D I O C L E S I A N. 



747 



fiioolesian. provinces, he allotted to his colleague the more western 

 S *~Y"""" countries, Italy, Africa, and Spain. He assumed also 

 the title of Jovius, while Maximian took that of Hercu- 

 leus ; and they continued to preserve, upon the throne, 

 the same steady friendship which they had long che- 

 rished in a private station. His more warlike associate 

 respected the superior intellect of his patron, who knew 

 well, on his part, how to employ the stern bravery of 

 the other, as a ready instrument in executing the se- 

 verer measures of government. Proceeding to their 

 respective regions, Dioclesian, by the mere terror of his 

 preparations, compelled the Persian Icing to restore Me- 

 sopotamia, which he had wrested by surprise from the 

 empire ; and gained various successes over the Saracens 

 and Goths, in Pannonia. Maximian, in the west, was 

 not less prosperous, routing the Germans and other bar- 

 barous nations, wherever they ventured to wait his ap- 

 proach. For these successes they obtained a triumph, 

 and afterwards proceeded in different directions, in the 

 depth of winter, to hold a friendly conference at Milan, 

 A. D. 290 ; a meeting, it is conjectured, which had no 

 other object than merely to manifest the cordial union 

 which subsisted between them, and thus indirectly to 

 secure the tranquillity of their dominions. Two years 

 after this event, they found sufficient occasion for all 

 their united wisdom and courage ; and were barely 

 competent to preserve the empire amidst the host of 

 enemies, both foreign and domestic, by whom it was 

 assailed. Carausius, a famous sea captain, still held the 

 sway in Britain, of which he had taken possession seve- 

 ral years before. The Persian king broke into Meso- 

 potamia, threatening to overrun all Syria ; while five 

 confederated nations were desolating the provinces of 

 Africa. Aurelius Julianus had caused himself to be 

 proclaimed emperor in Italy ; and Achilieus assumed 

 the same title in Egypt. In order to make head against 

 these accumulating dangers, the two emperors- formed 

 the resolution of choosing two approved generals, who 

 should bear the title of Caesar, and succeed them in the 

 administration of the empire. In this view, Dioclesian 

 made choice of Galerius, who was surnamed Armenta- 

 rius from his original occupation of a herdsman ; and 

 Maximian selected Constantius, whose pale complexion 

 had procured him the appellation of Chlorus. That 

 this union of power might be cemented as firmly as 

 possible, the two elected princes were obliged to enter 

 into an alliance with the imperial families, Galerius 

 espousing Valeria the daughter of Dioclesian, and Con- 

 stantius taking to wife Theodora, daughter-in-law of 

 Maximian. A new division of the empire followed this 

 arrangement. Dioclesian chose for himself the rich coun- 

 tries of Asia to the east of the Egean Sea ; and allotted 

 to Galerius the regions of Thrace and Illyricnm. Maxi- 

 mian held Italy and Africa, with the adjoining islands ; 

 and Constantius was charged with the defence of Gaul, 

 Britain, and Spain. Each of them reigned as an abso- 

 lute sovereign in his respective district, but all harmo- 

 niously concurred in the enactment of laws, applicable 

 to the whole empire, and always paid great deference to 

 Dioclesian, as their common father and benefactor. 

 Many inconveniences, however, attended this plurality 

 of sovereigns, especially the multiplicity of civil and 

 military offices, which were necessarily required by 

 four distinct courts ; and the additional load of taxes 

 for their support, which reduced many provinces of the 

 empire to the greatest misery. 



Dioclesian, thus supported by new associates, pro- 

 ceeded to Egypt, where Achilieus had usurped th° sove- 

 reignty ; and having compelled him, after a siege of 



1 



eight months, to surrender the city of Alexandria, he Dioclesian. 

 exercised the most cruel vengeance upon the inhabitants, — -y-— ' 

 and also upon those of Busiris, Coptus, and the other 

 principal Egyptian towns. Hence he passed to Anti- 

 och, A. 1). 2<)(>, in order to superintend the operations 

 of the Roman army against the Persians ; but com- 

 mitted the execution of his plans to Galerius, whom he 

 had recalled from Illyricum for that purpose. The te- 

 merity of this prince subjected him to a severe defeat 

 from the king of Persia : and, when he returned to re- 

 port his ill success to Dioclesian, he experienced a cold 

 and contemptuous reception, being allowed to follow 

 the emperor's chariot several miles on foot, before he 

 was indulged with an audience. But, when Dioclesian 

 had thus displayed his superior authority, and Galerius 

 had shewn his eagerness to retrieve his lost honour, he 

 was again intrusted with an army of 25,000 men, with 

 which he gained a decisive victory over the Persian 

 monarch, and secured a peace of the most advantageous 

 terms for the empire. His success completely re-esta- 

 blished in that quarter the glory of the Roman name ; 

 but was attended with fatal consequences to Dioclesian 

 himself. Galerius, elated with his conquests, assumed 

 the pompous titles of Persicus, Armenicus, Medicus, 

 Adiabenicus, and even styled himself the son of Mars. 

 In this boastful disposition, he could not easily brook 

 the thought of a superior ; and, by his haughty de- 

 meanour, began to prepare Dioclesian for his future 

 usurpations. That emperor, in the meantime, was busily 

 occupied by the internal arrangements of the empire, 

 and by the fortifications of its frontiers along the Eu- 

 phrates, the Danube, and the Rhine. He spent the 

 winter of the year 302 at Nicomedia, together with Ga- 

 lerius, whose ascendancy was daily increasing, and who 

 wasatthis timekeenly employing all his influence with his 

 colleague, to procure the extermination of the Christians. 

 Dioclesian himself, though much attached to the Hea- 

 then superstitions, did not entertain any aversion to the 

 Christians ; and had many of them among the officers 

 both of his court and army. Galerius, on the contrary, 

 had imbibed, from his infancy, the bitterest enmity 

 against them, and was himself utterly ignorant of every 

 subject, except military affairs. Influenced by the sug- 

 gestions of his superstitious mother, the insinuations of 

 the Pagan priests, and the ferocity of his own natural 

 disposition, he solicited Dioclesian, with the most urgent 

 importunity, to adopt the most violent proceedings 

 against his Christian subjects. The emperor, much in- 

 clined to cement measures, consented to exclude all who 

 professed that religion from every civil and military of- 

 fice, but was reluctant to shed blood. Galerius, how- 

 ever, at length prevailed ; and, on the 23d of February 

 303, an order was issued to pull down the churches of 

 the Christians, to confiscate their ecclesiastical property, 

 to burn their sacred books and other writings, to ren- 

 der them incapable of holding any honour or employ- 

 ment in the state, and to exclude the whole mass from 

 all the privileges of subjects, and protection of the law. 

 Although this edict did not directly affect their lives, 

 yet many of them, in consequence of refusing to sur- 

 render their sacred books to the magistrate, were pu- 

 nished withfcieath. Soon after the publication of tliis 

 edict, the palace of Nicomedia, in which both the em- 

 perors then lodged, was twice discovered to be in 

 flames, and part of the building was reduced to ashes. 

 This accident is ascribed by Constantius, who waa upon 

 the spot, to the effects of lightning ; but Lactantius af- 

 firms, that it was done by the secret orders of Galtirius, 

 that he might rind an accusation against the Christians, 



