288 The Empire. ROME. The Empire. 
his two sons, Carinus and Numerianus, to assist him in he had never designed to punish, gently censured the severity 
his duties ; and after bringing to punishment the murderers of Maximian, and enjoyed the comparison of a golden and 
of Probus, he was called upon to repel an attack from the an iron age, which was universally applied to their opposite 
Sarmatians, and also from the Persians. After defeating the maxims of government. Notwithstanding the difference of 
former in a decisive battle, he conducted his army into their characters, the two emperors maintained, on the 
Persia, and marching to the very walls of Ctesiphon, he throne, that friendship which they had contracted in a 
overthrew the Persian army with great loss. He did not private station, and the turbulent spirit of Maximian, con* 
live, however, to enjoy this success, for he and many of fessed the ascendant of reason over brutal violence, 
his attendants were killed by a stroke of lightning in his tent. The first exploit of Maximian, was his suppression of 
The distress of his youngest son, Numerianus, is said to the peasants of Gaul, who, under the appellation of 
have been so great, that he brought on a severe disease in Bagaudse, or rebels, had risen in a general insurrection, 
his eyes by excessive weeping, and was obliged to accom- The Gallic nobles, justly dreading their revenge, either 
pany the army shut up in a close litter. Aper, his father-in- took refuge in the fortified cities, or fled from the wild 
law, conceived the design of aiming at the sovereignty, scene of anarchy, and the peasants reigned without controul, 
lie hired an assassin to murder Numerianus in his litter; and whilst two of their most daring leaders had the folly and 
in order to conceal the deed, he announced that Numerianus 
was unable to bear the light, and the deception was kept up 
till the smell of the dead body discovered the treachery of 
Aper. An uproar was immediately excited in the army. 
Dioclesian was chosen emperor, and with his own hand slew 
Aper. Carinus, however, the other brother, still resisted 
the election of Dioclesian, and the rival armies having met 
in Dahnatia, Dioclesian was victorious, and Carinus was 
slain by a tribune of his own army, whose wife he had 
seduced. 
The reign of Dioclesian is an sera in the history of the 
Roman empire. 
This hero, originally a slave, became successively a soldier, 
an officer, the governor of Msesia, consul of Rome, and com¬ 
mandant of the guards of the palace: changing his servile name 
of Diodes, or Docles, to the Roman majesty of Dioclesianus, 
he assumed the sceptre of the world, and, surrounded by 
fierce opponents from abroad, and ambitious and invidious 
generals at home, he retained it with safety and honour for 
the space of twenty-one years. Yet Gibbon remarks, “ that 
his abilities were useful rather than splendid; that he had a 
vigorous mind, improved by the experience and study of 
mankind; dexterity and application in business; a judicious 
mixture of liberality and economy, of mildness and rigour ; 
profound dissimulation under the disguise of military frank¬ 
ness; steadiness to pursue his ends; flexibility to vary his 
means’; and, above ail, the great art of submitting his own 
passions, as well as those of others, to the interest of his 
ambition, and of colouring his ambition with the most 
specious pretences of justice and public utility. Like 
Augustus, Dioclesian may be considered as the founder of a 
new empire. Like the adopted sou of Caesar, he was dis¬ 
tinguished as a statesman rather than as a warrior; nor did 
either of those princes employ force, whenever their purpose 
could be effected by policy.” 
' The victory of Dioclesian was remarkable for its mildness. 
A people accustomed to applaud the clemency of the con¬ 
queror, if the usual punishments of death, exile, and confis¬ 
cation w'ere inflicted wfith the least degree of moderation, 
beheld, with pleasing astonishment, a civil war, the flames 
of which were extinguished in the field of battle. Dioclesian 
received into his confidence Aristobulus, the principal 
minister of the house of Carus, respected the lives, the 
fortunes, and the dignity of his adversaries, and even 
continued in their respective stations the greater number of 
tlie servants of Carinus. 
After the example of Marcus, he gave himself a colleague 
in the person of Maximian. By associating a friend and a 
fellow-soldier to the labours of government, Dioclesian, in 
a time of public danger, provided for the defence both of the 
East and of the West. Maximian, born a peasant, ignorant 
of letters, careless of laws, a rustic in appearance and 
manners, had distinguished himself on every frontier of the 
empire. Insensible, moreover, to pity, and (earless of 
consequences, he was the ready instalment of every act of 
cruelty which the policy of his artful colleague might at 
once suggest and disclaim. As soon as a bloody sacrifice 
had been offered to prudence or to revenge, Dioclesian, by 
his seasonable intercession, saved the remaining few whom 
rashness to assume the imperial ornaments. Their power 
soon expired at the approach of the legions. The strength 
of union and discipline obtained an easy victory over a 
licentious and divided multitude. A severe retaliation was 
inflicted on those who were found in arms: the affrighted 
remnant returned to their respective habitations, and their 
unsuccessful effort for freedom, served only to confirm their 
slavery. 
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 enterprize of 
the Franks under the reign of Probus, their daring country¬ 
men had constructed squadrons of light brigantines, in which 
they incessantly ravaged the provinces adjacent to the ocean. 
To repel these desultory incursions, it it was found necessary to 
create a naval power ; and the judicious measure was prose¬ 
cuted with prudence and vigour. Gessoriacum, or Boulogne, 
in the straights of the British channel, was chosen by the 
emperor for the station of the Roman fleet; and the command 
of it intrusted to Carausius, a Menapian of the meanest ori¬ 
gin, but who had long signalized his skill as a pilot, and 
his valour as a soldier. The integrity of the new admiral cor¬ 
responded not with his abilities. When the German pirates 
sailed from their own harbours, 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 ac¬ 
quired. 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 Me¬ 
napian 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. 
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, and above all 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. 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 de¬ 
fended 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 commu¬ 
nicated to the barbarians the dangerous knowledge of military 
and naval arts. Carausius still preserved the possession of 
Boulonge and the adjacent country. His fleets rode trium¬ 
phant in the channel, commanded the mouths of the Seine 
and of the Rhine, ravaged the coasts of the ocean, and 
diffused 
