22 (return) [ Levibus proeliis domuit. E_The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes)

23 (return) [ The fact rests indeed on very slight authority, a

life of St. Babolinus, which is probably of the seventh century.

See Duchesne Scriptores Rer. Francicar. tom. i. p. 662.]

Maximian had no sooner recovered Gaul from the hands of the

peasants, than he lost Britain by the usurpation of Carausius.

Ever since the rash but successful enterprise of the Franks under

the reign of Probus, their daring countrymen had constructed

squadrons of light brigantines, in which they incessantly ravaged

the provinces adjacent to the ocean. 24 To repel their desultory

incursions, it was found necessary to create a naval power; and

the judicious measure was prosecuted with prudence and vigor.

Gessoriacum, or Boulogne, in the straits of the British Channel,

was chosen by the emperor for the station of the Roman fleet; and

the command of it was intrusted to Carausius, a Menapian of the

meanest origin, 25 but who had long signalized his skill as a

pilot, and his valor as a soldier. The integrity of the new

admiral corresponded not with his abilities. When the German

pirates sailed from their own harbors, he connived at their

passage, but he diligently intercepted their return, and

appropriated to his own use an ample share of the spoil which

they had acquired. The wealth of Carausius was, on this occasion,

very justly considered as an evidence of his guilt; and Maximian

had already given orders for his death. But the crafty Menapian

foresaw and prevented the severity of the emperor. By his

liberality he had attached to his fortunes the fleet which he

commanded, and secured the barbarians in his interest. From the

port of Boulogne he sailed over to Britain, persuaded the legion,

and the auxiliaries which guarded that island, to embrace his

party, and boldly assuming, with the Imperial purple, the title

of Augustus, defied the justice and the arms of his injured

sovereign. 26

24 (return) [ Aurelius Victor calls them Germans. Eutropius (ix.

21) gives them the name of Saxons. But Eutropius lived in the

ensuing century, and seems to use the language of his own times.]

25 (return) [ The three expressions of Eutropius, Aurelius

Victor, and Eumenius, “vilissime natus,” “Bataviæ alumnus,” and

“Menapiæ civis,” give us a very doubtful account of the birth of

Carausius. Dr. Stukely, however, (Hist. of Carausius, p. 62,)

chooses to make him a native of St. David’s and a prince of the

blood royal of Britain. The former idea he had found in Richard

of Cirencester, p. 44. * Note: The Menapians were settled between

the Scheldt and the Meuse, is the northern part of Brabant.

D’Anville, Geogr. Anc. i. 93.—G.]

26 (return) [ Panegyr. v. 12. Britain at this time was secure,

and slightly guarded.]

When Britain was thus dismembered from the empire, its importance

was sensibly felt, and its loss sincerely lamented. The Romans

celebrated, and perhaps magnified, the extent of that noble

island, provided on every side with convenient harbors; the

temperature of the climate, and the fertility of the soil, alike

adapted for the production of corn or of vines; the valuable

minerals with which it abounded; its rich pastures covered with

innumerable flocks, and its woods free from wild beasts or

venomous serpents. Above all, they regretted the large amount of

the revenue of Britain, whilst they confessed, that such a

province well deserved to become the seat of an independent

monarchy. 27 During the space of seven years it was possessed by

Carausius; and fortune continued propitious to a rebellion

supported with courage and ability. The British emperor defended

the frontiers of his dominions against the Caledonians of the

North, invited, from the continent, a great number of skilful

artists, and displayed, on a variety of coins that are still

extant, his taste and opulence. Born on the confines of the

Franks, he courted the friendship of that formidable people, by

the flattering imitation of their dress and manners. The bravest

of their youth he enlisted among his land or sea forces; and, in

return for their useful alliance, he communicated to the

barbarians the dangerous knowledge of military and naval arts.

Carausius still preserved the possession of Boulogne and the

adjacent country. His fleets rode triumphant in the channel,

commanded the mouths of the Seine and of the Rhine, ravaged the

coasts of the ocean, and diffused beyond the columns of Hercules

the terror of his name. Under his command, Britain, destined in a

future age to obtain the empire of the sea, already assumed its

natural and respectable station of a maritime power. 28

27 (return) [ Panegyr. Vet v 11, vii. 9. The orator Eumenius

wished to exalt the glory of the hero (Constantius) with the

importance of the conquest. Notwithstanding our laudable

partiality for our native country, it is difficult to conceive,

that, in the beginning of the fourth century England deserved all

these commendations. A century and a half before, it hardly paid

its own establishment.]

28 (return) [ As a great number of medals of Carausius are still

preserved, he is become a very favorite object of antiquarian

curiosity, and every circumstance of his life and actions has

been investigated with sagacious accuracy. Dr. Stukely, in

particular, has devoted a large volume to the British emperor. I

have used his materials, and rejected most of his fanciful

conjectures.]

By seizing the fleet of Boulogne, Carausius had deprived his

master of the means of pursuit and revenge. And when, after a

vast expense of time and labor, a new armament was launched into

the water, 29 the Imperial troops, unaccustomed to that element,

were easily baffled and defeated by the veteran sailors of the

usurper. This disappointed effort was soon productive of a treaty

of peace. Diocletian and his colleague, who justly dreaded the

enterprising spirit of Carausius, resigned to him the sovereignty

of Britain, and reluctantly admitted their perfidious servant to

a participation of the Imperial honors. 30 But the adoption of

the two Cæsars restored new vigor to the Romans arms; and while

the Rhine was guarded by the presence of Maximian, his brave

associate Constantius assumed the conduct of the British war. His

first enterprise was against the important place of Boulogne. A

stupendous mole, raised across the entrance of the harbor,

intercepted all hopes of relief. The town surrendered after an

obstinate defence; and a considerable part of the naval strength

of Carausius fell into the hands of the besiegers. During the

three years which Constantius employed in preparing a fleet

adequate to the conquest of Britain, he secured the coast of

Gaul, invaded the country of the Franks, and deprived the usurper

of the assistance of those powerful allies.

29 (return) [ When Mamertinus pronounced his first panegyric, the

naval preparations of Maximian were completed; and the orator

presaged an assured victory. His silence in the second panegyric

might alone inform us that the expedition had not succeeded.]

30 (return) [ Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, and the medals, (Pax

Augg.) inform us of this temporary reconciliation; though I will

not presume (as Dr. Stukely has done, Medallic History of

Carausius, p. 86, &c) to insert the identical articles of the

treaty.]

Before the preparations were finished, Constantius received the

intelligence of the tyrant’s death, and it was considered as a

sure presage of the approaching victory. The servants of

Carausius imitated the example of treason which he had given. He

was murdered by his first minister, Allectus, and the assassin

succeeded to his power and to his danger. But he possessed not

equal abilities either to exercise the one or to repel the other.

He beheld, with anxious terror, the opposite shores of the

continent already filled with arms, with troops, and with

vessels; for Constantius had very prudently divided his forces,

that he might likewise divide the attention and resistance of the

enemy. The attack was at length made by the principal squadron,

which, under the command of the præfect Asclepiodatus, an officer

of distinguished merit, had been assembled in the north of the

Seine. So imperfect in those times was the art of navigation,

that orators have celebrated the daring courage of the Romans,

who ventured to set sail with a side-wind, and on a stormy day.

The weather proved favorable to their enterprise. Under the cover

of a thick fog, they escaped the fleet of Allectus, which had

been stationed off the Isle of Wight to receive them, landed in

safety on some part of the western coast, and convinced the

Britons, that a superiority of naval strength will not always

protect their country from a foreign invasion. Asclepiodatus had

no sooner disembarked the imperial troops, then he set fire to

his ships; and, as the expedition proved fortunate, his heroic

conduct was universally admired. The usurper had posted himself

near London, to expect the formidable attack of Constantius, who

commanded in person the fleet of Boulogne; but the descent of a

new enemy required his immediate presence in the West. He

performed this long march in so precipitate a manner, that he

encountered the whole force of the præfect with a small body of

harassed and disheartened troops. The engagement was soon

terminated by the total defeat and death of Allectus; a single

battle, as it has often happened, decided the fate of this great

island; and when Constantius landed on the shores of Kent, he

found them covered with obedient subjects. Their acclamations

were loud and unanimous; and the virtues of the conqueror may

induce us to believe, that they sincerely rejoiced in a

revolution, which, after a separation of ten years, restored

Britain to the body of the Roman empire. 31

31 (return) [ With regard to the recovery of Britain, we obtain a

few hints from Aurelius Victor and Eutropius.]

Chapter XIII: Reign Of Diocletian And His Three Associates.—Part

II.

Britain had none but domestic enemies to dread; and as long as

the governors preserved their fidelity, and the troops their

discipline, the incursions of the naked savages of Scotland or

Ireland could never materially affect the safety of the province.

The peace of the continent, and the defence of the principal

rivers which bounded the empire, were objects of far greater

difficulty and importance. The policy of Diocletian, which

inspired the councils of his associates, provided for the public

tranquility, by encouraging a spirit of dissension among the

barbarians, and by strengthening the fortifications of the Roman

limit. In the East he fixed a line of camps from Egypt to the

Persian dominions, and for every camp, he instituted an adequate

number of stationary troops, commanded by their respective

officers, and supplied with every kind of arms, from the new

arsenals which he had formed at Antioch, Emesa, and Damascus. 32

Nor was the precaution of the emperor less watchful against the

well-known valor of the barbarians of Europe. From the mouth of

the Rhine to that of the Danube, the ancient camps, towns, and

citidels, were diligently reëstablished, and, in the most exposed

places, new ones were skilfully constructed: the strictest

vigilance was introduced among the garrisons of the frontier, and

every expedient was practised that could render the long chain of

fortifications firm and impenetrable. 33 A barrier so respectable

was seldom violated, and the barbarians often turned against each

other their disappointed rage. The Goths, the Vandals, the

Gepidæ, the Burgundians, the Alemanni, wasted each other’s

strength by destructive hostilities: and whosoever vanquished,

they vanquished the enemies of Rome. The subjects of Diocletian

enjoyed the bloody spectacle, and congratulated each other, that

the mischiefs of civil war were now experienced only by the

barbarians. 34

32 (return) [ John Malala, in Chron, Antiochen. tom. i. p. 408,

409.]

33 (return) [ Zosim. l. i. p. 3. That partial historian seems to

celebrate the vigilance of Diocletian with a design of exposing

the negligence of Constantine; we may, however, listen to an

orator: “Nam quid ego alarum et cohortium castra percenseam, toto

Rheni et Istri et Euphraus limite restituta.” Panegyr. Vet. iv.

18.]

34 (return) [ Ruunt omnes in sanguinem suum populi, quibus ron

contigilesse Romanis, obstinatæque feritatis poenas nunc sponte

persolvunt. Panegyr. Vet. iii. 16. Mamertinus illustrates the

fact by the example of almost all the nations in the world.]

Notwithstanding the policy of Diocletian, it was impossible to

maintain an equal and undisturbed tranquillity during a reign of

twenty years, and along a frontier of many hundred miles.

Sometimes the barbarians suspended their domestic animosities,

and the relaxed vigilance of the garrisons sometimes gave a

passage to their strength or dexterity. Whenever the provinces

were invaded, Diocletian conducted himself with that calm dignity

which he always affected or possessed; reserved his presence for

such occasions as were worthy of his interposition, never exposed

his person or reputation to any unnecessary danger, insured his

success by every means that prudence could suggest, and

displayed, with ostentation, the consequences of his victory. In

wars of a more difficult nature, and more doubtful event, he

employed the rough valor of Maximian; and that faithful soldier

was content to ascribe his own victories to the wise counsels and

auspicious influence of his benefactor. But after the adoption of

the two Cæsars, the emperors themselves, retiring to a less

laborious scene of action, devolved on their adopted sons the

defence of the Danube and of the Rhine. The vigilant Galerius was

never reduced to the necessity of vanquishing an army of

barbarians on the Roman territory. 35 The brave and active

Constantius delivered Gaul from a very furious inroad of the

Alemanni; and his victories of Langres and Vindonissa appear to

have been actions of considerable danger and merit. As he

traversed the open country with a feeble guard, he was

encompassed on a sudden by the superior multitude of the enemy.

He retreated with difficulty towards Langres; but, in the general

consternation, the citizens refused to open their gates, and the

wounded prince was drawn up the wall by the means of a rope. But,

on the news of his distress, the Roman troops hastened from all

sides to his relief, and before the evening he had satisfied his

honor and revenge by the slaughter of six thousand Alemanni. 36

From the monuments of those times, the obscure traces of several

other victories over the barbarians of Sarmatia and Germany might

possibly be collected; but the tedious search would not be

rewarded either with amusement or with instruction.

35 (return) [ He complained, though not with the strictest truth,

“Jam fluxisse annos quindecim in quibus, in Illyrico, ad ripam

Danubii relegatus cum gentibus barbaris luctaret.” Lactant. de M.

P. c. 18.]

36 (return) [ In the Greek text of Eusebius, we read six

thousand, a number which I have preferred to the sixty thousand

of Jerome, Orosius Eutropius, and his Greek translator Pæanius.]

The conduct which the emperor Probus had adopted in the disposal

of the vanquished was imitated by Diocletian and his associates.

The captive barbarians, exchanging death for slavery, were

distributed among the provincials, and assigned to those

districts (in Gaul, the territories of Amiens, Beauvais, Cambray,

Treves, Langres, and Troyes, are particularly specified) 37 which

had been depopulated by the calamities of war. They were usefully

employed as shepherds and husbandmen, but were denied the

exercise of arms, except when it was found expedient to enroll

them in the military service. Nor did the emperors refuse the

property of lands, with a less servile tenure, to such of the

barbarians as solicited the protection of Rome. They granted a

settlement to several colonies of the Carpi, the Bastarnæ, and

the Sarmatians; and, by a dangerous indulgence, permitted them in

some measure to retain their national manners and independence.

38 Among the provincials, it was a subject of flattering

exultation, that the barbarian, so lately an object of terror,

now cultivated their lands, drove their cattle to the neighboring

fair, and contributed by his labor to the public plenty. They

congratulated their masters on the powerful accession of subjects

and soldiers; but they forgot to observe, that multitudes of

secret enemies, insolent from favor, or desperate from

oppression, were introduced into the heart of the empire. 39

37 (return) [ Panegyr. Vet. vii. 21.]

38 (return) [ There was a settlement of the Sarmatians in the

neighborhood of Treves, which seems to have been deserted by

those lazy barbarians. Ausonius speaks of them in his Mosella:——

“Unde iter ingrediens nemorosa per avia solum, Et nulla humani

spectans vestigia cultus; ........ Arvaque Sauromatum nuper

metata colonis.”]

39 (return) [ There was a town of the Carpi in the Lower Mæsia.

See the rhetorical exultation of Eumenius.]

While the Cæsars exercised their valor on the banks of the Rhine

and Danube, the presence of the emperors was required on the

southern confines of the Roman world. From the Nile to Mount

Atlas, Africa was in arms. A confederacy of five Moorish nations

issued from their deserts to invade the peaceful provinces. 40

Julian had assumed the purple at Carthage. 41 Achilleus at

Alexandria, and even the Blemmyes, renewed, or rather continued,

their incursions into the Upper Egypt. Scarcely any circumstances

have been preserved of the exploits of Maximian in the western

parts of Africa; but it appears, by the event, that the progress

of his arms was rapid and decisive, that he vanquished the

fiercest barbarians of Mauritania, and that he removed them from

the mountains, whose inaccessible strength had inspired their

inhabitants with a lawless confidence, and habituated them to a

life of rapine and violence. 42 Diocletian, on his side, opened

the campaign in Egypt by the siege of Alexandria, cut off the

aqueducts which conveyed the waters of the Nile into every

quarter of that immense city, 43 and rendering his camp

impregnable to the sallies of the besieged multitude, he pushed

his reiterated attacks with caution and vigor. After a siege of

eight months, Alexandria, wasted by the sword and by fire,

implored the clemency of the conqueror, but it experienced the

full extent of his severity. Many thousands of the citizens

perished in a promiscuous slaughter, and there were few obnoxious

persons in Egypt who escaped a sentence either of death or at

least of exile. 44 The fate of Busiris and of Coptos was still

more melancholy than that of Alexandria: those proud cities, the

former distinguished by its antiquity, the latter enriched by the

passage of the Indian trade, were utterly destroyed by the arms

and by the severe order of Diocletian. 45 The character of the

Egyptian nation, insensible to kindness, but extremely

susceptible of fear, could alone justify this excessive rigor.

The seditions of Alexandria had often affected the tranquillity

and subsistence of Rome itself. Since the usurpation of Firmus,

the province of Upper Egypt, incessantly relapsing into

rebellion, had embraced the alliance of the savages of Æthiopia.

The number of the Blemmyes, scattered between the Island of Meroe

and the Red Sea, was very inconsiderable, their disposition was

unwarlike, their weapons rude and inoffensive. 46 Yet in the

public disorders, these barbarians, whom antiquity, shocked with

the deformity of their figure, had almost excluded from the human

species, presumed to rank themselves among the enemies of Rome.

47 Such had been the unworthy allies of the Egyptians; and while

the attention of the state was engaged in more serious wars,

their vexations inroads might again harass the repose of the

province. With a view of opposing to the Blemmyes a suitable

adversary, Diocletian persuaded the Nobatæ, or people of Nubia,

to remove from their ancient habitations in the deserts of Libya,

and resigned to them an extensive but unprofitable territory

above Syene and the cataracts of the Nile, with the stipulation,

that they should ever respect and guard the frontier of the

empire. The treaty long subsisted; and till the establishment of

Christianity introduced stricter notions of religious worship, it

was annually ratified by a solemn sacrifice in the isle of

Elephantine, in which the Romans, as well as the barbarians,

adored the same visible or invisible powers of the universe. 48

40 (return) [ Scaliger (Animadvers. ad Euseb. p. 243) decides, in

his usual manner, that the Quinque gentiani, or five African

nations, were the five great cities, the Pentapolis of the

inoffensive province of Cyrene.]

41 (return) [ After his defeat, Julian stabbed himself with a

dagger, and immediately leaped into the flames. Victor in

Epitome.]

42 (return) [ Tu ferocissimos Mauritaniæ populos inaccessis

montium jugis et naturali munitione fidentes, expugnasti,

recepisti, transtulisti. Panegyr Vet. vi. 8.]

43 (return) [ See the description of Alexandria, in Hirtius de

Bel. Alexandrin c. 5.]

44 (return) [ Eutrop. ix. 24. Orosius, vii. 25. John Malala in

Chron. Antioch. p. 409, 410. Yet Eumenius assures us, that Egypt

was pacified by the clemency of Diocletian.]

45 (return) [ Eusebius (in Chron.) places their destruction

several years sooner and at a time when Egypt itself was in a

state of rebellion against the Romans.]

46 (return) [ Strabo, l. xvii. p. 172. Pomponius Mela, l. i. c.

4. His words are curious: “Intra, si credere libet vix, homines

magisque semiferi Ægipanes, et Blemmyes, et Satyri.”]

47 (return) [ Ausus sese inserere fortunæ et provocare arma

Romana.]

48 (return) [ See Procopius de Bell. Persic. l. i. c. 19. Note:

Compare, on the epoch of the final extirpation of the rites of

Paganism from the Isle of Philæ, (Elephantine,) which subsisted

till the edict of Theodosius, in the sixth century, a

dissertation of M. Letronne, on certain Greek inscriptions. The

dissertation contains some very interesting observations on the

conduct and policy of Diocletian in Egypt. Mater pour l’Hist. du

Christianisme en Egypte, Nubie et Abyssinie, Paris 1817—M.]

At the same time that Diocletian chastised the past crimes of the

Egyptians, he provided for their future safety and happiness by

many wise regulations, which were confirmed and enforced under

the succeeding reigns. 49 One very remarkable edict which he

published, instead of being condemned as the effect of jealous

tyranny, deserves to be applauded as an act of prudence and

humanity. He caused a diligent inquiry to be made “for all the

ancient books which treated of the admirable art of making gold

and silver, and without pity, committed them to the flames;

apprehensive, as we are assumed, lest the opulence of the

Egyptians should inspire them with confidence to rebel against

the empire.” 50 But if Diocletian had been convinced of the

reality of that valuable art, far from extinguishing the memory,

he would have converted the operation of it to the benefit of the

public revenue. It is much more likely, that his good sense

discovered to him the folly of such magnificent pretensions, and

that he was desirous of preserving the reason and fortunes of his

subjects from the mischievous pursuit. It may be remarked, that

these ancient books, so liberally ascribed to Pythagoras, to

Solomon, or to Hermes, were the pious frauds of more recent

adepts. The Greeks were inattentive either to the use or to the

abuse of chemistry. In that immense register, where Pliny has

deposited the discoveries, the arts, and the errors of mankind,

there is not the least mention of the transmutation of metals;

and the persecution of Diocletian is the first authentic event in

the history of alchemy. The conquest of Egypt by the Arabs

diffused that vain science over the globe. Congenial to the

avarice of the human heart, it was studied in China as in Europe,

with equal eagerness, and with equal success. The darkness of the

middle ages insured a favorable reception to every tale of

wonder, and the revival of learning gave new vigor to hope, and

suggested more specious arts of deception. Philosophy, with the

aid of experience, has at length banished the study of alchemy;

and the present age, however desirous of riches, is content to

seek them by the humbler means of commerce and industry. 51

49 (return) [ He fixed the public allowance of corn, for the

people of Alexandria, at two millions of medimni; about four

hundred thousand quarters. Chron. Paschal. p. 276 Procop. Hist.

Arcan. c. 26.]

50 (return) [ John Antioch, in Excerp. Valesian. p. 834. Suidas

in Diocletian.]

51 (return) [ See a short history and confutation of Alchemy, in

the works of that philosophical compiler, La Mothe le Vayer, tom.

i. p. 32—353.]

The reduction of Egypt was immediately followed by the Persian

war. It was reserved for the reign of Diocletian to vanquish that

powerful nation, and to extort a confession from the successors

of Artaxerxes, of the superior majesty of the Roman empire.

We have observed, under the reign of Valerian, that Armenia was

subdued by the perfidy and the arms of the Persians, and that,

after the assassination of Chosroes, his son Tiridates, the

infant heir of the monarchy, was saved by the fidelity of his

friends, and educated under the protection of the emperors.

Tiridates derived from his exile such advantages as he could

never have obtained on the throne of Armenia; the early knowledge

of adversity, of mankind, and of the Roman discipline. He

signalized his youth by deeds of valor, and displayed a matchless

dexterity, as well as strength, in every martial exercise, and

even in the less honorable contests of the Olympian games. 52

Those qualities were more nobly exerted in the defence of his

benefactor Licinius. 53 That officer, in the sedition which

occasioned the death of Probus, was exposed to the most imminent

danger, and the enraged soldiers were forcing their way into his

tent, when they were checked by the single arm of the Armenian

prince. The gratitude of Tiridates contributed soon afterwards to

his restoration. Licinius was in every station the friend and

companion of Galerius, and the merit of Galerius, long before he

was raised to the dignity of Cæsar, had been known and esteemed

by Diocletian. In the third year of that emperor’s reign

Tiridates was invested with the kingdom of Armenia. The justice

of the measure was not less evident than its expediency. It was

time to rescue from the usurpation of the Persian monarch an

important territory, which, since the reign of Nero, had been

always granted under the protection of the empire to a younger

branch of the house of Arsaces. 54

52 (return) [ See the education and strength of Tiridates in the

Armenian history of Moses of Chorene, l. ii. c. 76. He could

seize two wild bulls by the horns, and break them off with his

hands.]

53 (return) [ If we give credit to the younger Victor, who

supposes that in the year 323 Licinius was only sixty years of

age, he could scarcely be the same person as the patron of

Tiridates; but we know from much better authority, (Euseb. Hist.

Ecclesiast. l. x. c. 8,) that Licinius was at that time in the

last period of old age: sixteen years before, he is represented

with gray hairs, and as the contemporary of Galerius. See

Lactant. c. 32. Licinius was probably born about the year 250.]

54 (return) [ See the sixty-second and sixty-third books of Dion

Cassius.]

When Tiridates appeared on the frontiers of Armenia, he was

received with an unfeigned transport of joy and loyalty. During

twenty-six years, the country had experienced the real and

imaginary hardships of a foreign yoke. The Persian monarchs

adorned their new conquest with magnificent buildings; but those

monuments had been erected at the expense of the people, and were

abhorred as badges of slavery. The apprehension of a revolt had

inspired the most rigorous precautions: oppression had been

aggravated by insult, and the consciousness of the public hatred

had been productive of every measure that could render it still

more implacable. We have already remarked the intolerant spirit

of the Magian religion. The statues of the deified kings of

Armenia, and the sacred images of the sun and moon, were broke in

pieces by the zeal of the conqueror; and the perpetual fire of

Ormuzd was kindled and preserved upon an altar erected on the

summit of Mount Bagavan. 55 It was natural, that a people

exasperated by so many injuries, should arm with zeal in the

cause of their independence, their religion, and their hereditary

sovereign. The torrent bore down every obstacle, and the Persian

garrisons retreated before its fury. The nobles of Armenia flew

to the standard of Tiridates, all alleging their past merit,

offering their future service, and soliciting from the new king

those honors and rewards from which they had been excluded with

disdain under the foreign government. 56 The command of the army

was bestowed on Artavasdes, whose father had saved the infancy of

Tiridates, and whose family had been massacred for that generous

action. The brother of Artavasdes obtained the government of a

province. One of the first military dignities was conferred on

the satrap Otas, a man of singular temperance and fortitude, who

presented to the king his sister 57 and a considerable treasure,

both of which, in a sequestered fortress, Otas had preserved from

violation. Among the Armenian nobles appeared an ally, whose

fortunes are too remarkable to pass unnoticed. His name was

Mamgo, 571 his origin was Scythian, and the horde which

acknowledge his authority had encamped a very few years before on

the skirts of the Chinese empire, 58 which at that time extended

as far as the neighborhood of Sogdiana. 59 Having incurred the

displeasure of his master, Mamgo, with his followers, retired to

the banks of the Oxus, and implored the protection of Sapor. The

emperor of China claimed the fugitive, and alleged the rights of

sovereignty. The Persian monarch pleaded the laws of hospitality,

and with some difficulty avoided a war, by the promise that he

would banish Mamgo to the uttermost parts of the West, a

punishment, as he described it, not less dreadful than death

itself. Armenia was chosen for the place of exile, and a large

district was assigned to the Scythian horde, on which they might

feed their flocks and herds, and remove their encampment from one

place to another, according to the different seasons of the year.

They were employed to repel the invasion of Tiridates; but their

leader, after weighing the obligations and injuries which he had

received from the Persian monarch, resolved to abandon his party.

The Armenian prince, who was well acquainted with the merit as

well as power of Mamgo, treated him with distinguished respect;

and, by admitting him into his confidence, acquired a brave and

faithful servant, who contributed very effectually to his

restoration. 60

55 (return) [ Moses of Chorene. Hist. Armen. l. ii. c. 74. The

statues had been erected by Valarsaces, who reigned in Armenia

about 130 years before Christ, and was the first king of the

family of Arsaces, (see Moses, Hist. Armen. l. ii. 2, 3.) The

deification of the Arsacides is mentioned by Justin, (xli. 5,)

and by Ammianus Marcellinus, (xxiii. 6.)]

56 (return) [ The Armenian nobility was numerous and powerful.

Moses mentions many families which were distinguished under the

reign of Valarsaces, (l. ii. 7,) and which still subsisted in his

own time, about the middle of the fifth century. See the preface

of his Editors.]

57 (return) [ She was named Chosroiduchta, and had not the os

patulum like other women. (Hist. Armen. l. ii. c. 79.) I do not

understand the expression. * Note: Os patulum signifies merely a

large and widely opening mouth. Ovid (Metam. xv. 513) says,

speaking of the monster who attacked Hippolytus, patulo partem

maris evomit ore. Probably a wide mouth was a common defect among

the Armenian women.—G.]

571 (return) [ Mamgo (according to M. St. Martin, note to Le

Beau. ii. 213) belonged to the imperial race of Hon, who had

filled the throne of China for four hundred years. Dethroned by

the usurping race of Wei, Mamgo found a hospitable reception in

Persia in the reign of Ardeschir. The emperor of china having

demanded the surrender of the fugitive and his partisans, Sapor,

then king, threatened with war both by Rome and China, counselled

Mamgo to retire into Armenia. “I have expelled him from my

dominions, (he answered the Chinese ambassador;) I have banished

him to the extremity of the earth, where the sun sets; I have

dismissed him to certain death.” Compare Mem. sur l’Armenie, ii.

25.—M.]

58 (return) [ In the Armenian history, (l. ii. 78,) as well as in

the Geography, (p. 367,) China is called Zenia, or Zenastan. It

is characterized by the production of silk, by the opulence of

the natives, and by their love of peace, above all the other

nations of the earth. * Note: See St. Martin, Mem. sur l’Armenie,

i. 304.]

59 (return) [ Vou-ti, the first emperor of the seventh dynasty,

who then reigned in China, had political transactions with

Fergana, a province of Sogdiana, and is said to have received a

Roman embassy, (Histoire des Huns, tom. i. p. 38.) In those ages

the Chinese kept a garrison at Kashgar, and one of their

generals, about the time of Trajan, marched as far as the Caspian

Sea. With regard to the intercourse between China and the Western

countries, a curious memoir of M. de Guignes may be consulted, in

the Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxii. p. 355. * Note: The

Chinese Annals mention, under the ninth year of Yan-hi, which

corresponds with the year 166 J. C., an embassy which arrived

from Tathsin, and was sent by a prince called An-thun, who can be

no other than Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who then ruled over the

Romans. St. Martin, Mem. sur l’Armænic. ii. 30. See also

Klaproth, Tableaux Historiques de l’Asie, p. 69. The embassy came

by Jy-nan, Tonquin.—M.]

60 (return) [ See Hist. Armen. l. ii. c. 81.]

For a while, fortune appeared to favor the enterprising valor of

Tiridates. He not only expelled the enemies of his family and

country from the whole extent of Armenia, but in the prosecution

of his revenge he carried his arms, or at least his incursions,

into the heart of Assyria. The historian, who has preserved the

name of Tiridates from oblivion, celebrates, with a degree of

national enthusiasm, his personal prowess: and, in the true

spirit of eastern romance, describes the giants and the elephants

that fell beneath his invincible arm. It is from other

information that we discover the distracted state of the Persian

monarchy, to which the king of Armenia was indebted for some part

of his advantages. The throne was disputed by the ambition of

contending brothers; and Hormuz, after exerting without success

the strength of his own party, had recourse to the dangerous

assistance of the barbarians who inhabited the banks of the

Caspian Sea. 61 The civil war was, however, soon terminated,

either by a victor or by a reconciliation; and Narses, who was

universally acknowledged as king of Persia, directed his whole

force against the foreign enemy. The contest then became too

unequal; nor was the valor of the hero able to withstand the

power of the monarch. Tiridates, a second time expelled from the

throne of Armenia, once more took refuge in the court of the

emperors. 611 Narses soon reëstablished his authority over the

revolted province; and loudly complaining of the protection

afforded by the Romans to rebels and fugitives, aspired to the

conquest of the East. 62

61 (return) [ Ipsos Persas ipsumque Regem ascitis Saccis, et

Russis, et Gellis, petit frater Ormies. Panegyric. Vet. iii. 1.

The Saccæ were a nation of wandering Scythians, who encamped

towards the sources of the Oxus and the Jaxartes. The Gelli where

the inhabitants of Ghilan, along the Caspian Sea, and who so

long, under the name of Dilemines, infested the Persian monarchy.

See d’Herbelot, Bibliotheque]

611 (return) [ M St. Martin represents this differently. Le roi

de Perse * * * profits d’un voyage que Tiridate avoit fait a Rome

pour attaquer ce royaume. This reads like the evasion of the

national historians to disguise the fact discreditable to their

hero. See Mem. sur l’Armenie, i. 304.—M.]

62 (return) [ Moses of Chorene takes no notice of this second

revolution, which I have been obliged to collect from a passage

of Ammianus Marcellinus, (l. xxiii. c. 5.) Lactantius speaks of

the ambition of Narses: “Concitatus domesticis exemplis avi sui

Saporis ad occupandum orientem magnis copiis inhiabat.” De Mort.

Persecut. c. 9.]

Neither prudence nor honor could permit the emperors to forsake

the cause of the Armenian king, and it was resolved to exert the

force of the empire in the Persian war. Diocletian, with the calm

dignity which he constantly assumed, fixed his own station in the

city of Antioch, from whence he prepared and directed the

military operations. 63 The conduct of the legions was intrusted

to the intrepid valor of Galerius, who, for that important

purpose, was removed from the banks of the Danube to those of the

Euphrates. The armies soon encountered each other in the plains

of Mesopotamia, and two battles were fought with various and

doubtful success; but the third engagement was of a more decisive

nature; and the Roman army received a total overthrow, which is

attributed to the rashness of Galerius, who, with an

inconsiderable body of troops, attacked the innumerable host of

the Persians. 64 But the consideration of the country that was

the scene of action, may suggest another reason for his defeat.

The same ground on which Galerius was vanquished, had been

rendered memorable by the death of Crassus, and the slaughter of

ten legions. It was a plain of more than sixty miles, which

extended from the hills of Carrhæ to the Euphrates; a smooth and

barren surface of sandy desert, without a hillock, without a

tree, and without a spring of fresh water. 65 The steady infantry

of the Romans, fainting with heat and thirst, could neither hope

for victory if they preserved their ranks, nor break their ranks

without exposing themselves to the most imminent danger. In this

situation they were gradually encompassed by the superior

numbers, harassed by the rapid evolutions, and destroyed by the

arrows of the barbarian cavalry.

The king of Armenia had signalized his valor in the battle, and

acquired personal glory by the public misfortune. He was pursued

as far as the Euphrates; his horse was wounded, and it appeared

impossible for him to escape the victorious enemy. In this

extremity Tiridates embraced the only refuge which appeared

before him: he dismounted and plunged into the stream. His armor

was heavy, the river very deep, and at those parts at least half

a mile in breadth; 66 yet such was his strength and dexterity,

that he reached in safety the opposite bank. 67 With regard to

the Roman general, we are ignorant of the circumstances of his

escape; but when he returned to Antioch, Diocletian received him,

not with the tenderness of a friend and colleague, but with the

indignation of an offended sovereign. The haughtiest of men,

clothed in his purple, but humbled by the sense of his fault and

misfortune, was obliged to follow the emperor’s chariot above a

mile on foot, and to exhibit, before the whole court, the

spectacle of his disgrace. 68

63 (return) [ We may readily believe, that Lactantius ascribes to

cowardice the conduct of Diocletian. Julian, in his oration,

says, that he remained with all the forces of the empire; a very

hyperbolical expression.]

64 (return) [ Our five abbreviators, Eutropius, Festus, the two

Victors, and Orosius, all relate the last and great battle; but

Orosius is the only one who speaks of the two former.]

65 (return) [ The nature of the country is finely described by

Plutarch, in the life of Crassus; and by Xenophon, in the first

book of the Anabasis]

66 (return) [ See Foster’s Dissertation in the second volume of

the translation of the Anabasis by Spelman; which I will venture

to recommend as one of the best versions extant.]

67 (return) [ Hist. Armen. l. ii. c. 76. I have transferred this

exploit of Tiridates from an imaginary defeat to the real one of

Galerius.]

68 (return) [ Ammian. Marcellin. l. xiv. The mile, in the hands

of Eutropoius, (ix. 24,) of Festus (c. 25,) and of Orosius, (vii

25), easily increased to several miles]

As soon as Diocletian had indulged his private resentment, and

asserted the majesty of supreme power, he yielded to the

submissive entreaties of the Cæsar, and permitted him to retrieve

his own honor, as well as that of the Roman arms. In the room of

the unwarlike troops of Asia, which had most probably served in

the first expedition, a second army was drawn from the veterans

and new levies of the Illyrian frontier, and a considerable body

of Gothic auxiliaries were taken into the Imperial pay. 69 At the

head of a chosen army of twenty-five thousand men, Galerius again

passed the Euphrates; but, instead of exposing his legions in the

open plains of Mesopotamia he advanced through the mountains of

Armenia, where he found the inhabitants devoted to his cause, and

the country as favorable to the operations of infantry as it was

inconvenient for the motions of cavalry. 70 Adversity had

confirmed the Roman discipline, while the barbarians, elated by

success, were become so negligent and remiss, that in the moment

when they least expected it, they were surprised by the active

conduct of Galerius, who, attended only by two horsemen, had with

his own eyes secretly examined the state and position of their

camp. A surprise, especially in the night time, was for the most

part fatal to a Persian army. “Their horses were tied, and

generally shackled, to prevent their running away; and if an

alarm happened, a Persian had his housing to fix, his horse to

bridle, and his corselet to put on, before he could mount.” 71 On

this occasion, the impetuous attack of Galerius spread disorder

and dismay over the camp of the barbarians. A slight resistance

was followed by a dreadful carnage, and, in the general

confusion, the wounded monarch (for Narses commanded his armies

in person) fled towards the deserts of Media. His sumptuous

tents, and those of his satraps, afforded an immense booty to the

conqueror; and an incident is mentioned, which proves the rustic

but martial ignorance of the legions in the elegant superfluities

of life. A bag of shining leather, filled with pearls, fell into

the hands of a private soldier; he carefully preserved the bag,

but he threw away its contents, judging that whatever was of no

use could not possibly be of any value. 72 The principal loss of

Narses was of a much more affecting nature. Several of his wives,

his sisters, and children, who had attended the army, were made

captives in the defeat. But though the character of Galerius had

in general very little affinity with that of Alexander, he

imitated, after his victory, the amiable behavior of the

Macedonian towards the family of Darius. The wives and children

of Narses were protected from violence and rapine, conveyed to a

place of safety, and treated with every mark of respect and

tenderness, that was due from a generous enemy to their age,

their sex, and their royal dignity. 73

69 (return) [ Aurelius Victor. Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c.

21.]

70 (return) [ Aurelius Victor says, “Per Armeniam in hostes

contendit, quæ fermo sola, seu facilior vincendi via est.” He

followed the conduct of Trajan, and the idea of Julius Cæsar.]

71 (return) [ Xenophon’s Anabasis, l. iii. For that reason the

Persian cavalry encamped sixty stadia from the enemy.]

72 (return) [ The story is told by Ammianus, l. xxii. Instead of

saccum, some read scutum.]

73 (return) [ The Persians confessed the Roman superiority in

morals as well as in arms. Eutrop. ix. 24. But this respect and

gratitude of enemies is very seldom to be found in their own

accounts.]

Chapter XIII: Reign Of Diocletian And His Three Associates.—Part

III.

While the East anxiously expected the decision of this great

contest, the emperor Diocletian, having assembled in Syria a

strong army of observation, displayed from a distance the

resources of the Roman power, and reserved himself for any future

emergency of the war. On the intelligence of the victory he

condescended to advance towards the frontier, with a view of

moderating, by his presence and counsels, the pride of Galerius.

The interview of the Roman princes at Nisibis was accompanied

with every expression of respect on one side, and of esteem on

the other. It was in that city that they soon afterwards gave

audience to the ambassador of the Great King. 74 The power, or at

least the spirit, of Narses, had been broken by his last defeat;

and he considered an immediate peace as the only means that could

stop the progress of the Roman arms. He despatched Apharban, a

servant who possessed his favor and confidence, with a commission

to negotiate a treaty, or rather to receive whatever conditions

the conqueror should impose. Apharban opened the conference by

expressing his master’s gratitude for the generous treatment of

his family, and by soliciting the liberty of those illustrious

captives. He celebrated the valor of Galerius, without degrading

the reputation of Narses, and thought it no dishonor to confess

the superiority of the victorious Cæsar, over a monarch who had

surpassed in glory all the princes of his race. Notwithstanding

the justice of the Persian cause, he was empowered to submit the

present differences to the decision of the emperors themselves;

convinced as he was, that, in the midst of prosperity, they would

not be unmindful of the vicissitudes of fortune. Apharban

concluded his discourse in the style of eastern allegory, by

observing that the Roman and Persian monarchies were the two eyes

of the world, which would remain imperfect and mutilated if

either of them should be put out.

74 (return) [ The account of the negotiation is taken from the

fragments of Peter the Patrician, in the Excerpta Legationum,

published in the Byzantine Collection. Peter lived under

Justinian; but it is very evident, by the nature of his

materials, that they are drawn from the most authentic and

respectable writers.]

“It well becomes the Persians,” replied Galerius, with a

transport of fury, which seemed to convulse his whole frame, “it

well becomes the Persians to expatiate on the vicissitudes of

fortune, and calmly to read us lectures on the virtues of

moderation. Let them remember their own _moderation_ towards the

unhappy Valerian. They vanquished him by fraud, they treated him

with indignity. They detained him till the last moment of his

life in shameful captivity, and after his death they exposed his

body to perpetual ignominy.” Softening, however, his tone,

Galerius insinuated to the ambassador, that it had never been the

practice of the Romans to trample on a prostrate enemy; and that,

on this occasion, they should consult their own dignity rather

than the Persian merit. He dismissed Apharban with a hope that

Narses would soon be informed on what conditions he might obtain,

from the clemency of the emperors, a lasting peace, and the

restoration of his wives and children. In this conference we may

discover the fierce passions of Galerius, as well as his

deference to the superior wisdom and authority of Diocletian. The

ambition of the former grasped at the conquest of the East, and

had proposed to reduce Persia into the state of a province. The

prudence of the latter, who adhered to the moderate policy of

Augustus and the Antonines, embraced the favorable opportunity of

terminating a successful war by an honorable and advantageous

peace. 75

75 (return) [ Adeo victor (says Aurelius) ut ni Valerius, cujus

nutu omnis gerebantur, abnuisset, Romani fasces in provinciam

novam ferrentur Verum pars terrarum tamen nobis utilior quæsita.]

In pursuance of their promise, the emperors soon afterwards

appointed Sicorius Probus, one of their secretaries, to acquaint

the Persian court with their final resolution. As the minister of

peace, he was received with every mark of politeness and

friendship; but, under the pretence of allowing him the necessary

repose after so long a journey, the audience of Probus was

deferred from day to day; and he attended the slow motions of the

king, till at length he was admitted to his presence, near the

River Asprudus in Media. The secret motive of Narses, in this

delay, had been to collect such a military force as might enable

him, though sincerely desirous of peace, to negotiate with the

greater weight and dignity. Three persons only assisted at this

important conference, the minister Apharban, the præfect of the

guards, and an officer who had commanded on the Armenian

frontier. 76 The first condition proposed by the ambassador is

not at present of a very intelligible nature; that the city of

Nisibis might be established for the place of mutual exchange,

or, as we should formerly have termed it, for the staple of

trade, between the two empires. There is no difficulty in

conceiving the intention of the Roman princes to improve their

revenue by some restraints upon commerce; but as Nisibis was

situated within their own dominions, and as they were masters

both of the imports and exports, it should seem that such

restraints were the objects of an internal law, rather than of a

foreign treaty. To render them more effectual, some stipulations

were probably required on the side of the king of Persia, which

appeared so very repugnant either to his interest or to his

dignity, that Narses could not be persuaded to subscribe them. As

this was the only article to which he refused his consent, it was

no longer insisted on; and the emperors either suffered the trade

to flow in its natural channels, or contented themselves with

such restrictions, as it depended on their own authority to

establish.

76 (return) [ He had been governor of Sumium, (Pot. Patricius in

Excerpt. Legat. p. 30.) This province seems to be mentioned by

Moses of Chorene, (Geograph. p. 360,) and lay to the east of

Mount Ararat. * Note: The Siounikh of the Armenian writers St.

Martin i. 142.—M.]

As soon as this difficulty was removed, a solemn peace was

concluded and ratified between the two nations. The conditions of

a treaty so glorious to the empire, and so necessary to Persia,

may deserve a more peculiar attention, as the history of Rome

presents very few transactions of a similar nature; most of her

wars having either been terminated by absolute conquest, or waged

against barbarians ignorant of the use of letters. I. The Aboras,

or, as it is called by Xenophon, the Araxes, was fixed as the

boundary between the two monarchies. 77 That river, which rose

near the Tigris, was increased, a few miles below Nisibis, by the

little stream of the Mygdonius, passed under the walls of

Singara, and fell into the Euphrates at Circesium, a frontier

town, which, by the care of Diocletian, was very strongly

fortified. 78 Mesopotomia, the object of so many wars, was ceded

to the empire; and the Persians, by this treaty, renounced all

pretensions to that great province. II. They relinquished to the

Romans five provinces beyond the Tigris. 79 Their situation

formed a very useful barrier, and their natural strength was soon

improved by art and military skill. Four of these, to the north

of the river, were districts of obscure fame and inconsiderable

extent; Intiline, Zabdicene, Arzanene, and Moxoene; 791 but on

the east of the Tigris, the empire acquired the large and

mountainous territory of Carduene, the ancient seat of the

Carduchians, who preserved for many ages their manly freedom in

the heart of the despotic monarchies of Asia. The ten thousand

Greeks traversed their country, after a painful march, or rather

engagement, of seven days; and it is confessed by their leader,

in his incomparable relation of the retreat, that they suffered

more from the arrows of the Carduchians, than from the power of

the Great King. 80 Their posterity, the Curds, with very little

alteration either of name or manners, 801 acknowledged the

nominal sovereignty of the Turkish sultan. III. It is almost

needless to observe, that Tiridates, the faithful ally of Rome,

was restored to the throne of his fathers, and that the rights of

the Imperial supremacy were fully asserted and secured. The

limits of Armenia were extended as far as the fortress of Sintha

in Media, and this increase of dominion was not so much an act of

liberality as of justice. Of the provinces already mentioned

beyond the Tigris, the four first had been dismembered by the

Parthians from the crown of Armenia; 81 and when the Romans

acquired the possession of them, they stipulated, at the expense

of the usurpers, an ample compensation, which invested their ally

with the extensive and fertile country of Atropatene. Its

principal city, in the same situation perhaps as the modern

Tauris, was frequently honored by the residence of Tiridates; and

as it sometimes bore the name of Ecbatana, he imitated, in the

buildings and fortifications, the splendid capital of the Medes.

82 IV. The country of Iberia was barren, its inhabitants rude and

savage. But they were accustomed to the use of arms, and they

separated from the empire barbarians much fiercer and more

formidable than themselves. The narrow defiles of Mount Caucasus

were in their hands, and it was in their choice, either to admit

or to exclude the wandering tribes of Sarmatia, whenever a

rapacious spirit urged them to penetrate into the richer climes

of the South. 83 The nomination of the kings of Iberia, which was

resigned by the Persian monarch to the emperors, contributed to

the strength and security of the Roman power in Asia. 84 The East

enjoyed a profound tranquillity during forty years; and the

treaty between the rival monarchies was strictly observed till

the death of Tiridates; when a new generation, animated with

different views and different passions, succeeded to the

government of the world; and the grandson of Narses undertook a

long and memorable war against the princes of the house of

Constantine.

77 (return) [ By an error of the geographer Ptolemy, the position

of Singara is removed from the Aboras to the Tigris, which may

have produced the mistake of Peter, in assigning the latter river

for the boundary, instead of the former. The line of the Roman

frontier traversed, but never followed, the course of the Tigris.

* Note: There are here several errors. Gibbon has confounded the

streams, and the towns which they pass. The Aboras, or rather the

Chaboras, the Araxes of Xenophon, has its source above Ras-Ain or

Re-Saina, (Theodosiopolis,) about twenty-seven leagues from the

Tigris; it receives the waters of the Mygdonius, or Saocoras,

about thirty-three leagues below Nisibis. at a town now called Al

Nahraim; it does not pass under the walls of Singara; it is the

Saocoras that washes the walls of that town: the latter river has

its source near Nisibis. at five leagues from the Tigris. See

D’Anv. l’Euphrate et le Tigre, 46, 49, 50, and the map.—— To the

east of the Tigris is another less considerable river, named also

the Chaboras, which D’Anville calls the Centrites, Khabour,

Nicephorius, without quoting the authorities on which he gives

those names. Gibbon did not mean to speak of this river, which

does not pass by Singara, and does not fall into the Euphrates.

See Michaelis, Supp. ad Lex. Hebraica. 3d part, p. 664, 665.—G.]

78 (return) [ Procopius de Edificiis, l. ii. c. 6.]

79 (return) [ Three of the provinces, Zabdicene, Arzanene, and

Carduene, are allowed on all sides. But instead of the other two,

Peter (in Excerpt. Leg. p. 30) inserts Rehimene and Sophene. I

have preferred Ammianus, (l. xxv. 7,) because it might be proved

that Sophene was never in the hands of the Persians, either

before the reign of Diocletian, or after that of Jovian. For want

of correct maps, like those of M. d’Anville, almost all the

moderns, with Tillemont and Valesius at their head, have

imagined, that it was in respect to Persia, and not to Rome, that

the five provinces were situate beyond the Tigris.]

791 (return) [ See St. Martin, note on Le Beau, i. 380. He would

read, for Intiline, Ingeleme, the name of a small province of

Armenia, near the sources of the Tigris, mentioned by St.

Epiphanius, (Hæres, 60;) for the unknown name Arzacene, with

Gibbon, Arzanene. These provinces do not appear to have made an

integral part of the Roman empire; Roman garrisons replaced those

of Persia, but the sovereignty remained in the hands of the

feudatory princes of Armenia. A prince of Carduene, ally or

dependent on the empire, with the Roman name of Jovianus, occurs

in the reign of Julian.—M.]

80 (return) [ Xenophon’s Anabasis, l. iv. Their bows were three

cubits in length, their arrows two; they rolled down stones that

were each a wagon load. The Greeks found a great many villages in

that rude country.]

801 (return) [ I travelled through this country in 1810, and

should judge, from what I have read and seen of its inhabitants,

that they have remained unchanged in their appearance and

character for more than twenty centuries Malcolm, note to Hist.

of Persia, vol. i. p. 82.—M.]

81 (return) [ According to Eutropius, (vi. 9, as the text is

represented by the best Mss.,) the city of Tigranocerta was in

Arzanene. The names and situation of the other three may be

faintly traced.]

82 (return) [ Compare Herodotus, l. i. c. 97, with Moses

Choronens. Hist Armen. l. ii. c. 84, and the map of Armenia given

by his editors.]

83 (return) [ Hiberi, locorum potentes, Caspia via Sarmatam in

Armenios raptim effundunt. Tacit. Annal. vi. 34. See Strabon.

Geograph. l. xi. p. 764, edit. Casaub.]

84 (return) [ Peter Patricius (in Excerpt. Leg. p. 30) is the

only writer who mentions the Iberian article of the treaty.]

The arduous work of rescuing the distressed empire from tyrants

and barbarians had now been completely achieved by a succession

of Illyrian peasants. As soon as Diocletian entered into the

twentieth year of his reign, he celebrated that memorable æra, as

well as the success of his arms, by the pomp of a Roman triumph.

85 Maximian, the equal partner of his power, was his only

companion in the glory of that day. The two Cæsars had fought and

conquered, but the merit of their exploits was ascribed,

according to the rigor of ancient maxims, to the auspicious

influence of their fathers and emperors. 86 The triumph of

Diocletian and Maximian was less magnificent, perhaps, than those

of Aurelian and Probus, but it was dignified by several

circumstances of superior fame and good fortune. Africa and

Britain, the Rhine, the Danube, and the Nile, furnished their

respective trophies; but the most distinguished ornament was of a

more singular nature, a Persian victory followed by an important

conquest. The representations of rivers, mountains, and

provinces, were carried before the Imperial car. The images of

the captive wives, the sisters, and the children of the Great

King, afforded a new and grateful spectacle to the vanity of the

people. 87 In the eyes of posterity, this triumph is remarkable,

by a distinction of a less honorable kind. It was the last that

Rome ever beheld. Soon after this period, the emperors ceased to

vanquish, and Rome ceased to be the capital of the empire.

85 (return) [ Euseb. in Chron. Pagi ad annum. Till the discovery

of the treatise De Mortibus Persecutorum, it was not certain that

the triumph and the Vicennalia was celebrated at the same time.]

86 (return) [ At the time of the Vicennalia, Galerius seems to

have kept station on the Danube. See Lactant. de M. P. c. 38.]

87 (return) [ Eutropius (ix. 27) mentions them as a part of the

triumph. As the persons had been restored to Narses, nothing more

than their images could be exhibited.]

The spot on which Rome was founded had been consecrated by

ancient ceremonies and imaginary miracles. The presence of some

god, or the memory of some hero, seemed to animate every part of

the city, and the empire of the world had been promised to the

Capitol. 88 The native Romans felt and confessed the power of

this agreeable illusion. It was derived from their ancestors, had

grown up with their earliest habits of life, and was protected,

in some measure, by the opinion of political utility. The form

and the seat of government were intimately blended together, nor

was it esteemed possible to transport the one without destroying

the other. 89 But the sovereignty of the capital was gradually

annihilated in the extent of conquest; the provinces rose to the

same level, and the vanquished nations acquired the name and

privileges, without imbibing the partial affections, of Romans.

During a long period, however, the remains of the ancient

constitution, and the influence of custom, preserved the dignity

of Rome. The emperors, though perhaps of African or Illyrian

extraction, respected their adopted country, as the seat of their

power, and the centre of their extensive dominions. The

emergencies of war very frequently required their presence on the

frontiers; but Diocletian and Maximian were the first Roman

princes who fixed, in time of peace, their ordinary residence in

the provinces; and their conduct, however it might be suggested

by private motives, was justified by very specious considerations

of policy. The court of the emperor of the West was, for the most

part, established at Milan, whose situation, at the foot of the

Alps, appeared far more convenient than that of Rome, for the

important purpose of watching the motions of the barbarians of

Germany. Milan soon assumed the splendor of an Imperial city. The

houses are described as numerous and well built; the manners of

the people as polished and liberal. A circus, a theatre, a mint,

a palace, baths, which bore the name of their founder Maximian;

porticos adorned with statues, and a double circumference of

walls, contributed to the beauty of the new capital; nor did it

seem oppressed even by the proximity of Rome. 90 To rival the

majesty of Rome was the ambition likewise of Diocletian, who

employed his leisure, and the wealth of the East, in the

embellishment of Nicomedia, a city 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 labor of

ages, and became inferior only to Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch,

in extent of populousness. 91 The life of Diocletian and Maximian

was a life of action, and a considerable portion of it was spent

in camps, or in the long and frequent marches; but whenever the

public business allowed them any relaxation, they seemed to have

retired with pleasure to their favorite residences of Nicomedia

and Milan. Till Diocletian, in the twentieth year of his reign,

celebrated his Roman triumph, it is extremely doubtful 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 licentious familiarity of the people, he quitted Rome

with precipitation thirteen days before it was expected that he

should have appeared in the senate, invested with the ensigns of

the consular dignity. 92

88 (return) [ Livy gives us a speech of Camillus on that subject,

(v. 51—55,) full of eloquence and sensibility, in opposition to a

design of removing the seat of government from Rome to the

neighboring city of Veii.]

89 (return) [ Julius Cæsar was reproached with the intention of

removing the empire to Ilium or Alexandria. See Sueton. in Cæsar.

c. 79. According to the ingenious conjecture of Le Fevre and

Dacier, the ode of the third book of Horace was intended to

divert from the execution of a similar design.]

90 (return) [ See Aurelius Victor, who likewise mentions the

buildings erected by Maximian at Carthage, probably during the

Moorish war. We shall insert some verses of Ausonius de Clar.

Urb. v.—— Et Mediolani miræomnia: copia rerum; Innumeræ cultæque

domus; facunda virorum Ingenia, et mores læti: tum duplice muro

Amplificata loci species; populique voluptas Circus; et inclusi

moles cuneata Theatri; Templa, Palatinæque arces, opulensque

Moneta, Et regio Herculei celebris sub honore lavacri. Cunctaque

marmoreis ornata Peristyla signis; Moeniaque in valli formam

circumdata labro, Omnia quæ magnis operum velut æmula formis

Excellunt: nec juncta premit vicinia Romæ.]

91 (return) [ Lactant. de M. P. c. 17. Libanius, Orat. viii. p.

203.]

92 (return) [ Lactant. de M. P. c. 17. On a similar occasion,

Ammianus mentions the dicacitas plebis, as not very agreeable to

an Imperial ear. (See l. xvi. c. 10.)]

The dislike expressed by Diocletian towards Rome and Roman

freedom was not the effect of momentary caprice, but the result

of the most artful policy. That crafty prince had framed a new

system of Imperial government, which was afterwards completed by

the family of Constantine; and as the image of the old

constitution was religiously preserved in the senate, he resolved

to deprive that order of its small remains of power and

consideration. We may recollect, about eight years before the

elevation of Diocletian, the transient greatness, and the

ambitious hopes, of the Roman senate. As long as that enthusiasm

prevailed, many of the nobles imprudently displayed their zeal in

the cause of freedom; and after the successes of Probus had

withdrawn their countenance from the republican party, the

senators were unable to disguise their impotent resentment.

As the sovereign of Italy, Maximian was intrusted with the care

of extinguishing this troublesome, rather than dangerous spirit,

and the task was perfectly suited to his cruel temper. The most

illustrious members of the senate, whom Diocletian always

affected to esteem, were involved, by his colleague, in the

accusation of imaginary plots; and the possession of an elegant

villa, or a well-cultivated estate, was interpreted as a

convincing evidence of guilt. 93 The camp of the Prætorians,

which had so long oppressed, began to protect, the majesty of

Rome; and as those haughty troops were conscious of the decline

of their power, they were naturally disposed to unite their

strength with the authority of the senate. By the prudent

measures of Diocletian, the numbers of the Prætorians were

insensibly reduced, their privileges abolished, 94 and their

place supplied by two faithful legions of Illyricum, who, under

the new titles of Jovians and Herculians, were appointed to

perform the service of the Imperial guards. 95 But the most fatal

though secret wound, which the senate received from the hands of

Diocletian and Maximian, was inflicted by the inevitable

operation of their absence. As long as the emperors resided at

Rome, that assembly might be oppressed, but it could scarcely be

neglected. The successors of Augustus exercised the power of

dictating whatever laws their wisdom or caprice might suggest;

but those laws were ratified by the sanction of the senate. The

model of ancient freedom was preserved in its deliberations and

decrees; and wise princes, who respected the prejudices of the

Roman people, were in some measure obliged to assume the language

and behavior suitable to the general and first magistrate of the

republic. In the armies and in the provinces, they displayed the

dignity of monarchs; and when they fixed their residence at a

distance from the capital, they forever laid aside the

dissimulation which Augustus had recommended to his successors.

In the exercise of the legislative as well as the executive

power, the sovereign advised with his ministers, instead of

consulting the great council of the nation. The name of the

senate was mentioned with honor till the last period of the

empire; the vanity of its members was still flattered with

honorary distinctions; 96 but the assembly which had so long been

the source, and so long the instrument of power, was respectfully

suffered to sink into oblivion. The senate of Rome, losing all

connection with the Imperial court and the actual constitution,

was left a venerable but useless monument of antiquity on the

Capitoline hill.

93 (return) [ Lactantius accuses Maximian of destroying fictis

criminationibus lumina senatus, (De M. P. c. 8.) Aurelius Victor

speaks very doubtfully of the faith of Diocletian towards his

friends.]

94 (return) [ Truncatæ vires urbis, imminuto prætoriarum

cohortium atque in armis vulgi numero. Aurelius Victor.

Lactantius attributes to Galerius the prosecution of the same

plan, (c. 26.)]

95 (return) [ They were old corps stationed in Illyricum; and

according to the ancient establishment, they each consisted of

six thousand men. They had acquired much reputation by the use of

the plumbatæ, or darts loaded with lead. Each soldier carried

five of these, which he darted from a considerable distance, with

great strength and dexterity. See Vegetius, i. 17.]

96 (return) [ See the Theodosian Code, l. vi. tit. ii. with

Godefroy’s commentary.]

Chapter XIII: Reign Of Diocletian And His Three Associates.—Part

IV.

When the Roman princes had lost sight of the senate and of their

ancient capital, they easily forgot the origin and nature of

their legal power. The civil offices of consul, of proconsul, of

censor, and of tribune, by the union of which it had been formed,

betrayed to the people its republican extraction. Those modest

titles were laid aside; 97 and if they still distinguished their

high station by the appellation of Emperor, or Imperator, that

word was understood in a new and more dignified sense, and no

longer denoted the general of the Roman armies, but the sovereign

of the Roman world. The name of Emperor, which was at first of a

military nature, was associated with another of a more servile

kind. The epithet of Dominus, or Lord, in its primitive

signification, was expressive not of the authority of a prince

over his subjects, or of a commander over his soldiers, but of

the despotic power of a master over his domestic slaves. 98

Viewing it in that odious light, it had been rejected with

abhorrence by the first Cæsars. Their resistance insensibly

became more feeble, and the name less odious; till at length the

style of _our Lord and Emperor_ was not only bestowed by

flattery, but was regularly admitted into the laws and public

monuments. Such lofty epithets were sufficient to elate and

satisfy the most excessive vanity; and if the successors of

Diocletian still declined the title of King, it seems to have

been the effect not so much of their moderation as of their

delicacy. Wherever the Latin tongue was in use, (and it was the

language of government throughout the empire,) the Imperial

title, as it was peculiar to themselves, conveyed a more

respectable idea than the name of king, which they must have

shared with a hundred barbarian chieftains; or which, at the

best, they could derive only from Romulus, or from Tarquin. But

the sentiments of the East were very different from those of the

West. From the earliest period of history, the sovereigns of Asia

had been celebrated in the Greek language by the title of

Basileus, or King; and since it was considered as the first

distinction among men, it was soon employed by the servile

provincials of the East, in their humble addresses to the Roman

throne. 99 Even the attributes, or at least the titles, of the

DIVINITY, were usurped by Diocletian and Maximian, who

transmitted them to a succession of Christian emperors. 100 Such

extravagant compliments, however, soon lose their impiety by

losing their meaning; and when the ear is once accustomed to the

sound, they are heard with indifference, as vague though

excessive professions of respect.

97 (return) [ See the 12th dissertation in Spanheim’s excellent

work de Usu Numismatum. From medals, inscriptions, and

historians, he examines every title separately, and traces it

from Augustus to the moment of its disappearing.]

98 (return) [ Pliny (in Panegyr. c. 3, 55, &c.) speaks of Dominus

with execration, as synonymous to Tyrant, and opposite to Prince.

And the same Pliny regularly gives that title (in the tenth book

of the epistles) to his friend rather than master, the virtuous

Trajan. This strange contradiction puzzles the commentators, who

think, and the translators, who can write.]

99 (return) [ Synesius de Regno, edit. Petav. p. 15. I am

indebted for this quotation to the Abbé de la Bleterie.]

100 (return) [ Soe Vandale de Consecratione, p. 354, &c. It was

customary for the emperors to mention (in the preamble of laws)

their numen, sacreo majesty, divine oracles, &c. According to

Tillemont, Gregory Nazianzen complains most bitterly of the

profanation, especially when it was practised by an Arian

emperor. * Note: In the time of the republic, says Hegewisch,

when the consuls, the prætors, and the other magistrates appeared

in public, to perform the functions of their office, their

dignity was announced both by the symbols which use had

consecrated, and the brilliant cortege by which they were

accompanied. But this dignity belonged to the office, not to the

individual; this pomp belonged to the magistrate, not to the man.

* * The consul, followed, in the comitia, by all the senate, the

prætors, the quæstors, the ædiles, the lictors, the apparitors,

and the heralds, on reentering his house, was served only by

freedmen and by his slaves. The first emperors went no further.

Tiberius had, for his personal attendance, only a moderate number

of slaves, and a few freedmen. (Tacit. Ann. iv. 7.) But in

proportion as the republican forms disappeared, one after

another, the inclination of the emperors to environ themselves

with personal pomp, displayed itself more and more. ** The

magnificence and the ceremonial of the East were entirely

introduced by Diocletian, and were consecrated by Constantine to

the Imperial use. Thenceforth the palace, the court, the table,

all the personal attendance, distinguished the emperor from his

subjects, still more than his superior dignity. The organization

which Diocletian gave to his new court, attached less honor and

distinction to rank than to services performed towards the

members of the Imperial family. Hegewisch, Essai, Hist. sur les

Finances Romains. Few historians have characterized, in a more

philosophic manner, the influence of a new institution.—G.——It is

singular that the son of a slave reduced the haughty aristocracy

of Home to the offices of servitude.—M.]

From the time of Augustus to that of Diocletian, the Roman

princes, conversing in a familiar manner among their

fellow-citizens, were saluted only with the same respect that was

usually paid to senators and magistrates. Their principal

distinction was the Imperial or military robe of purple; whilst

the senatorial garment was marked by a broad, and the equestrian

by a narrow, band or stripe of the same honorable color. The

pride, or rather the policy, of Diocletian engaged that artful

prince to introduce the stately magnificence of the court of

Persia. 101 He ventured to assume the diadem, an ornament

detested by the Romans as the odious ensign of royalty, and the

use of which had been considered as the most desperate act of the

madness of Caligula. It was no more than a broad white fillet set

with pearls, which encircled the emperor’s head. The sumptuous

robes of Diocletian and his successors were of silk and gold; and

it is remarked with indignation that even their shoes were

studded with the most precious gems. The access to their sacred

person was every day rendered more difficult by the institution

of new forms and ceremonies. The avenues of the palace were

strictly guarded by the various schools, as they began to be

called, of domestic officers. The interior apartments were

intrusted to the jealous vigilance of the eunuchs, the increase

of whose numbers and influence was the most infallible symptom of

the progress of despotism. When a subject was at length admitted

to the Imperial presence, he was obliged, whatever might be his

rank, to fall prostrate on the ground, and to adore, according to

the eastern fashion, the divinity of his lord and master. 102

Diocletian was a man of sense, who, in the course of private as

well as public life, had formed a just estimate both of himself

and of mankind; nor is it easy to conceive that in substituting

the manners of Persia to those of Rome he was seriously actuated

by so mean a principle as that of vanity. He flattered himself

that an ostentation of splendor and luxury would subdue the

imagination of the multitude; that the monarch would be less

exposed to the rude license of the people and the soldiers, as

his person was secluded from the public view; and that habits of

submission would insensibly be productive of sentiments of

veneration. Like the modesty affected by Augustus, the state

maintained by Diocletian was a theatrical representation; but it

must be confessed, that of the two comedies, the former was of a

much more liberal and manly character than the latter. It was the

aim of the one to disguise, and the object of the other to

display, the unbounded power which the emperors possessed over

the Roman world.

101 (return) [ See Spanheim de Usu Numismat. Dissert. xii.]

102 (return) [ Aurelius Victor. Eutropius, ix. 26. It appears by

the Panegyrists, that the Romans were soon reconciled to the name

and ceremony of adoration.]

Ostentation was the first principle of the new system instituted

by Diocletian. The second was division. He divided the empire,

the provinces, and every branch of the civil as well as military

administration. He multiplied the wheels of the machine of

government, and rendered its operations less rapid, but more

secure. Whatever advantages and whatever defects might attend

these innovations, they must be ascribed in a very great degree

to the first inventor; but as the new frame of policy was

gradually improved and completed by succeeding princes, it will

be more satisfactory to delay the consideration of it till the

season of its full maturity and perfection. 103 Reserving,

therefore, for the reign of Constantine a more exact picture of

the new empire, we shall content ourselves with describing the

principal and decisive outline, as it was traced by the hand of

Diocletian. He had associated three colleagues in the exercise of

the supreme power; and as he was convinced that the abilities of

a single man were inadequate to the public defence, he considered

the joint administration of four princes not as a temporary

expedient, but as a fundamental law of the constitution. It was

his intention that the two elder princes should be distinguished

by the use of the diadem, and the title of _Augusti;_ that, as

affection or esteem might direct their choice, they should

regularly call to their assistance two subordinate colleagues;

and that the _Cæsars_, rising in their turn to the first rank,

should supply an uninterrupted succession of emperors. The empire

was divided into four parts. The East and Italy were the most

honorable, the Danube and the Rhine the most laborious stations.

The former claimed the presence of the _Augusti_, the latter were

intrusted to the administration of the _Cæsars_. The strength of

the legions was in the hands of the four partners of sovereignty,

and the despair of successively vanquishing four formidable

rivals might intimidate the ambition of an aspiring general. In

their civil government the emperors were supposed to exercise the

undivided power of the monarch, and their edicts, inscribed with

their joint names, were received in all the provinces, as

promulgated by their mutual councils and authority.

Notwithstanding these precautions, the political union of the

Roman world was gradually dissolved, and a principle of division

was introduced, which, in the course of a few years, occasioned

the perpetual separation of the Eastern and Western Empires.

103 (return) [ The innovations introduced by Diocletian are

chiefly deduced, 1st, from some very strong passages in

Lactantius; and, 2dly, from the new and various offices which, in

the Theodosian code, appear already established in the beginning

of the reign of Constantine.]

The system of Diocletian was accompanied with another very

material disadvantage, which cannot even at present be totally

overlooked; a more expensive establishment, and consequently an

increase of taxes, and the oppression of the people. Instead of a

modest family of slaves and freedmen, such as had contented the

simple greatness of Augustus and Trajan, three or four

magnificent courts were established in the various parts of the

empire, and as many Roman _kings_ contended with each other and

with the Persian monarch for the vain superiority of pomp and

luxury. The number of ministers, of magistrates, of officers, and

of servants, who filled the different departments of the state,

was multiplied beyond the example of former times; and (if we may

borrow the warm expression of a contemporary) “when the

proportion of those who received exceeded the proportion of those

who contributed, the provinces were oppressed by the weight of

tributes.” 104 From this period to the extinction of the empire,

it would be easy to deduce an uninterrupted series of clamors and

complaints. According to his religion and situation, each writer

chooses either Diocletian, or Constantine, or Valens, or

Theodosius, for the object of his invectives; but they

unanimously agree in representing the burden of the public

impositions, and particularly the land tax and capitation, as the

intolerable and increasing grievance of their own times. From

such a concurrence, an impartial historian, who is obliged to

extract truth from satire, as well as from panegyric, will be

inclined to divide the blame among the princes whom they accuse,

and to ascribe their exactions much less to their personal vices,

than to the uniform system of their administration. 1041 The

emperor Diocletian was indeed the author of that system; but

during his reign, the growing evil was confined within the bounds

of modesty and discretion, and he deserves the reproach of

establishing pernicious precedents, rather than of exercising

actual oppression. 105 It may be added, that his revenues were

managed with prudent economy; and that after all the current

expenses were discharged, there still remained in the Imperial

treasury an ample provision either for judicious liberality or

for any emergency of the state.

104 (return) [ Lactant. de M. P. c. 7.]

1041 (return) [ The most curious document which has come to light

since the publication of Gibbon’s History, is the edict of

Diocletian, published from an inscription found at Eskihissar,

(Stratoniccia,) by Col. Leake. This inscription was first copied

by Sherard, afterwards much more completely by Mr. Bankes. It is

confirmed and illustrated by a more imperfect copy of the same

edict, found in the Levant by a gentleman of Aix, and brought to

this country by M. Vescovali. This edict was issued in the name

of the four Cæsars, Diocletian, Maximian, Constantius, and

Galerius. It fixed a maximum of prices throughout the empire, for

all the necessaries and commodities of life. The preamble

insists, with great vehemence on the extortion and inhumanity of

the venders and merchants. Quis enim adeo obtunisi (obtusi)

pectores (is) et a sensu inhumanitatis extorris est qui ignorare

potest immo non senserit in venalibus rebus quævel in mercimoniis

aguntur vel diurna urbium conversatione tractantur, in tantum se

licen liam defusisse, ut effrænata libido rapien—rum copia nec

annorum ubertatibus mitigaretur. The edict, as Col. Leake clearly

shows, was issued A. C. 303. Among the articles of which the

maximum value is assessed, are oil, salt, honey, butchers’ meat,

poultry, game, fish, vegetables, fruit the wages of laborers and

artisans, schoolmasters and skins, boots and shoes, harness,

timber, corn, wine, and beer, (zythus.) The depreciation in the

value of money, or the rise in the price of commodities, had been

so great during the past century, that butchers’ meat, which, in

the second century of the empire, was in Rome about two denaril

the pound, was now fixed at a maximum of eight. Col. Leake

supposes the average price could not be less than four: at the

same time the maximum of the wages of the agricultural laborers

was twenty-five. The whole edict is, perhaps, the most gigantic

effort of a blind though well-intentioned despotism, to control

that which is, and ought to be, beyond the regulation of the

government. See an Edict of Diocletian, by Col. Leake, London,

1826. Col. Leake has not observed that this Edict is expressly

named in the treatise de Mort. Persecut. ch. vii. Idem cum variis

iniquitatibus immensam faceret caritatem, legem pretiis rerum

venalium statuere conatus.—M]

105 (return) [ Indicta lex nova quæ sane illorum temporum

modestia tolerabilis, in perniciem processit. Aurel. Victor., who

has treated the character of Diocletian with good sense, though

in bad Latin.]

It was in the twenty first year of his reign that Diocletian

executed his memorable resolution of abdicating the empire; an

action more naturally to have been expected from the elder or the

younger Antoninus, than from a prince who had never practised the

lessons of philosophy either in the attainment or in the use of

supreme power. Diocletian acquired the glory of giving to the

world the first example of a resignation, 106 which has not been

very frequently imitated by succeeding monarchs. The parallel of

Charles the Fifth, however, will naturally offer itself to our

mind, not only since the eloquence of a modern historian has

rendered that name so familiar to an English reader, but from the

very striking resemblance between the characters of the two

emperors, whose political abilities were superior to their

military genius, and whose specious virtues were much less the

effect of nature than of art. The abdication of Charles appears

to have been hastened by the vicissitudes of fortune; and the

disappointment of his favorite schemes urged him to relinquish a

power which he found inadequate to his ambition. But the reign of

Diocletian had flowed with a tide of uninterrupted success; nor

was it till after he had vanquished all his enemies, and

accomplished all his designs, that he seems to have entertained

any serious thoughts of resigning the empire. Neither Charles nor

Diocletian were arrived at a very advanced period of life; since

the one was only fifty-five, and the other was no more than

fifty-nine years of age; but the active life of those princes,

their wars and journeys, the cares of royalty, and their

application to business, had already impaired their constitution,

and brought on the infirmities of a premature old age. 107

106 (return) [ Solus omnium post conditum Romanum Imperium, qui

extanto fastigio sponte ad privatæ vitæ statum civilitatemque

remearet, Eutrop. ix. 28.]

107 (return) [ The particulars of the journey and illness are

taken from Laclantius, c. 17, who may sometimes be admitted as an

evidence of public facts, though very seldom of private

anecdotes.]

Notwithstanding the severity of a very cold and rainy winter,

Diocletian left Italy soon after the ceremony of his triumph, and

began his progress towards the East round the circuit of the

Illyrian provinces. From the inclemency of the weather, and the

fatigue of the journey, he soon contracted a slow illness; and

though he made easy marches, and was generally carried in a close

litter, his disorder, before he arrived at Nicomedia, about the

end of the summer, was become very serious and alarming. During

the whole winter he was confined to his palace: his danger

inspired a general and unaffected concern; but the people could

only judge of the various alterations of his health, from the joy

or consternation which they discovered in the countenances and

behavior of his attendants. The rumor of his death was for some

time universally believed, and it was supposed to be concealed

with a view to prevent the troubles that might have happened

during the absence of the Cæsar Galerius. At length, however, on

the first of March, Diocletian once more appeared in public, but

so pale and emaciated, that he could scarcely have been

recognized by those to whom his person was the most familiar. It

was time to put an end to the painful struggle, which he had

sustained during more than a year, between the care of his health

and that of his dignity. The former required indulgence and

relaxation, the latter compelled him to direct, from the bed of

sickness, the administration of a great empire. He resolved to

pass the remainder of his days in honorable repose, to place his

glory beyond the reach of fortune, and to relinquish the theatre

of the world to his younger and more active associates. 108

108 (return) [ Aurelius Victor ascribes the abdication, which had

been so variously accounted for, to two causes: 1st, Diocletian’s

contempt of ambition; and 2dly, His apprehension of impending

troubles. One of the panegyrists (vi. 9) mentions the age and

infirmities of Diocletian as a very natural reason for his

retirement. * Note: Constantine (Orat. ad Sanct. c. 401) more

than insinuated that derangement of mind, connected with the

conflagration of the palace at Nicomedia by lightning, was the

cause of his abdication. But Heinichen. in a very sensible note

on this passage in Eusebius, while he admits that his long

illness might produce a temporary depression of spirits,

triumphantly appeals to the philosophical conduct of Diocletian

in his retreat, and the influence which he still retained on

public affairs.—M.]

The ceremony of his abdication was performed in a spacious plain,

about three miles from Nicomedia. The emperor ascended a lofty

throne, and in a speech, full of reason and dignity, declared his

intention, both to the people and to the soldiers who were

assembled on this extraordinary occasion. As soon as he had

divested himself of his purple, he withdrew from the gazing

multitude; and traversing the city in a covered chariot,

proceeded, without delay, to the favorite retirement which he had

chosen in his native country of Dalmatia. On the same day, which

was the first of May, 109 Maximian, as it had been previously

concerted, made his resignation of the Imperial dignity at Milan.

Even in the splendor of the Roman triumph, Diocletian had

meditated his design of abdicating the government. As he wished

to secure the obedience of Maximian, he exacted from him either a

general assurance that he would submit his actions to the

authority of his benefactor, or a particular promise that he

would descend from the throne, whenever he should receive the

advice and the example. This engagement, though it was confirmed

by the solemnity of an oath before the altar of the Capitoline

Jupiter, 110 would have proved a feeble restraint on the fierce

temper of Maximian, whose passion was the love of power, and who

neither desired present tranquility nor future reputation. But he

yielded, however reluctantly, to the ascendant which his wiser

colleague had acquired over him, and retired, immediately after

his abdication, to a villa in Lucania, where it was almost

impossible that such an impatient spirit could find any lasting

tranquility.

109 (return) [ The difficulties as well as mistakes attending the

dates both of the year and of the day of Diocletian’s abdication

are perfectly cleared up by Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom.

iv. p 525, note 19, and by Pagi ad annum.]

110 (return) [ See Panegyr. Veter. vi. 9. The oration was

pronounced after Maximian had resumed the purple.]

Diocletian, who, from a servile origin, had raised himself to the

throne, passed the nine last years of his life in a private

condition. Reason had dictated, and content seems to have

accompanied, his retreat, in which he enjoyed, for a long time,

the respect of those princes to whom he had resigned the

possession of the world. 111 It is seldom that minds long

exercised in business have formed any habits of conversing with

themselves, and in the loss of power they principally regret the

want of occupation. The amusements of letters and of devotion,

which afford so many resources in solitude, were incapable of

fixing the attention of Diocletian; but he had preserved, or at

least he soon recovered, a taste for the most innocent as well as

natural pleasures, and his leisure hours were sufficiently

employed in building, planting, and gardening. His answer to

Maximian is deservedly celebrated. He was solicited by that

restless old man to reassume the reins of government, and the

Imperial purple. He rejected the temptation with a smile of pity,

calmly observing, that if he could show Maximian the cabbages

which he had planted with his own hands at Salona, he should no

longer be urged to relinquish the enjoyment of happiness for the

pursuit of power. 112 In his conversations with his friends, he

frequently acknowledged, that of all arts, the most difficult was

the art of reigning; and he expressed himself on that favorite

topic with a degree of warmth which could be the result only of

experience. “How often,” was he accustomed to say, “is it the

interest of four or five ministers to combine together to deceive

their sovereign! Secluded from mankind by his exalted dignity,

the truth is concealed from his knowledge; he can see only with

their eyes, he hears nothing but their misrepresentations. He

confers the most important offices upon vice and weakness, and

disgraces the most virtuous and deserving among his subjects. By

such infamous arts,” added Diocletian, “the best and wisest

princes are sold to the venal corruption of their courtiers.” 113

A just estimate of greatness, and the assurance of immortal fame,

improve our relish for the pleasures of retirement; but the Roman

emperor had filled too important a character in the world, to

enjoy without alloy the comforts and security of a private

condition. It was impossible that he could remain ignorant of the

troubles which afflicted the empire after his abdication. It was

impossible that he could be indifferent to their consequences.

Fear, sorrow, and discontent, sometimes pursued him into the

solitude of Salona. His tenderness, or at least his pride, was

deeply wounded by the misfortunes of his wife and daughter; and

the last moments of Diocletian were imbittered by some affronts,

which Licinius and Constantine might have spared the father of so

many emperors, and the first author of their own fortune. A

report, though of a very doubtful nature, has reached our times,

that he prudently withdrew himself from their power by a

voluntary death. 114

111 (return) [ Eumenius pays him a very fine compliment: “At enim

divinum illum virum, qui primus imperium et participavit et

posuit, consilii et fact isui non poenitet; nec amisisse se putat

quod sponte transcripsit. Felix beatusque vere quem vestra,

tantorum principum, colunt privatum.” Panegyr. Vet. vii. 15.]

112 (return) [ We are obliged to the younger Victor for this

celebrated item. Eutropius mentions the thing in a more general

manner.]

113 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 223, 224. Vopiscus had learned

this conversation from his father.]

114 (return) [ The younger Victor slightly mentions the report.

But as Diocletian had disobliged a powerful and successful party,

his memory has been loaded with every crime and misfortune. It

has been affirmed that he died raving mad, that he was condemned

as a criminal by the Roman senate, &c.]

Before we dismiss the consideration of the life and character of

Diocletian, we may, for a moment, direct our view to the place of

his retirement. Salona, a principal city of his native province

of Dalmatia, was near two hundred Roman miles (according to the

measurement of the public highways) from Aquileia and the

confines of Italy, and about two hundred and seventy from

Sirmium, the usual residence of the emperors whenever they

visited the Illyrian frontier. 115 A miserable village still

preserves the name of Salona; but so late as the sixteenth

century, the remains of a theatre, and a confused prospect of

broken arches and marble columns, continued to attest its ancient

splendor. 116 About six or seven miles from the city Diocletian

constructed a magnificent palace, and we may infer, from the

greatness of the work, how long he had meditated his design of

abdicating the empire. The choice of a spot which united all that

could contribute either to health or to luxury did not require

the partiality of a native. “The soil was dry and fertile, the

air is pure and wholesome, and, though extremely hot during the

summer months, this country seldom feels those sultry and noxious

winds to which the coasts of Istria and some parts of Italy are

exposed. The views from the palace are no less beautiful than the

soil and climate were inviting. Towards the west lies the fertile

shore that stretches along the Adriatic, in which a number of

small islands are scattered in such a manner as to give this part

of the sea the appearance of a great lake. On the north side lies

the bay, which led to the ancient city of Salona; and the country

beyond it, appearing in sight, forms a proper contrast to that

more extensive prospect of water, which the Adriatic presents

both to the south and to the east. Towards the north, the view is

terminated by high and irregular mountains, situated at a proper

distance, and in many places covered with villages, woods, and

vineyards.” 117

115 (return) [ See the Itiner. p. 269, 272, edit. Wessel.]

116 (return) [ The Abate Fortis, in his Viaggio in Dalmazia, p.

43, (printed at Venice in the year 1774, in two small volumes in

quarto,) quotes a Ms account of the antiquities of Salona,

composed by Giambattista Giustiniani about the middle of the

xvith century.]

117 (return) [ Adam’s Antiquities of Diocletian’s Palace at

Spalatro, p. 6. We may add a circumstance or two from the Abate

Fortis: the little stream of the Hyader, mentioned by Lucan,

produces most exquisite trout, which a sagacious writer, perhaps

a monk, supposes to have been one of the principal reasons that

determined Diocletian in the choice of his retirement. Fortis, p.

45. The same author (p. 38) observes, that a taste for

agriculture is reviving at Spalatro; and that an experimental

farm has lately been established near the city, by a society of

gentlemen.]

Though Constantine, from a very obvious prejudice, affects to

mention the palace of Diocletian with contempt, 118 yet one of

their successors, who could only see it in a neglected and

mutilated state, celebrates its magnificence in terms of the

highest admiration. 119 It covered an extent of ground consisting

of between nine and ten English acres. The form was quadrangular,

flanked with sixteen towers. Two of the sides were near six

hundred, and the other two near seven hundred feet in length. The

whole was constructed of a beautiful freestone, extracted from

the neighboring quarries of Trau, or Tragutium, and very little

inferior to marble itself. Four streets, intersecting each other

at right angles, divided the several parts of this great edifice,

and the approach to the principal apartment was from a very

stately entrance, which is still denominated the Golden Gate. The

approach was terminated by a _peristylium_ of granite columns, on

one side of which we discover the square temple of Æsculapius, on

the other the octagon temple of Jupiter. The latter of those

deities Diocletian revered as the patron of his fortunes, the

former as the protector of his health. By comparing the present

remains with the precepts of Vitruvius, the several parts of the

building, the baths, bedchamber, the _atrium_, the _basilica_,

and the Cyzicene, Corinthian, and Egyptian halls have been

described with some degree of precision, or at least of

probability. Their forms were various, their proportions just;

but they all were attended with two imperfections, very repugnant

to our modern notions of taste and conveniency. These stately

rooms had neither windows nor chimneys. They were lighted from

the top, (for the building seems to have consisted of no more

than one story,) and they received their heat by the help of

pipes that were conveyed along the walls. The range of principal

apartments was protected towards the south-west by a portico five

hundred and seventeen feet long, which must have formed a very

noble and delightful walk, when the beauties of painting and

sculpture were added to those of the prospect.

118 (return) [ Constantin. Orat. ad Coetum Sanct. c. 25. In this

sermon, the emperor, or the bishop who composed it for him,

affects to relate the miserable end of all the persecutors of the

church.]

119 (return) [ Constantin. Porphyr. de Statu Imper. p. 86.]

Had this magnificent edifice remained in a solitary country, it

would have been exposed to the ravages of time; but it might,

perhaps, have escaped the rapacious industry of man. The village

of Aspalathus, 120 and, long afterwards, the provincial town of

Spalatro, have grown out of its ruins. The Golden Gate now opens

into the market-place. St. John the Baptist has usurped the

honors of Æsculapius; and the temple of Jupiter, under the

protection of the Virgin, is converted into the cathedral church.

For this account of Diocletian’s palace we are principally

indebted to an ingenious artist of our own time and country, whom

a very liberal curiosity carried into the heart of Dalmatia. 121

But there is room to suspect that the elegance of his designs and

engraving has somewhat flattered the objects which it was their

purpose to represent. We are informed by a more recent and very

judicious traveller, that the awful ruins of Spalatro are not

less expressive of the decline of the art than of the greatness

of the Roman empire in the time of Diocletian. 122 If such was

indeed the state of architecture, we must naturally believe that

painting and sculpture had experienced a still more sensible

decay. The practice of architecture is directed by a few general

and even mechanical rules. But sculpture, and, above all,

painting, propose to themselves the imitation not only of the

forms of nature, but of the characters and passions of the human

soul. In those sublime arts the dexterity of the hand is of

little avail, unless it is animated by fancy, and guided by the

most correct taste and observation.

120 (return) [ D’Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 162.]

121 (return) [ Messieurs Adam and Clerisseau, attended by two

draughtsmen visited Spalatro in the month of July, 1757. The

magnificent work which their journey produced was published in

London seven years afterwards.]

122 (return) [ I shall quote the words of the Abate Fortis.

“E’bastevolmente agli amatori dell’ Architettura, e dell’

Antichita, l’opera del Signor Adams, che a donato molto a que’

superbi vestigi coll’abituale eleganza del suo toccalapis e del

bulino. In generale la rozzezza del scalpello, e’l cattivo gusto

del secolo vi gareggiano colla magnificenz del fabricato.” See

Viaggio in Dalmazia, p. 40.]

It is almost unnecessary to remark, that the civil distractions

of the empire, the license of the soldiers, the inroads of the

barbarians, and the progress of despotism, had proved very

unfavorable to genius, and even to learning. The succession of

Illyrian princes restored the empire without restoring the

sciences. Their military education was not calculated to inspire

them with the love of letters; and even the mind of Diocletian,

however active and capacious in business, was totally uninformed

by study or speculation. The professions of law and physic are of

such common use and certain profit that they will always secure a

sufficient number of practitioners endowed with a reasonable

degree of abilities and knowledge; but it does not appear that

the students in those two faculties appeal to any celebrated

masters who have flourished within that period. The voice of

poetry was silent. History was reduced to dry and confused

abridgments, alike destitute of amusement and instruction. A

languid and affected eloquence was still retained in the pay and

service of the emperors, who encouraged not any arts except those

which contributed to the gratification of their pride, or the

defence of their power. 123

123 (return) [ The orator Eumenius was secretary to the emperors

Maximian and Constantius, and Professor of Rhetoric in the

college of Autun. His salary was six hundred thousand sesterces,

which, according to the lowest computation of that age, must have

exceeded three thousand pounds a year. He generously requested

the permission of employing it in rebuilding the college. See his

Oration De Restaurandis Scholis; which, though not exempt from

vanity, may atone for his panegyrics.]

The declining age of learning and of mankind is marked, however,

by the rise and rapid progress of the new Platonists. The school

of Alexandria silenced those of Athens; and the ancient sects

enrolled themselves under the banners of the more fashionable

teachers, who recommended their system by the novelty of their

method, and the austerity of their manners. Several of these

masters, Ammonius, Plotinus, Amelius, and Porphyry, 124 were men

of profound thought and intense application; but by mistaking the

true object of philosophy, their labors contributed much less to

improve than to corrupt the human understanding. The knowledge

that is suited to our situation and powers, the whole compass of

moral, natural, and mathematical science, was neglected by the

new Platonists; whilst they exhausted their strength in the

verbal disputes of metaphysics, attempted to explore the secrets

of the invisible world, and studied to reconcile Aristotle with

Plato, on subjects of which both these philosophers were as

ignorant as the rest of mankind. Consuming their reason in these

deep but unsubstantial meditations, their minds were exposed to

illusions of fancy. They flattered themselves that they possessed

the secret of disengaging the soul from its corporal prison;

claimed a familiar intercourse with demons and spirits; and, by a

very singular revolution, converted the study of philosophy into

that of magic. The ancient sages had derided the popular

superstition; after disguising its extravagance by the thin

pretence of allegory, the disciples of Plotinus and Porphyry

became its most zealous defenders. As they agreed with the

Christians in a few mysterious points of faith, they attacked the

remainder of their theological system with all the fury of civil

war. The new Platonists would scarcely deserve a place in the

history of science, but in that of the church the mention of them

will very frequently occur.

124 (return) [Porphyry died about the time of Diocletian’s

abdication. The life of his master Plotinus, which he composed,

will give us the most complete idea of the genius of the sect,

and the manners of its professors. This very curious piece is

inserted in Fabricius Bibliotheca Græca tom. iv. p. 88—148.]

Chapter XIV: Six Emperors At The Same Time, Reunion Of The

Empire.—Part I.

Troubles After The Abdication Of Diocletian.—Death Of

Constantius.—Elevation Of Constantine And Maxen Tius.—Six Emperors At

The Same Time.—Death Of Maximian And Galerius.—Victories Of Constantine

Over Maxentius And Licinus.—Reunion Of The Empire Under The Authority

Of Constantine.

The balance of power established by Diocletian subsisted no

longer than while it was sustained by the firm and dexterous hand

of the founder. It required such a fortunate mixture of different

tempers and abilities as could scarcely be found or even expected

a second time; two emperors without jealousy, two Cæsars without

ambition, and the same general interest invariably pursued by

four independent princes. The abdication of Diocletian and

Maximian was succeeded by eighteen years of discord and

confusion. The empire was afflicted by five civil wars; and the

remainder of the time was not so much a state of tranquillity as

a suspension of arms between several hostile monarchs, who,

viewing each other with an eye of fear and hatred, strove to

increase their respective forces at the expense of their

subjects.

As soon as Diocletian and Maximian had resigned the purple, their

station, according to the rules of the new constitution, was

filled by the two Cæsars, Constantius and Galerius, who

immediately assumed the title of Augustus. 1

1 (return) [ M. de Montesquieu (Considerations sur la Grandeur et

La Decadence des Romains, c. 17) supposes, on the authority of

Orosius and Eusebius, that, on this occasion, the empire, for the

first time, was really divided into two parts. It is difficult,

however, to discover in what respect the plan of Galerius

differed from that of Diocletian.]

The honors of seniority and precedence were allowed to the former

of those princes, and he continued under a new appellation to

administer his ancient department of Gaul, Spain, and Britain.

The government of those ample provinces was sufficient to

exercise his talents and to satisfy his ambition. Clemency,

temperance, and moderation, distinguished the amiable character

of Constantius, and his fortunate subjects had frequently

occasion to compare the virtues of their sovereign with the

passions of Maximian, and even with the arts of Diocletian. 2

Instead of imitating their eastern pride and magnificence,

Constantius preserved the modesty of a Roman prince. He declared,

with unaffected sincerity, that his most valued treasure was in

the hearts of his people, and that, whenever the dignity of the

throne, or the danger of the state, required any extraordinary

supply, he could depend with confidence on their gratitude and

liberality. 3 The provincials of Gaul, Spain, and Britain,

sensible of his worth, and of their own happiness, reflected with

anxiety on the declining health of the emperor Constantius, and

the tender age of his numerous family, the issue of his second

marriage with the daughter of Maximian.

2 (return) [ Hic non modo amabilis, sed etiam venerabilis Gallis

fuit; præcipuc quod Diocletiani suspectam prudentiam, et

Maximiani sanguinariam violentiam imperio ejus evaserant. Eutrop.

Breviar. x. i.]

3 (return) [ Divitiis Provincialium (mel. provinciarum) ac

privatorum studens, fisci commoda non admodum affectans;

ducensque melius publicas opes a privatis haberi, quam intra unum

claustrum reservari. Id. ibid. He carried this maxim so far, that

whenever he gave an entertainment, he was obliged to borrow a

service of plate.]

The stern temper of Galerius was cast in a very different mould;

and while he commanded the esteem of his subjects, he seldom

condescended to solicit their affections. His fame in arms, and,

above all, the success of the Persian war, had elated his haughty

mind, which was naturally impatient of a superior, or even of an

equal. If it were possible to rely on the partial testimony of an

injudicious writer, we might ascribe the abdication of Diocletian

to the menaces of Galerius, and relate the particulars of a

_private_ conversation between the two princes, in which the

former discovered as much pusillanimity as the latter displayed

ingratitude and arrogance. 4 But these obscure anecdotes are

sufficiently refuted by an impartial view of the character and

conduct of Diocletian. Whatever might otherwise have been his

intentions, if he had apprehended any danger from the violence of

Galerius, his good sense would have instructed him to prevent the

ignominious contest; and as he had held the sceptre with glory,

he would have resigned it without disgrace.

4 (return) [ Lactantius de Mort. Persecutor. c. 18. Were the

particulars of this conference more consistent with truth and

decency, we might still ask how they came to the knowledge of an

obscure rhetorician. But there are many historians who put us in

mind of the admirable saying of the great Conde to Cardinal de

Retz: “Ces coquins nous font parlor et agir, comme ils auroient

fait eux-memes a notre place.” * Note: This attack upon

Lactantius is unfounded. Lactantius was so far from having been

an obscure rhetorician, that he had taught rhetoric publicly, and

with the greatest success, first in Africa, and afterwards in

Nicomedia. His reputation obtained him the esteem of Constantine,

who invited him to his court, and intrusted to him the education

of his son Crispus. The facts which he relates took place during

his own time; he cannot be accused of dishonesty or imposture.

Satis me vixisse arbitrabor et officium hominis implesse si labor

meus aliquos homines, ab erroribus iberatos, ad iter coeleste

direxerit. De Opif. Dei, cap. 20. The eloquence of Lactantius has

caused him to be called the Christian Cicero. Annon Gent.—G.

——Yet no unprejudiced person can read this coarse and particular

private conversation of the two emperors, without assenting to

the justice of Gibbon’s severe sentence. But the authorship of

the treatise is by no means certain. The fame of Lactantius for

eloquence as well as for truth, would suffer no loss if it should

be adjudged to some more “obscure rhetorician.” Manso, in his

Leben Constantins des Grossen, concurs on this point with Gibbon

Beylage, iv. —M.]

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) · 第 10 / 79 章

22 (return) [ Levibus proeliis domuit. Eutrop. ix. 20.]