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The Empire. 
R O M E. 
and vigour. After a siege of eight months, Alexandria, 
wasted by the sword and by fire, implored the clemency 
of the conqueror; but it experienced the full extent of 
his severity. Many thousands of the citizens perished in 
a promiscuous slaughter, and there were few obnoxious 
persons in Egypt who escaped a sentence either of death, 
or at least of exile. The fate of Eusiris and of Coptos was 
still more melancholy than that of Alexandria; those 
proud cities, the former distinguished by its antiquity, 
the latter enriched by the passage of the Indian trade, were 
utterly destroyed by the arms and by the severe order of 
Dioclesian. 
At the same time’that Dioclesian chastised the past crimes 
of the Egyptians, he provided for their future safety and 
happiness by.many wise regulations, which were confirmed 
and enforced under the succeeding reigns. 
The reduction of Egypt was immediately followed by 
the Persian war. It was reserved for the reign of Diocle¬ 
sian to vanquish that powerful nation, and to extort a con¬ 
fession from the successors of Artaxerxes, of the superior 
majesty of the Roman empire: yet this was not effected easily, 
nor without severe reverses of fortune. The Roman and 
Persian armies encountered each other in the plains of 
Mesopotamia, and two battles were fought with various and 
doubtful success: but the third engagement was of a more 
decisive nature; and the Roman army received a total over¬ 
throw, which is attributed to the rashness of Galerius, who, 
with an inconsiderable body of troops, attacked the innumer¬ 
able host of the Persians. But the consideration of the 
country that was the scene of action, may suggest another 
reason for his defeat. The same ground on which Galerius 
was vanquished, had been rendered memorable by the death 
of Crassus, and the slaughter of ten legions. It was a plain 
of more than sixty miles, which extended from the hills of 
Carrhae to the Euphrates; a smooth and barren surface of 
sandy desert, without a hillock, without a tree, and without 
a spring of fresh water. The steady infantry of the Romans, 
fainting with heat and thirst, could neither hope for victory, 
if they preserved their ranks, nor break their ranks without 
Exposing themselves to the most imminent danger. In this 
situation they were gradually encompassed by the superior 
numbers, harrassed by the rapid evolutions, and destroyed 
by the arrows of the barbarian cavalry. Galerius made his 
escape; but when he returned to Antioch, Diocelesian re¬ 
ceived him not with the tenderness of a friend and colleague, 
but with the indignation of an offended sovereign. The 
Csesar, clothed in his purple, but humbled by the sense of 
his fault and misfortune, was obliged to follow the emperor’s 
chariot above a mile on foot, and to exhibit before the 
whole court the spectacle of his disgrace. 
As soon as Dioclesian had indulged his private resentment 
and asserted the majesty of supreme power, he yielded to 
the submissive entreaties of Galerius, and permitted him to 
retrieve his own honour, as well as that of the Roman arms. 
In the room of the unwarlike troops of Asia, which had most 
probably served in the first expedition, a second army was 
drawn from the veterans and new levies of the Illyrian 
frontier, and a considerable body of Gothic auxiliaries were 
taken into the Imperial pay. At the head of a chosen army 
of twenty-five thousand men, Galerius again passed the 
Euphrates; but, instead of exposing his legions in the open 
plains of Mesopotamia, he advanced through the mountains 
of Armenia, where he found the inhabitants devoted to his 
cause, and the country as favourable to the operations of 
infantry, as it was inconvenient for the motions of cavalry. 
Adversity had confirmed the Roman discipline, while the 
barbarians, elated by success, were become so negligent and 
remiss, that in the moment when they least expected it, they 
were surprised by the active conduct of Galerius, who, at¬ 
tended only by two horsemen, had with his own eyes secretly 
examined the state and position of their camp. A surprise, 
especially in the night-time, was for the most part fatal to 
a Persian army. “ Their horses were tied, and generally 
shackled, to prevent their running away; and if an alarm 
The Empire; 
happened, a Persian had his housing to fix, his horse to 
bridle, and his corslet to put on before he could mount." 
On this occasion, the impetuous attack of Galerius spread 
disorder and dismay over the camp of the barbarians. A 
slight resistance was followed by a dreadful carnage, and, in 
the general confusion, the wounded monarch (for Narses 
commanded his armies in person) fled towards the deserts of 
Media. His sumptuous tents, with those of his satraps, 
afforded an immense booty to the conqueror; and soon 
after a full agreement between the nations for the security of 
their territories and the continuance of peace was effected. 
This restoration of happiness and prosperity was celebrated 
by a triumph; “ the last,” says Gibbon, “Rome ever 
beheld.” 
Dioclesian laid the foundation of the dismemberment of 
the Roman empire, which fiis successors completed. Al¬ 
ready his dislike to the capital had removed to other and 
rising cities the seat of government, and while Maximian 
ruled at Milan, and Dioclesian lavished an enormous expen¬ 
diture on the pity of Nicomedia, the barbarian subjects of 
Rome withdrew the submissive veneration they had so long 
entertained for the city of the republic. Nor was this change 
(though no doubt partly attributable to the contempt for clas¬ 
sic associations an Illyrian peasant naturally felt,) entirely 
the result of caprice. The deep policy of Dioclesian viewed 
with jealousy the feeble attempts which the senate had occa¬ 
sionally made to re-obtain consequence and sovereignty; and 
he deputed his ferocious colleague to destroy from time to 
time, under various pretences, its more eloquent and influ¬ 
ential members. But, as Gibbon remarks, the “ most 
fatal though secret wound which the senate received 
from the hands of Dioclesian and Maximian, was inflicted 
by the inevitable operation of their absence. As long as the 
emperors resided at Rome, that assembly might be oppressed, 
but it scarcely could be neglected. The successors of Au¬ 
gustus exercised the power of dictating whatever laws their 
wisdom or caprice might suggest; but those laws were rati¬ 
fied by the sanction of the senate. The model of ancient 
freedom was preserved in its deliberations and decrees; and 
wise princes, who respected the prejudices of the Roman 
people, were in some measure obliged to assume the language 
and behaviour suitable to the general and first magistrate of 
the republic. In the armies and in the provinces, they dis¬ 
played the dignity of monarchs; and when they fixed their 
residence at a distance from the capital, they for ever laid 
aside the dissimulation which Augustus had recommended 
to his successors. In the exercise of the legislative as well as 
the executive power, the sovereign advised with his ministers, 
instead of consulting the great council of the nation. The 
name of the senate was mentioned with honour till the last 
period of the empire ; the vanity of its members was still 
flattered with honorary distinctions; but the assembly, 
which had so long been the source, and so long the instru¬ 
ment of power, was respectfully suffered to sink into ob¬ 
livion. The senate of Rome, losing all connection with 
the Imperial court and the actual constitution, was left a 
venerable but useless monument of antiquity on the Capito,- 
linehill.” 
It was the same fear of the senate, and not any disgust at 
their outrages, that led to the dissolution of the praetorian 
bands. These Roman soldiers had, On a few occasions, 
shewn a spark of affection for their country, and had begun 
to support the cause of the senate. Their numbers were 
accordingly curtailed, their privileges diminished, and their 
place supplied by Illyrian troops, who under the name of 
Jovians (those attached to Dioclesian) and Uerculians (those 
attached to Maximian), formed a guard safe from the infec¬ 
tious principles of republicanism. Whilst therefore we ad¬ 
mire the address with which Dioclesian repulsed from Rome 
her foreign enemies, and the moderation he exhibited in re¬ 
signing to others so large a share of empire, it cannot be 
concealed that to this emperor she owed the injury, that her 
population became divided in interests and patriotic attach¬ 
ments. Nor can it be forgotten that this emperor, when he 
disdained 
