DIOCLETIAN

(245-313)

[Illustration: Circus scene. [TN]]

Caius Valerius Diocletianus, one of the most famous of the Roman

emperors, was, as De Quincey says, "doubtless that man of iron whom

the times demanded." He was born at Dioclea, in Dalmatia, some say at

Salona, about A.D. 245 according to some, but others make him ten

years older. His original name was Diocles, which he afterward changed

into Diocletianus. He is said by some to have been the son of a

notary, by others the freedman of a senator named Anulinus. He entered

the army at an early age, and rose gradually to rank; he served in

Gaul, in Moesia, under Probus, and was present at the campaign against

the Persians, in which Carus, then emperor, perished in a mysterious

manner. Diocletian commanded the household or imperial body-guards

when young Numerianus, the son of Carus, was secretly put to death by

Aper his father-in-law, while travelling in a close litter on account

of illness, on the return of the army from Persia. The death of

Numerianus being discovered after several days by the soldiers near

Calchedon, they arrested Aper and proclaimed Diocletian emperor, who

addressing the soldiers from his tribunal in the camp, protested his

innocence of the death of Numerianus, and then upbraiding Aper for the

crime, plunged his sword into the traitor's body.

The new emperor observed to a friend that "he had now killed the

boar," punning on the word Aper, which means a boar, and alluding to

the prediction of a soothsayer in Gaul, who had told him that he would

become emperor after having killed a boar (Vopiscus, in "Hist. Aug.").

Diocletian, self-composed and strong-minded in other respects, was all

his life an anxious believer in divination, which superstition led him

probably to inflict summary punishment upon Aper with his own hands.

He made his solemn entrance into Nicomedia in September, 284, which

town he afterward chose for his favorite residence.

Carinus, the other son of Carus, who had remained in Italy, having

collected a force to attack Diocletian, the two armies met at Margum,

in Moesia, where the soldiers of Carinus had the advantage at first,

but Carinus himself being killed during the battle by his officers,

who detested him for his cruelty and debauchery, both armies joined

in acknowledging Diocletian emperor in 285. Diocletian was generous

after his victory, and, contrary to the common practice, there were no

executions, proscriptions, or confiscations of property; he even

retained most of the officers of Carinus in their places.

Diocletian, on assuming the imperial power, found the Empire assailed

by enemies in various quarters--on the Persian frontiers, on the side

of Germany and of Illyricum, and in Britain; besides which a serious

revolt had broken out in Gaul among the rural population, under two

leaders who had assumed the title of emperor. To quell the disturbance

in Gaul, Diocletian sent his old friend Maximianus, a native of

Pannonia, and a brave but rude uncultivated soldier. Maximianus

defeated the Bagaudi, for such was the name the rustic insurgents had

assumed. In the year 286, Diocletian chose Maximianus as his colleague

in the Empire, under the name of Marcus Valerius Maximianus Augustus,

and it is to the credit of both that the latter continued ever after

faithful to Diocletian and willing to follow his advice. Maximianus

was stationed in Gaul and on the German frontier to repel invasion;

Diocletian resided chiefly in the East to watch the Persians, though

he appears to have visited Rome in the early part of his reign. About

287 the revolt of Carausius took place. In the following year

Maximianus defeated the Germans near Treviri, and Diocletian himself

marched against other tribes on the Rhaetian frontier; the year after

he defeated the Sarmatians on the lower Danube. In the same year, 289,

peace was made between Carausius and the two emperors, Carausius being

allowed to retain possession of Britain. In 290 Maximianus and

Diocletian met at Milan to confer together on the state of the Empire,

after which Diocletian returned to Nicomedia. The Persians soon after

again invaded Mesopotamia and threatened Syria; the Quinquegentiani, a

federation of tribes in the Mauritania Caesariensis, revolted; another

revolt under one Achillaeus broke out in Egypt; another in Italy under

a certain Julianus.

Diocletian thought it necessary to increase the number of his

colleagues in order to face the attacks in the various quarters. On

the 1st of March, 292, or 291, according to some chronologists, he

appointed Galerius as Caesar, and presented him to the troops at

Nicomedia. At the same time Maximianus adopted on his part Constantius

called Chlorus. The two Caesars repudiated their respective wives;

Galerius married Valeria, Diocletian's daughter, adding to his name

that of Valerianus; and Constantius married Theodora, daughter of

Maximianus. Galerius was a native of Dacia, and a good soldier, but

violent and cruel; he had been a herdsman in his youth, for which he

has been styled, in derision, Armentarius. The two Caesars remained

subordinate to the two Augusti, though each of the four was entrusted

with the administration of a part of the Empire. Diocletian kept to

himself Asia and Egypt; Maximianus had Italy and Africa; Galerius,

Thrace and Illyricum; and Constantius had Gaul and Spain. But it was

rather an administrative than a political division. At the head of the

edicts of each prince were put the names of all the four, beginning

with that of Diocletian.

Diocletian resorted to this arrangement probably as much for reasons

of internal as of external policy. For nearly a hundred years before,

ever since the death of Commodus, the soldiers had been in the habit

of giving or selling the imperial crown, to which any general might

aspire. Between thirty and forty emperors had been thus successively

made and unmade many of whom only reigned a few months. By fixing upon

four colleagues, one in each of the great divisions of the Empire,

each having his army, and all mutually checking one another,

Diocletian put a stop to military insolence and anarchy. The Empire

was no longer put up to sale, the immediate and intolerable evil was

effectually cured, though another danger remained, that of disputes

and wars between the various sharers of the imperial power; still it

was a smaller danger and one which did not manifest itself so long as

Diocletian remained at the helm. Writers have been very free of their

censure upon this emperor for parcelling, as they call it, the Empire;

but this was the only chance there was of preventing its crumbling to

pieces. Italy, and Rome in particular, lost by the change: they no

longer monopolized the wealth and power of the world, but the other

provinces gained. The Empire was much too large for one single man or

a single central administration, under the dwindled influence of the

Roman name, and amidst the numerous causes of local dissension and

discontent, private ambition, social corruption, and foreign

hostility, that had accumulated for three centuries, since the time of

Augustus.

[Illustration: Army on horse. [TN]]

The new Caesars justified Diocletian's expectations. Constantius

defeated the Franks and the Alemanni, and soon after reconquered

Britain. Galerius subjugated the Carpi, and transported the whole

tribe into Pannonia. In the year 296, the Persians, under their king

Narses, again invaded Mesopotamia and part of Syria. Galerius marched

against them, but being too confident was defeated by superior

numbers, and obliged to retire. On his meeting Diocletian, the emperor

showed his dissatisfaction by letting Galerius walk for a mile, clad

in purple as he was, by the side of his car. The following year

Galerius again attacked the Persians, and completely defeated them,

taking an immense booty. The wives and children of Narses, who were

among the prisoners, were treated by Galerius with humanity and

respect. Narses sued for peace, which was granted by Diocletian on

condition of the Persians giving up all the territory on the right or

western bank of the Tigris. This peace was concluded in 297, and

lasted forty years.

At the same time Diocletian marched into Egypt against Achillaeus, whom

he besieged in Alexandria, which he took after a siege of eight

months, when the usurper and his chief adherents were put to death.

Diocletian is said to have behaved on this occasion with unusual

sternness. Several towns of Egypt, among others Busiris and Coptos,

were destroyed. Constantine, the son of Constantius, who was educated

at Nicomedia, accompanied the emperor in this expedition. Diocletian

fixed the limits of the Empire on that side at the island of

Elephantina, where he built a castle, and made peace with the

neighboring tribes, called by some Nubae and by others Nabatae, to whom

he gave up the strip of territory which the Romans had conquered, of

seven days' march above the first cataract, on condition that they

should prevent the Blemmyes and Ethiopians from attacking Egypt.

Maximianus in the meantime was engaged in putting down the revolt in

Mauritania, which he effected with full success.

For several years after this the empire enjoyed peace, and Diocletian

and his colleagues were chiefly employed in framing laws and

administrative regulations, and in constructing forts on the

frontiers. Diocletian kept a splendid court at Nicomedia, which town

he embellished with numerous structures. He, or rather Maximianus by

his order, caused the magnificent Thermae at Rome to be built, the

remains of which still bear Diocletian's name, and which contained,

besides the baths, a library, a museum, public walks, and other

establishments.

In February, 303, Diocletian issued an edict against the Christians,

ordering their churches to be pulled down, their sacred books to be

burnt, and all Christians to be dismissed from offices civil or

military, with other penalties, exclusive however of death. Various

causes have been assigned for this measure. It is known that Galerius

had always been hostile to the Christians, while Diocletian had openly

favored them, had employed them in his armies and about his person;

and Eusebius speaks of the prosperity, security, and protection which

the Christians enjoyed under his reign. They had churches in most

towns, and one at Nicomedia in particular under the eye of the

emperor. Just before the edict was issued, Galerius had repaired to

Nicomedia to induce Diocletian to proscribe the Christians. He filled

the emperor's mind with reports of conspiracies and seditions. The

imperial palace took fire, Constantine ("Oratio ad Coetum Sanctorum")

says, from lightning, and Galerius suggested to the emperor that it

was a Christian plot.

The heathen priests on their part exerted themselves for the same

purpose. It happened that on the occasion of a solemn sacrifice in

presence of the emperor, while priests were consulting the entrails of

the victims, the Christian officers in the imperial retinue crossed

themselves; upon which the priests declared that the presence of

profane men prevented them from discovering the auspices. Diocletian,

who was very anxious to pry into futurity, became irritated, and

ordered all his Christian officers to sacrifice to the gods under pain

of flagellation and dismissal, which many of them underwent. Several

oracles which he consulted gave answers unfavorable to the Christians.

The church of Nicomedia was the first pulled down by order of the

emperor. The rashness of a Christian who publicly tore down the

imperial edict exasperated Diocletian still more: the culprit was put

to a cruel death. Then came a second edict, ordering all magistrates

to arrest the Christian bishops and presbyters, and compel them to

sacrifice to the gods. This was giving to their enemies power over

their lives, and it proved, in fact, the beginning of a cruel

persecution, whose ravages were the more extensive in proportion to

the great diffusion of Christianity during a long period of

toleration. This was the last persecution under the Roman Empire, and

it has been called by the name of Diocletian. But that emperor issued

the two edicts reluctantly and after long hesitation, according to

Lactantius's acknowledgment: he fell ill a few months after, and on

recovering from his long illness he abdicated. Galerius, who had

instigated the persecution, was the most zealous minister of it; the

persecution raged with most fury in the provinces subject to his rule,

and he continued it for several years after Diocletian's abdication,

so that it might with more propriety be called the Galerian

persecution. Legend says that he died of a horrible disease, filled

with remorse and imagining himself haunted by the martyred spirits.

The countries under the government of Constantius suffered the least

from it.

In November of that year (303) Diocletian repaired to Rome, where he

and Maximianus enjoyed the honor of a triumph, followed by festive

games. This was the last triumph that Rome saw. The populace of that

city complained of the economy of Diocletian on the occasion, who

replied that moderation and temperance were most required when the

censor was present. They vented their displeasure in jibes and

sarcasms, which so hurt Diocletian that he left Rome abruptly in the

month of December for Ravenna, in very cold weather. In this journey

he was seized by an illness which affected him the whole of the

following year, which he spent at Nicomedia. At one time he was

reported to be dead. He rallied, however, in the spring of 305, and

showed himself in public, but greatly altered in appearance. Galerius

soon after came to Nicomedia, and it is said that he persuaded

Diocletian to abdicate. Others say that Diocletian did it

spontaneously.

On the 1st of May he repaired with his guards to a spot three miles

out of Nicomedia, where he had thirteen years before proclaimed

Galerius as Caesar, and there addressing his officers and court, he

said that the infirmities of age warned him to retire from power, and

to deliver the administration of the state into stronger hands. He

then proclaimed Galerius as Augustus, and Maximinus Daza as the new

Caesar. Constantine, who has given an account of the ceremony, which is

quoted by Eusebius in his life of that prince, was present, and the

troops fully expected that he would be the new Caesar; when they heard

another mentioned, they asked each other whether Constantine had

changed his name. But Galerius did not leave them long in suspense; he

pushed forward Maximinus and showed him to the assembly, and

Diocletian clothed him with the purple vest, after which the old

emperor returned privately in his carriage to Nicomedia, and

immediately after set off for Salona in Dalmatia, near which he built

himself an extensive palace by the sea-shore, in which he lived for

the rest of his life, respected by the other emperors, without cares

and without regret.

[Illustration: The Victims of Galerius.]

Part of the external walls which inclosed the area belonging to his

palace and other buildings still remain, with three of the gates,

as well as a temple, which is now a church at Spalatro, or Spalato, in

Dalmatia, a comparatively modern town, grown out of the decay of the

ancient Salona, and built in great part within the walls of

Diocletian's residence, from the name of which, "Palatium," it is

believed that "Spalato" is derived.

At the same time that Diocletian abdicated at Nicomedia, Maximianus,

according to an agreement between them, performed a similar ceremony

at Milan, proclaiming Constantius as Augustus, and Severus as Caesar.

Both Severus and Maximinus Daza were inferior persons, and creatures

of Galerius, who insisted upon their nomination in preference to that

of Maxentius and Constantine, whom Diocletian had at first proposed.

Maximianus retired to his seat in Lucania, but not being endowed with

the firmness of Diocletian he tried some time after to recover his

former power, and wrote to his old colleague to induce him to do the

same. "Were you but to come to Salona," answered Diocletian, "and see

the vegetables which I grow in my garden with my own hands, you would

no longer talk to me of empire." In his retirement he used to observe

to his associates how difficult it is, even for the best-intentioned

man, to govern well, as he cannot see everything with his own eyes,

but must trust to others, who often deceive him.

Once only he left his retirement to meet Galerius in Pannonia for the

purpose of appointing a new Caesar, Licinius, in the place of Severus,

who had died. Licinius, however, did not prove grateful, for after the

death of Galerius, in 311, he ill-treated his widow, Valeria,

Diocletian's daughter, who then, with her mother, Prisca, took refuge

in the territories of Maximinus Daza. The latter offered to marry

Valeria, but on her refusal exiled both her and her mother into the

deserts of Syria, and put to death several of their attendants.

Diocletian remonstrated in favor of his wife and daughter, but to no

purpose, and his grief on this occasion probably hastened his death,

which took place at his residence near Salona in July, 313. In the

following year his wife and daughter were put to death by order of

Licinius.

Diocletian ranks among the most distinguished emperors of Rome; his

reign of twenty-one years was upon the whole prosperous for the

empire, and creditable to the Roman name. He was severe, but not

wantonly cruel, and we ought to remember that mercy was not a Roman

virtue. His conduct after his abdication shows that his was no common

mind. The chief charge against him is his haughtiness in introducing

the Oriental ceremonial of prostration into the Roman court. The

Christian writers, and especially Lactantius, have spoken unfavorably

of him; but Lactantius cannot be implicitly trusted. Of the regular

historians of his reign we have only the meagre narratives of

Eutropius and Aurelius Victor, the others being now lost; but notices

of Diocletian's life are scattered about in various authors, Libanius,

Vopiscus, Eusebius, Julian in his "Caesars," and the contemporary

panegyrists, Eumenes and Mamertinus. His laws or edicts are in the

"Code." Among other useful reforms, he abolished the _frumentarii_, or

licensed informers, who were stationed in every province to report

any attempt at mutiny or rebellion, and who basely enriched themselves

by working on the fears of the inhabitants. He also reformed and

reduced the number of the insolent Praetorians, who were afterward

totally disbanded by Constantine.