over a wide area. As a consequence the praefect of the legion could only exist in name, and that office was soon regarded as obsolete. Consistently, when new legions had to be enrolled for the exigences of defence or warfare, their number was limited to about one fifth of the original amount.[1] To complete the fabric of autocracy all the pomp and pretensions of Oriental exclusiveness were adopted by Diocletian, so that henceforward the monarch was only accessible to the subject under forms of such complexity and abasement as seemed to betoken a being of more than mortal mould.[2]
Another signal divergence from the simple manners of the first emperors was the permanent establishment of eunuchs in high offices about the royal person.[3] The Grand Chamberlain, as the constant attendant on the privacy of the monarch, generally became his confidant, and sometimes his master.[4].]Constantius multum potuit," is the sarcasm of Ammianus on the masterful favourite Eutropius; xviii, 4. Ultimately members of the royal family were castrated to allow of their being intrusted with the office of]*
- ↑ See Mommsen, Das röm. Militärwesen, etc. Hermes, xxiv, 1889.
- ↑ Aurelius Vict., Diocletian, etc. After Elagabalus Aurelian was the pioneer in this departure, but in their case it seems to have been not a policy so much as a love of pompous display. It is worth noting that these emperors were men of low origin; Aurelian was a peasant, Diocletian the son of a slave. Yet Aurelian would not let his wife wear silk; Hist. Aug. Aurelian, 45.
- ↑ The brood of eunuchs (bed-keepers) flows to us from prehistoric times. Ammianus (xiv, 6) attributes the invention to Semiramis, whose date, if any, is about 2000 B.C. They appear to be engendered naturally by polygamy. Isidore of Seville characterizes them as follows: "Horum quidam coeunt, sed tamen virtus in semine nulla est. Liquorem enim habent, et emittunt, sed ad gignendum inanem et invalidum"; Etymolog., x, sb. voc. Hence the demand for such an enactment as that of Leo, Novel., xcviii, against their marrying, which, however, would be unnecessary in the case of the [Greek: karzimades
- ↑ The names of Eusebius, Eutropius, Chrysaphius, etc., are well known as despots of the Court and Empire. "Apud quem [si vere dici debeat
