Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/307

DINWIDDIE. 261 DIOCLETIAN. consequence lie advocated the imposition of an arbitrary jioll tax by Parliament. This, combined with his arrogance, his avarice, and his inde- cision, made liim unpopular, and led to his recall in 1V58. DI'O CAS'SIUS COCCEIA'NUS (Gk. Aiui" Kd<T<ru>i KoKKTiiat^, DiOii Kaxsios Kok- kCidiios) (C.150-2:i,)! . A celebrated Greek his- torian. He was born at Xicoea, in Billij^nia. He held various high offices of State under the Ro- man emperors, was twice consul, and enjoyed the intimate friendship of the Emperor -Alexander Severus. He is best known by his History of Rome, in eighty books, from the arrival of .Eneas in Italy to a.d. 229, of which only twentj--four (3G-00," covering the years B.C. 68 to a.d. 47) have reached us fairly complete. The others are known to us only from fragments and the abridgment made Dy Xiphilinus in the eleventh century. Dio's high position gave him free ac- cess to the national archives, and as an author- ity on some points — especially on the imperial epoch of Roman history — his work is of consider- able value. He wrote on t':? model of Thucydides, to whom, indeed, he is far inferior, both in vigor of judgment and acuteness of criticism; yet many passages of his History might he quoted as among the best samples of the rhetoric of the age in which he lived. Dio died at'Xicaea, about A.D. 23.5. Tlie History is best edited bv Boissevain (Berlin, 1895-1901). DI'OCESE (OF. diocise, diocese, Fr. diocese, Lat. dia^cesis, from Gk. SioIkijiti^, dioikesis, ad- ministration, from SioiKui/, (lioikein, to keep house, from dia, din, through + oUctv, oikein. to inhabit, from ohoc. oikos, house, Lat. vicus, village, Skt. vii, house). In the Roman Catholic and -Anglican churches, a district committed to the pastoral care of a bishop. The term was u.sed in the civil administration of the later Roman Empire, which Con.stantine divided into thirteen districts called dioceses, and these again into one hundred and twenty provinces. When the Church had perfected her episcopal organization and received the recognition of the State, she modeled her territorial divisions on those of the civil administration. Tliis adapta- tion appears to have been co-npleted by the end of the fourth century. There developed an exarch or patriarch in each of the great dioceses, and a metropolitan or primate in each province, the word irapoiKia, or /I'lrish, being applied to what we now call a diocese. At a later period the word diocese was transferred to the territory of a bishop's jurisdiction, and the word patriarchate used for the ancient diocese. In the Eastern Churches the civil term cpnrchy is used to this day for a diocese. At the present time dioceses of the Catholic Church are erected by the Pope in consistory. Before the erection of a diocese, ad- ministrative districts not formally so constituted are styled prefectures apostolic and vicariates apostolic. Dioceses are created in the Church of England by act of Parliament. In the .Ameri- can Episcopal Church new dioceses are created by primary* conventions of the clergy and laity of the district, and are then admitted into union with the general convention by vote of that body. DI'O CHRYSOS'TOMUS (Lat., from Gk. Xpvt'iiTToiinr, (■hriisoxl(,iiir,.s. i-olderi-mouthed, from X/H-ffif. r/in/ios. gold + (TT6fui. stoma, mouth). An eminent Greek rhetorician. He was bom at Prusa, in Bithynia, ioward the middle of the first century a.d. His father, Pasicrates, paid great attention to his education, which was also enriched by travel. Dio, after residing for some time in his native town, came to Rome, where, however, he had the misfortune to e.xcite the sus- picion of the Emperor Domitian, and was in consequence obliged to tlec. On the accession of Xerva, a.o. 96, iie returned to Rome, and was honorably received. Xerva's successor, Trajan, held Dio in the highest estimation, even per- mitting him to ride beside himself in the im- perial chariot. His excellent disposition pro- cured him many friends, while his remarkable powers of oratory excited universal admiration. He died at Rome about a.d. 117. Dio left a very great number of orations, of which eighty are still extant in whole, with fragments of fif- teen others. They discuss questions in politics, morals, and philosophy, and are written in good Attic Greek. .According to Xiebuhr, he was "the first writer after Tiberius that greatly con- tributed toward the revival of Greek literature." Good editions of Dio's orations are those of Reiske (Leipzig, 1784), Emperius (Brunswick, 1844), and Dindorf (Leipzig, 1857). DIOCLES, dl'6-klez. See CissoiD. DIOCLES (Lat., from Gk. AiokX^c. Diokles). A Syi'acusan demagogue of the fourth century B.C., noted for his code of laws. He was a democratic leader, and his code, which con- tinued in force until the Roman Conquest, tend- ed to popular sovereignty. His failure to bury the dead, after his vain attempt to raise the siege of Himera, resulted in his banishment in B.C. 408. DIOCLETIAN, di'o-kle'shan. Baths of. Baths at Rome. Imilt by Diocletian and Max- imian, opened in -.D. ."JOe and still used at the time of Theodoric. The ruins were converted into a Carthusian monastery, and the tepidarium into the Church of Santa JIaria dei .Angel i, by Jlichel- angelo; a circular hall at the southwest corner of the outer wall was made into the Church of San Bernardo in 1.594. The cloisters of the monastery are now used as a temporary museum. DIOCLETIAN, Gaius .Al-belius Vau:riis Diocletjanu.s. a Roman Emperor (a.d. 284- 305). He was born of humble parents in Dal- matia (.D. 245). He adopted a military career, and sened with distinction undei- .Aurelian and Probus. accompanied Carus on his Persian cam- paign, and finally, on the murder of Xumerianus having been discovered at Chalcedon, he was pro- claimed Emperor in 284 by the army on its homeward march. The suspected assassin of Xumerianus, the prefect .Arrius Aper, he slew with his own hands, in order, it is alleged, to fulfill a prophecy communicated to him, while still a lad, by a Druidess of Gaul, that he should accede to a throne as soon as he had killed an aper (wild boar). In 285 Diocletian com- menced hostilities against Carinus (the joint Emperor along with the deceased Xumerianus), who, although victorious in the decisive battle that ensued, was murdered by his own officers, thus leaving to Diocletian the undisputed su- premacy. His first years of government were so molested by the incursions of barbarians that, in order to repel their growing aggressiveness, he took to himself a colleague — namely. Max- imian — who, under the title of -Augustus, be-