DIOCLESIAN. 
ferring the purple to Severus, and declaring Conftantius and 
aie mperors, as Dioclefian had done, he retired to Lu- 
ania. Laétantius alcribes th die ies re) ss jan and 
Dioclefian to the intrigues “es 8 s, and to 
Seek his cee Ted them 
Conftantine, beeen who wa set hen at Nico- 
the apprehention of a civil w 
to entertain. 
nefs, gency, pte 
deur; and affer 
wer to Maxi. 
aa eae that if he could fhew 
Maximian the pot- “herbs which he a aaa with his ow 
hands at Salona, he fhould n o lon 
i mbine togethe 
reign ? Secluded i mankind se tis eeliel a dipsity, the 
truth is concealed from his knowledge: he can fee only t 
with their eyes, he har nothing te their nak saad 
tions e confers the moft important office 
~ weaknefs, and difgrades the moft virtuous ad deferving 
ng ubjects. By fuch infamous a&ts, added Dio- 
ene ae belt and wifeft ery are i to the ie cor- 
eeu: of their courtiers.” 
f 
the 313th year of Chrift, he was feized with an agitation of 
had 
body and of mind, which allowed him no reft either day or 
night, but he rolled himfeif fometimes on is ground, and 
fpent his whole time in fighs, groans, and tears. Accord- 
ang to fome authors, : either eae or Be himfelf. 
His memory was much refpece an magnificent tomb 
which was fal covered with purple in the 
Aime of Cala a the fon of Conftantine. He was ranked 
among the gods; a prerogative, fays Eutropius s, which never 
was beftowed upon any other man who died in a private fta- 
7 
tion. This gwegiee cannot be laid to the charge of Con- 
oyun _ then profeffed himfcif a Chriftian 3. bur it muft 
be im ° Licini nius and Maximin, who had offended 
Dioclefan ‘whi he bev “and who, without ey charge to 
themfelves, mi ur him after he was dea 
Thea ibben, were : ufeful ra- 
the experience an dy o ; dexterity and ap- 
plication in bufinefs, a judicious mixture of liberality and 
onomy, ildnefs and rigour; profound diffimulation 
under the difguife of military franknefs ; feadinefs to purfue 
his ends ; flexibility to vary hia means; and, above all, the 
great art of fubmitting his own paffions, as well as thofe 
of others, to the intereft of his ambition, and of colouring his 
ambition with the moft fpecious pretences of jultice aug 
Like Auguftus, Dioclefian may be con 
fidered as the founder of an 
he com 
h Support their char ncouraged and preferred perfons 
f merit and virtue, difcountenanced vice, encoura 
ten d th 
. ork of the was, till feduced by —o- rather 
a friend than an enemy to the Chriftians, of whom he had, 
till the year 303, great numbers both in his pate a in his 
army. He was attentive to make plenty reign in his capital, 
in pd armies, and in the whole empire. i 
any qualities worthy of efteem, he knew little of the art 
of rendering himfelf ioe ae though he gloried in imi- 
ating Marcus Ss 
ey Belides the c 
and cunning, and inipteed fentiments of ft pangs and diftru 
His economy ayaa on avarice, and, if w may believe 
_iIt has 
him juftifie eaeience.: and that thofe whom he called his 
friends could not depend upon a fincere affeGtion on his part. 
He wa i ul 
dia he indulged this ation to an coat and in jr 
egree. Here, ays our author, he built a bafilic, ‘hae 
a circus, in another place a mint, and elfewhere an arfena 
For his wife he pee a a and another for his daughter. 
In order to ma oy tho fe n new edifices, a 
hen they were vg: pulled 
down and altered, perhaps to be again deitroyed. Such 
was the madnefs which he manifefted in his vain haces of 
making’ ‘Nicomedia equal to At Rome his baths 
were an immenfe buiiding, the vaft pnt wen f. which, 
if it cannot, without hyperbole, be compared with an ancient 
writer, (Ammian 1 xvi.) to the extent of a province, is, at 
teaft, 
