirement of Diocletian and Maximian.

CHAP. AS the reign of Diocletian was more illusXIII. trious than that of any of his predecessors, Elevation so was his birth more abject and obscure. racter of The strong claims of merit and of violence had frequently superseded the ideal prerogatives of AD. 285. 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 Annuliuus, 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 of scribe, which was commonly exer

* Eutrop. ix. 19. Victor in Epitom. The town seems to have been properly called Doclia, from a small tribe of Illyrians (see Celacius, Geograph. Antiquia, tom. i, p. 393); and the original name of the for tunate slave was probably Docles: he first lengthened it to the Grecian harmony of Diocles, and at length to the Roman majesty of DiocleHe likewise assumed the patrician name of Valerius, and it usually given him by Aurelius Victor.

tianns.

XIII.

cised by persons of his condition. Favourable CHAP. oracles, or rather the consciousness of superior merit, prompted his aspiring son to pursue the profession of arms and the hopes of fortune; and it would be extremely curious to observe the gradation of arts and accidents which enabled him in the end to fulfil those oracles, and to display that merit to the world. Diocletian was successively promoted to the government of Mæsia, the honours of the consulship, and the im portant command of the guards of the palace. He distinguished his abilities in the Persian war; and, after the death of Numerian, the slave, by the confession and judgment of his rivals, was declared the most worthy of the imperial throne. The malice of religious zeal, whilst it arraigns the savage fierceness of his colleague Maximian, has affected to cast suspicions on the personal courage of the emperor Diocletian. It would not be easy to persuade us of the cowardice of a soldier of fortune, who acquired and preserved the esteem of the legions, as well as the favour of so many warlike princes. Yet even calumny is sagacious enough to discover and to attack the most vulnerable part. The valour of Diocletian was never found inadequate to his duty, or to the occasion; but he appears not to have

See Dacier on the sixth satire of the second book of Horace, Cornel. Nepos, in Vit. Eumen. c. 1.

• Lactantius (or whoever was the author of the little treatise De Mortibus Persecutorum) accuses Diocletian of timidity in two places, c. 7,8. In chap. ix, he says of him, " erat in omni timultu meticu. ❝losus et animi disjectus.”

XIII.

CHAP. possessed the daring and generous spirit of a hero, who courts danger and fame, disdains artifice, and boldly challenges the allegiance of his equals. His abilities were useful rather than splendid; a vigorous mind, improved by the experience and study of mankind; dexterity and application in business; a judicious mixture of liberality and economy, of mildness and rigour; profound dissimulation under the disguise of military frankness; steadiness to pursue his ends; flexibility to vary his means; and, above all, the great art of submitting his own passions, as well as those of others, to the interest of his ambition, and of colouring his ambition with the most specious pretences of justice and public utility. Like Augustus, Diocletian may be considered as the founder of a new empire. Like the adopted son of Cæsar, he was distinguished as a statesman rather than as a warrior; nor did either of those princes employ force, whenever their purpose could be effected by policy.

His cle

mency

tory.

The victory of Diocletian was remarkable for and vic- its singular mildness. A people accustomed to applaud the clemency of the conqueror, if the usual punishments of death, exile, and confiscation, were inflicted with any degree of temper and equity, beheld, with the most pleasing astonishment a civil war, the flames of which were extinguished in the field of battle. Diocletian received into his confidence Aristobulus, the principal minister of the house of Carus, respected the lives, the fortunes, and the dignity, of his adversaries, and even continued in their respec

XIII.

tive stations the greater number of the servants CHAP. of Carinus. It is not improbable that motives of prudence might assist the huinanity of the artful Dalmatian: of these servants, many had purchased his favour by secret treachery; in others, he esteemed their grateful fidelity to an unfortunate master. The discerning judgment of Aurelian, of Probus, and of Carus, had filled the several departments of the state and army with officers of approved merit, whose removal would have injured the public service, without promoting the interest of the successor. Such a conduct, however, displayed to the Roman world the fairest prospect of the new reign; and the emperor affected to confirm this favourable prepossession, by declaring, that, among all the virtues of his predecessors, he was the most ambitious of imitating the humane philosophy of Marcus Antonius."

character

of Maxi

The first considerable action of his reign seem- Associa ed to evince his sincerity as well as his modera- tion and tion. After the example of Marcus, he gave mian, himself a colleague in the person of Maximian, A. D. 286 April 1. on whom he bestowed at first the title of Cæsar, and afterwards that of Augustus.' But the

In this encomium, Aurelius Victor seems to convey a just, though indirect, censure of the cruelty of Constantinus. It appears from the Fasti, that Aristobulus remained prefect of the city, and that he ended with Diocletian the consulship which he had commenced with Carinus. Aurelius Victor styles Diocletian, "Parentem potius quam dominum." See August. p. 30.

The question of the time when Maximian received the honours of Cæsar and Augustus has divided modern critics, and given occasion to

XIII.

CHAP. motives of his conduct, as well as the object of his choice, were of a very different nature from those of his admired predecessor. By investing a luxurious youth with the honours of the purple, Marcus had discharged a debt of private grati tude, at the expence, indeed, of the happiness of the state. By associating a friend and a fellow-soldier to the labours of government, Diocletian, in a time of public danger, provided for the defence both of the East and of the West. Maximian was born a peasant, and, like Aurelian, in the territory of Sirmium. Ignorant of letters, careless of laws, the rusticity of his appearance and manners still betrayed in the most elevated fortune the meanness of his extraction. War was the only art which he professed. In a long course of service he had distinguished himself on every frontier of the empire; and though his military talents were formed to obey rather than to command, though, perhaps, he never attained the skill of a consum mate general, he was capable, by his valour, constancy, and experience, of executing the most

a great deal of learned wrangling. I have followed M. de Tillemont (Histoire des Empereurs, tom. iv, p. 500-505), who has weighed the several reasons and difficulties with his scrupulous accuracy.

In an oration delivered before him (Panegyr. Vet. ii, 8), Mamers tinus expresses a doubt, whether his hero, in imitating the conduct of Hannibal and Scipo, had ever heard of their names. From thence we may fairly infer, that Maximian was more desirous of being considered as a soldier than as a man of letters; and it is in this manner that w can often translate the language of flattery into that of truth.