DIOCLETIANUS, CAIUS VALERIUS. 



DIOCLETIANUS, CAIUS VALERIUS. 



defeated the Franks and the Aleuianni, and soon after reconquered 

 Britain. Galerius subjugated the Carpi, and transported the whole 

 tribe into Paononia. in the year 296, tlie Persians, under their king 

 Kane*, again invaded Mesopotamia and part of Svria. Qalerius 

 marched against them, but being too confident was defeated by 

 superior numbers, and obliged to retire. On bis meeting Diocletian, 

 the emperor showed his dissatisfaction by letting Galerius walk for 

 a mile, clad in purple as he was, by the side of his car. The following 

 year Galerius again attacked the Persians, and completely defeated 

 them, taking an immense booty. The wives and children of Nareee, 

 who were among the prisoners, were treated by Galerius with 

 humanity and respect. Norses sued for peace, which was granted by 

 Diocletian on condition of the Fenians giving up all the territory on 

 the right or western bank of the Tigris. This peace was concluded 

 in 297, and lasted forty years. At the same time Diocletian marched 

 into Egypt against Achiltaus, whom he besieged in Alexandria, which 

 he took after a niege of eight months, when the usurper and his chief 

 adherents were put to death. Diocletian is said to have behaved on 

 this occasion with unusual sternness. Several towns of Egypt, among 

 others Busiris and Coptos, were destroyed. Constantino, the son of 

 ('uustantiu.i, who was educated at Nicomedia, accompanied the 

 emperor in this expedition. Diocletian fixed the limits of the empire 

 on that side at the island of Elephantina, where he built a castle, and 

 made peace with the neighbouring tribes, called by some Nuba: and 

 by others Nabatte, to whom he gave up the strip of territory which 

 the Romans had conquered, of seven days' march above the first 

 cataract, on condition that they should prevent the Blemmyes and 

 Ethiopians from attacking Egypt Haximianus in. the meantime was 

 engaged in putting down the revolt in Mauritania, which he effected 

 with full success. For several years after this the empire enjoyed 

 peace, and Diocletian and his colleagues were chiefly employed in 

 framing laws and administrative regulation?, and in constructing forts 

 on the frontiers. Diocletian kept a splendid court at Nicomedia, 

 which town he embellished with numerous structures. He, or rather 

 Maximiauus by his order, caused the magnificent Therms! at Rome 

 to be built, the remains of which still bear Diocletian's name, and 

 which contained, besides the baths, a library, a museum, public walks, 

 and other establishments. 



In February 303 Diocletian issued an edict against the Christiana, 

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

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

 with other penalties, exclusive however of death. Various causes 

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

 always been hostile to the Christians, while Diocletian had openly 

 favoured them, had employed them in liis armies and about hia 

 person ; and Eusebius (' Hut. Kccles.' viii) speaks of the prosperity, 

 security, and protection which the Christiana enjoyed under bis reign. 

 They had churches in moat towns, aud one at Nicomedia in par- 

 ticular under the eye of the emperor. Just before the edict was 

 issued, Galerius had repaired to Nicomedia to induce Diocletian to 

 proscribe the Christians. He filled the emperor's mind with reports of 

 conspiracies and seditions. The imperial palace took fire, Constantino 

 (' Oratio ad Ccetum Sanctorum ') says, from lightning, and Galerius 

 suggested to the emperor that it was a Christian plot The heatheu 

 priests on their part exerted themselves for the tame purpose. It 

 happened that on the occasion of a solemn sacrifice in presence of 

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

 the Christian officers in the imperial retinue crossed themselves; 

 upon which the priests declared that the presence of profane men 

 prevented them from discovering the auspices. Diocletian who was 

 very anxious to pry into futurity, became irritated, anH ordered all 

 his Christian officers to sacrifice to the gods under pain of flagellation 

 and dismissal, which many of them underwent Several oracles 

 which he consulted gave answers unfavourable to the Christians. 

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

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

 imperial edict exasperated Diocletian still more : the culprit was put 

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

 to arrest the Christian bishop* and presbyters, and compel them to 

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

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

 whose ravages were the more extensive in proportion to the great 

 diffusion of Christianity during a long period of toleration. This was 

 the last persecution under the Roman empire, and it hoi been called 

 by the name of Diocletian. But that emperor issued the two edicts 

 reluctantly and after long hesitation, according to Lactantius's acknow- 

 ledgment: be fell ill a few months after, and on recovering from his 

 long illness he abdicated. Galerins who had instigated the perm-ca- 

 tion, was the most zealous minister of it ; the persecution raged with 

 most fury in the provinces subject to bis rule, and he continued it 

 for several years after Diocletian's abdication, so that it might with 

 more propriety be called the Oalerian persecution. The countries 

 undr the government of Constantius suffered the least from it 

 (Kusebius, ' Hit Eccl. ;' Lactantius, 'De Mort. Peraecut;' and 

 Constantine's ' Oration,' above quoted, as given by Euiebius.) 



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

 he and Maximiauus enjoyed the honour of a triumph, followed by 

 festive games. This was the hut triumph that Rome saw. The popu- 



lace of that city complained of the economy of Dioletian on the 

 occasion, who replied that moderation and temperance were most 

 required when the censor was present. They vented their displeasure 

 in jibes and sarcasms, which so hurt Diocletian that he left Rome 

 abruptly in the month of December for Ravenna, in very cold weather. 

 In this journey he was seized by an illness which affected him the 

 whole of the following year, which he spent at Nicomedia, At one 

 time he was reported to bo dead. He rallied however in the spring of 

 305, and showed himself in public, bat greatly altered in appearance. 

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

 and almost forced Diocletian to abdicate. Others say that Diocletian 

 did it spontaneously. On the 1st of May he repaired with his guards 

 to a spot three miles out of Nicomedia, where he had thirteen years 

 before proclaimed Galerius as Caesar, and there, addressing his officer! 

 aud court, he said that the infirmities of age warned him to retire 

 from power, and to deliver the administration of the state into 

 stronger hands. He then proclaimed Galerius as Augustus, and 

 Maximinus Daza as the new Coeaar. Constantino, who has given an 

 account of the ceremony, which is quoted by Eusebius in his life of 

 that prince, was present, and the troops fully expected that he would 

 be the new Ctesar ; when they heard another mentioned, they asked 

 each other whether Constantino had changed his name. But Galerius 

 did not leave them long in suspense; he pushed forward M.iximimis 

 and showed him to the assembly, and Diocletian clothed him with 

 the purple vest, after which the old emperor returned privately in his 

 carriage to Nicomedia, and immediately after set off for Salona in 

 Dalmatia, near which he built himself an extensive palace by the 

 sea-shore, in which he lived for the rest of hia life, respected by the 

 other emperors, without cares and without regret Part of the 

 external walls which inclosed the area belonging to his palace and 

 other buildings still remain, with three of the gates, as well as a 

 temple, which ia now a church at Spalatro, or Spolato, in Dalmatia, a 

 comparatively modern town, grown out of the decay of the ancient 

 Salona, and built in great part within the walls of Diocletian's 

 residence, from the name of which, 'Palatium,' it ia believed that 

 ' Spnlato ' is derived. At the fame time that Diocletian abdicated at 

 Nicomedia, Maximionus, according to an agreement between them, 

 performed a similar ceremony at Milan, proclaiming Couetantius as 

 Augustus, and Severus as Cjcsar. Both Soverus and Maximinus Daza 

 were inferior persons, and creatures of Galerius, who insisted upon 

 their nomination in preference to that of Maxentius and Constantino, 

 whom Diocletian hod at first proposed. Maximianus retired to his 

 seat in Lucanio, but not being endowed with the firmness of Diocld ian 

 he tried some time after to recover his former power, and wrote to his 

 old colleague to induce him to do the same. " Were you but to come 

 to Salona," answered Diocletian, " and see the vegetables which I grow 

 in my garden with my own hand.", you would no longer talk to me of 

 empire." In his retirement he used to observe to his associates how 

 difficult it ia even for the best-intentioned man to govern well, as he 

 cannot see everything with hia own eyes, but must trust to others, 

 who often deceive him. Once only he left his retirement to meet 

 Galerius in Pannonia for the purpose of appointing a new Cesar, 

 Licinius, in the room of Severus, who had died. Licinius however 

 did not prove grateful, for after the death of Goleriua in 311, he ill- 

 treated his widow, Valeria, Diocletian's daughter, who then with her 

 mother, Priaca, took refuge in the, territories of Maximinus Daza. The 

 latter offered to marry Valeria, but on her refusal exiled both her and 

 her mother into the deserts of Syria, and put to death several of tlu>ir 

 attendants. Diocletian remonstrated in favour of his wifo and 

 daughter, but to no purpose, and his grief on this occasion probably 

 hastened his death, which took place at his residence near Salona in 

 July 313. In the following year his wife and daughter were put to 

 death by order of Licinius. 



Coin of Diocletian. 

 BritUh Museum. Actual site. Copper. Weight 107} grains. 



Diocletian ranks among the most distinguished emperors of Rome ; 

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

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

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

 Roman virtue, liis conduct after his abdication showa that his was 

 no common mind. The chief charge against him is his haughtiness in 

 introducing the Oriental ceremonial of prostration into the Roman 

 court The Christian writers, nnd especially Lactantius, have spoken 

 unfavourably of him ; but Lactantius cannot be implicitly trusted. 

 Of the regular bitoriana of his reign wo have only the meagre imrra- 

 tives of Eutropius and Aurelius Victor, the others being now lost ; 

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



