Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/1031

DIOCLETIANUS. teed, and all Mesopotamia, together with five pro- vinces beyond the Tigris and the coninuind of the defiles of Caucasus, were ceded to tlie Romans. For forty years the conditions of this compact were observed with good faith, and the repose of the Eiist remained undisturbed. The long series of brilliant achievements, by which the barbarians had been driven back from every frontier, were completed when Diocletian entered upon the twentieth year of his reign, and the games common at each decennial period were combined with a triumph the most gorgeous which Rome had witnessed since the days of Aurelian. But neither the mind nor the body of Diocle- tian, who was now fifty-nine years old, was able any longer to support the unceasing anxiety and toil to which he was exposed. On his journey to Nicomedeia he was attacked by an illness, from %vhich, after protracted suffering, he scarcely escaped with life, and, even when immediate danger was past, found himself so exhausted and depressed, that he resolved to abdicate the purple. This re- solution seems to have been soon formed, and it was speedily executed. On the 1st of May, a. d. 305, in a plain three miles from the city where he had first assumed the purple, in the presence of the army and the people, he solemnly divested himself of his royal robes. A similar scene was enacted on the same day at Milan by his reluctant colleague. Constantius Chlorus and Galerius being now, ac- cording to the principles of the new constitution, raised to the dignity of Augusti, Flavius Severus and Maximinus Daza were created Caesars. Dio- cletian returned to his native Dalmatia, and passed the remaining eight years of his life near Salona in philosophic retirement, devoted to rural pleasures and the cultivation of his garden. Aurelius Victor has preserved the well-known anecdote, that when solicited at a subsequent period, by the ambitious and discontented Maximian, to resume the honours which he had voluntarily resigned, his reply was, " Would you could see the vegetables planted by my hands at Salona, you would then never think of urging such an attempt." His death took place at the age of sixty-seven. The story in the Epitome of Victor, that he put himself to death in order to escape the violence which he apprehended from Constantine and Licinius, seems to be unsupported by external evidence or internal probability. Although little doubt can be entertained with regard to the general accuracy of the leading facts enumerated in the above outline, the greatest con- fusion and embarrassment prevail with regard to the more minute details of this reign and the chro- nological arrangement of the events. Medals af- ford little or no aid, the biographies of the Au- gustan historians end with Carinus, no contem- porary record has been preserved, and those por- tions of Ammianus Marcellinus and Zosimus which must have been devoted to this epoch have disappeared from their works, purposely omitted or destroyed, as some have imagined, by Christian transcribers, who were determined if possible to prevent any flattering picture of their persecutor or jiny clironicle of his glories from being transmitted to posterity. Hence we are thrown entirely upon the meagre and unsatisfactory corapendiums of Eu- tropius, the Victors, and Festus ; the vague and lying hyperboles of the panegyrists, and the avow- edly hostile declamations of the author of the work, De Alorlibus Persecuiorum [CakciliusJ, and other DIOCLETIANUS. I0I3 writers of the same stamp. Hence, from source* 80 scanty and so impure, it is extremely difficult to derive such knowledge as may enable us to form a just conception of the real character of this remark' able man. It is certain that he revolutionized the whole political system of the empire, and introduced a scheme of government, afterwards fully carried out and perfected by Constantine, as much at variance with that pursued by his predecessors as the power exercised by Octavianus and those who followed him differed from the authority of the constitu- tional magistrates of the republic. The object of this new and important change, and the means by which it was sought to attain that object, may be explained in a few words. The grand object was to protect the person of the sovereign from vio- lence, and to insure a regular legitimate succession, thus putting an end to the rebellions and civil wars, by which the world had been torn to pieces ever since the extinction, in Nero, of the Julian blood. To accomplish what was sought, it was necessary to guard against insubordination among the powerful bodies of troops maintained on the more exposed frontiers, against mutiny among the praetorians at home, and against the faint spark of free and independent feeling among the senate and populace of Rome. Little was to be apprehended from the soldiery at a distance, unless led on by some favourite general ; hence, by placing at the head of the four great armies four commanders all directly interested in preserving the existing order of things, it was believed that one great source of danger was removed, while two of these being marked out as heirs apparent to the throne long before their actual accession, it seemed probable that on the death of the Augusti they would advance to the higher grade as a matter of course, without ques- tion or commotion, their places being supplied by two new Caesars. Jealousies might undoubtedly arise, but these were guarded against by rendering each of the four jurisdictions as distinct and ab- solute as possible, while it was imagined that an attempt on the part of any one member of the confederacy to render himself supreme, would certainly be checked at once by the cordial combi- nation of the remaining three, in self-defence. It was resolved to treat the praetorians with little ceremony ; but, to prevent any outbreak, which despair might have rendered formidable, they were gradually dispersed, and then deprived of their privileges, while their former duties were dis- charged by the Jovian and Herculian battalions from Illyria, who were firm in their allegiance to their native princes. The degradation of Rome by the removal of the court, and the creation of four new capitals, was a death-blow to the in- fluence of the Senate, and led quickly to the de- struction of all old patriotic associations. Nor was less care and forethought bestowed on matters ap- parently trivial. The robe of cloth of gold, the slippers of silk dyed in purple, and embroidered with gems, the regal diadem wreathed around the brow, the titles of Lord and Master and God, the lowly prostrations, and the thousand intricacies of complicated etiquette which fenced round the im- perial presence, were all attributed by short-sighted observers to the insolent pride of a Dalmatian slave intoxicated with unlooked-for prosperity, but were in reality part and parcel of a sjigacious and well meditated plau, which sought to encircle tlie person