Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/473

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 449 rival the majesty of Rome was the ambition likewise of CHAP. Diocletian, who employed his leisure, and the wealth '_ of the east, in the embellishment of Nicomedia, a city and Nico- placed on the verge of Europe and Asia, almost at an ™^^'^* equal distance between the Danube and the Euphrates. By the taste of the monarch, and at the expense of the people, Nicomedia acquired, in the space of a few years, a degree of magnificence which might appear to have required the labour of ages, and became inferior only to Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch, in extent or populousness^. The life of Diocletian and Maximian was a life of action, and a considerable portion of it was spent in camps, or in their long and frequent marches; but whenever the pubhc business allowed them any relaxation, they seem to have retired with pleasure to their favourite residences of Nicomedia and Milan. Till Diocletian, in the twentietli year of his reign, celebrated his Roman triumph, it is extremely doubt- ful whether he ever visited the ancient capital of the empire. Even on that memorable occasion his stay did not exceed two months. Disgusted with the li- centious familiarity of the people, he quitted Rome with precipitation, thirteen days before it was expected that he should have appeared in the senate, in- vested with the ensigns of the consular dignity ^ . The dislike expressed by Diocletian towards Rome Debase- and Roman freedom, was not the effect of momentary Ro^Vand Maximian at Carthage, probably during the Moorish war. We shall insert some verses of Ausonius de Clar. Urb. v. Et Mediolani mira omnia : copia rerum ; Innumerae cultaeque domus ; facunda virorum Ingenia, et mores laeti ; turn duplice muro Amplificata loci species ; populique voluptas Circus ; et inclusi moles cuneata theatri j Templa, Palatinsque arces, opulensque moneta, Et regio Herculei Celebris sub honore lavacri. Cunctaque marmoreis ornata peristyla signis ; Moeniaque in valli formam circumdata labro, Omnia quae magnis operum velut aemula formis Excellunt : nee junctae premit vicinia Romae. y Lactant. de M. P. c. 17 j Libanius Orat. viii. p. 203. ^- Lactant, de M. P. c. 17. On a similar occasion Ammianus mentions the dicacitas plehis, as not very agreeable to an imperial ear. See 1. xvi. c. 10. VOL. I, Gg