693 



DINDORF, WILHELM. 



DIOCLETIA'NUS, CAIUS VALERIUS. 



591 



Dinarchus was a Corinthian by birth, who settled in Athena and 

 became intimate with Theophrastus and Demetrius the Phalerian, a 

 circumstance which, combined with others, enables us to determine 

 his age with tolerable precision. Dionysius of Haliearnassus fixes his 

 birth about the archonship of Nicophemus, B.C. 361. The time of 

 his highest reputation was after the death of Alexander, when Demos- 

 thenes and other great orators were dead or banished. He seems to 

 have got his living by writing speeches for those who were in want of 

 them, and he carried on apparently a profitable business this way. 

 After the garrison which Cassander had placed in Munychia had been 

 driven out by Antigonus and Demetrius in the archonship of Anaxi- 

 crates, B.C. 307, Dinarchus, though a foreigner, being involved in a 

 charge of conspiring against the democracy, and having always been 

 attached to the aristocratical party, and perhaps also fearing that his 

 wealth might be a temptation to his enemies, withdrew to Chalcis in 

 Eubcca. Demetrius afterwards allowed him to return to Athens with 

 other exiles, in the archonship of Philippus, B.C. 292, after an absence 

 of fifteen years. On his return, Dinarchus, who had brought all his 

 money back with him, lodged with one Proxenus, an Athenian, a 

 friend of his, who however (if the story is true) proved to be a knave, 

 and robbed the old man of his money, or at least colluded with the 

 thieves. Dinarchus brought an action against him, and for the first 

 time in his life made his appearance in a court of justice. The charge 

 against Proxenu", which is drawn up with a kind of legal formality, is 

 preserved by Dionysius of Haliearnassus. How the suit ended is 

 unknown. Of tht numerous orations of Dinarchus only three remain, 

 and they are not entitled to very high praise. One of them is against 

 Demosthenes touching the affair of Harpalus. [DEMOSTHENES.] 

 Dionysius has taken great pains to distinguish the spurious from the 

 genuine orations of Dinarchus. Of his genuine orations, he enume- 

 rates 28 public orations and 31 private. This critic has passed rather 

 a severe judgment on Dinarchus. He considered him merely as an 

 imitator of Lysiaa, Hyperides, and Demosthenes, and though suc- 

 ceeding to a certain extent in copying the several styles and excellences 

 of these three great orators, yet failing, as all copiers from models 

 must fail, in that natural expression and charm which are the 

 characteristics of originality. 



The few facts that we know about Dinarchus are derived from the 

 Commentary of Dionysius on the Attic orators and the extracts 

 which he gives from Philochorus. The three extant orations of 

 Dinarchus are printed in the usual collections of the Attic orators. 

 The best separate edition is that of Schmidt, Leipz., 1828. 



* DINDORF, WILHELM, was born in 1802 at Leipzig, where his 

 father was professor of Oriental languages. He distinguished himself 

 early at the university, became while yet a youth the associate of many 

 of his learned countrymen, and in 1819 edited a continuation of the 

 commentaries of Aristophanes, commenced by Beck. He was appointed 

 custos of the royal library at Berlin in 1827, and professor of literary 

 history at Leipzig in 1828, but after giving a course of lectures in 

 1830, he in the following year resigned that office to unite with L. and 

 M. Hase in remoulding the Greek 'Thesaurus' of Stephanus, and he 

 has since mainly devoted himself to editing the Greek and Latin 

 authors. One of his most celebrated editions is that of Demosthenes, 

 which he edited for the University of Oxford (9 vols. 8vo), the text of 

 which is considered very excellent. For the same university he has 

 also edited ^Kschylus (3 volg., 1833-51), Sophocles, Euripides (3 vols.), 

 Aristophanes (4 voK, 1835-39), &c. ; many of the volumes of the 

 ' Bibliotheque des Classiques Grecs ' published in Paris by M. Didot, 

 and others issued from the presses of Leipzig, &c. The labours of 

 Dindorf have met with severe criticism, but it is evident that they 

 must also have found acceptance among scholars. His texts are per- 

 haps on the whole more highly esteemed than his commentaries. His 

 brother * LUDWICI DINDORF (born 1805) has been associated with him 

 in many of hie scholastic undertakings, and has edited alone several 

 Greek authors. He is said to have turned his attention of late years 

 to commercial pursuits, and to have become connected with the rail- 

 ways of his native country. 



DIOCLES, a Greek mathematician, who is chiefly known by his 

 invention of the cissoid. The period at which he flourished is 

 unknown. 



DIOCLETIA'NUS, CAIUS VALERIUS, was born at Dioclea, in 

 Dalmatia, some say at Salona, about A.D. '215 according to some, but 

 others make him ten years older. His original name was Diodes, 

 which he afterwards changed into Diocletianus. He is said by some 

 to have been the SOD of a notary, by others the freedman of a senator 

 named Anulinux. He entered the army at an early age, and rose 

 gradually to rank ; he served in Gaul, in Mcceia under Probus, and 

 was present at the campaign against the Persians, in which Cams 

 perished in a mysterious manner. Diocletian commanded the house- 

 hold or imperial body-guards when young Numerianus, the son of 

 Carus, was tecretly put to death by Aper his father-in-law, while 

 travelling in a close litter on account of illness, on the return of the 

 army from Persia. The death of Numerianus being discovered after 

 several days by the soldiers near Calchedon, they arrested Aper and 

 proclaimed Diocletian emperor, who addressing the soldiers from his 

 tribunal in the camp,' protested his innocence of the death of Nume- 

 rianus, and then upbraiding Aper for the crime, plunged his sword 

 into his body. The new emperor observed to a friend that "he had 



now killed the boar," punning on the word Aper, which means a boar, 

 and alluding to the prediction of a soothsayer in Gaul, who had told 

 rim that he would become emperor after having killed a boar. 

 Vopiscus in ' Hist. Aug.") Diocletian, self-composed and strong- 

 minded in other respects, was all his life an anxious believer in divina- 

 ;ion, which superstition led him probably to inflict summary punish- 

 ment upon Aper with his own hands. He made his solemn entrance 

 nto Nicomedia in September, 281, which town he afterwards chose 

 'or his favourite residence. Carinus, the other son of Carus, who had 

 remained in Italy, having collected a force to attack Diocletian, the 

 ;wo armies met at Margum in Moesia, where the soldiers of Carinus 

 bad the advantage at first, but Carinus himself being killed during the 

 battle by his officers, who detested him for his cruelty and debauchery, 

 both armies joined in acknowledging Diocletian emperor in 285. 

 Diocletian was generous after his victory, and, contrary to the common 

 practice, there were no executions, proscriptions, or confiscations of 

 property ; he even retained most of the officers of Carinus in their 

 places. (Aurelius Victor.) 



Diocletian on assuming the imperial power found the empire assailed 

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

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

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

 leaders who had assumed the title of emperor. To quell the dis- 

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

 of Pannonia, and a brave but rude uncultivated soldier. Maximianus 

 defeated the Bagaudi, for such was the namo the rustic insurgents 

 had assumed. In the year 28G, Diocletian chose Maximianus as his 

 colleague in the empire, under the name of Marcus Valerius Maxi- 

 mianus Augustus, and it is to the credit of both that the latter 

 continued ever after faithful to Diocletian and willing to follow his 

 advice. Maximianus was stationed in Gaul and on the German 

 frontier to repel invasion ; Diocletian resided chiefly in the Eant to 

 watch the Persians, though he appears to have visited Rome in the 

 early part of his reign. About 287 the revolt of Carausius took place. 

 In the following year Maximiauus defeated the Germans near Treviri, 

 and Diocletian himself marched against other tribes on the Rhsetian 

 frontier; the year after he defeated the Sarmatians on the lower 

 Danube. In the same year, 289, peace was made between Carausius 

 and the two emperors, Carausius being allowed to retain possession 

 of Britain. In 290 Maximianus and Diocletian met at Milan to 

 confer together on the state of the empire, after which Diocletian 

 returned to Nicomedia. The Persians soon after again invaded 

 Mesopotamia and threatened Syria, the Quinquegentiani, a federation 

 of tribes in the Mauritania Csesariensin, revolted, another revolt under 

 one Achillaeus broke out in Egypt, another in Italy under a certain 

 Julianus. Diocletian thought it necessary to increase the number of 

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

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

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

 Nicomedia. At the Bame time Maximianus adopted on his part 

 Constantius called Chlorus. The two Csesara repudiated their 

 respective wives ; Galerius married Valeria, Diocletian's daughter, 

 adding to his name that of Valerianus ; and Constantius married 

 Theodora, daughter of Maximianus. Galerius was a native of Dacia, 

 and a good soldier, but violent and cruel ; he had been a herdsman in 

 his youth, for which he has been styled, in derision, Armentarius. 

 The two Caesars remained subordinate to the two Augusti, though 

 each of the four was entrusted with the administration of a part of 

 the empire. Diocletian kept to himself Asia and Egypt ; Maximiauus 

 had Italy and Africa ; Galerius, Thrace and Illyricum ; and Con- 

 stantius had Gaul and Spain. But it was rather an administrative 

 than a political division. At the head of the edicts of each prince 

 were put the names of all the four, beginning with that of Diocletian. 

 Diocletian resorted to this arrangement probably as much for reasons 

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

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

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

 Between thirty aud forty emperors had been thus successively made and 

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

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

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

 put a stop to military insolence and anarchy. The empire was no 

 longer put up to sale, the immediate and intolerable evil was effectually 

 cured, though another danger remained, that of disputes aud wars 

 between the various sharers of the imperial power; still it was a 

 smaller danger aud one which did not manifest itself so long as 

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

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

 empire; but this was the only chance there was of preventing its 

 crumbling to pieces. Italy, and Rome, iu particular, lost by the 

 change : they no longer monopolised the weslth and power of the 

 world, but the other provinces gained. The empire was much too 

 large for one single man or a single central administration, under the 

 dwindled influence of the Roman name, and amidst the numerous 

 causes of local dissension and discontent, private ambition, social 

 corruption, and foreign hostility, that had accumulated for three 

 centuries, since the time of Augustus. 

 The new Cajsara justified Diocletian's expectations. Constantiiu 



