The new Cmsars justified Diocletian'e expectations. Conatantius defeated the Franks and the Alemanni, and soon after reconquered Britain. Gaieties subjugated the Carpi, and transported the whole tribe into Pannonia. In the year 296, the Persians, under their king Names, again invaded Mesopotamia and part of Syria. Galerius marched against them, but being too confident was defeated by superior numbers, and obliged to retire. On his meeting Diocletian, the emperor showed his di*atisfaction by letting Galerius walk for • mile, clad in purple as ho was, by the aide of his car. The following year Galerins again attacked the Persian., and completely defeated them, taking an immense booty. The wives and children of Narses, who were among the prisoners, were treated by Galerins with humanity and respect. Narses sued for peace, which was granted by Diocletian on condition of tho Persians 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 Achillams, whom he besieged in Alexandria, which he took after a siege 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 Butiris and Coptos, were destroyed. Constantine, the son of Constantites 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 Elephantine, where he built a castle, and made peace with the neighbouring tribes, called by some Nubs and by others Nabotse, 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. llaximiauus is the meantime was 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 regulations, and in constructing forts on the frontiers. Diocletian kept a splendid court at Nicomedia, which town he embellished with numerous structures. Ho, or rather blaximianus by his order, caused the magnificent Thermos 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 imbed an edict sgniest the Christiana, ordering their churches to be pulled down, their sacred books to be burnt, and all Christians to bo 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 his armies and about his person ; and Eusebius (' Hist. Eccles.' viii.) speaks of the prosperity, security, and protection which the Christians enjoyed under his reign. They had churches in moat towns, and 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, Constantine (' Oratio ad Ccetum Sanctorum ') says, from lightning, and Galerius suggested to the emperor that it was a Christian plot. The heathen priest. on their part exerted themselves for the same 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, and ordered all hie Christian officers to sacrifice to the gods under pain of flagellation and dismissal, which many of thorn underwent. Several cracks which he consulted gave answers unfavourable to the Christians. The church of Nioomedia 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 magistrates to arrest the Christian bishops and presbyters, and compel them to sacrifice to the goda. 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 has been called by the name of Diocletian. But that emperor issued the two edicts reluctantly and after long hesitation, according to Lactentius's acknow ledgment: be fell a few months after, and on recovering from his long illness he abdicated. Galerius who had instigated the persecu tion, was the most zealous minister of it; the persecution raged with most fury In the provinces subject to bin rule, and lie continued it for several yeah after Diocletian's abdication, so that it might with more propriety be called the °Marian persecution. The countries under the government of Constantine suffered the least from it (Stumbles, Hist. Emil. Lactantins, De Mort. Persecut.r and Coestantinee 'Oration,' above quoted, as given by Eusebiva) In November of that year (303) Diocletian repaired to Rome, where be and Maximianna enjoyed the honour of a triumph, followed by festive games. Thla was the last 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 eo 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 ho spent at Nicomedia. At one time he was reported to be dead. Ile rallied however in the spring of 305, and showed himself In public, but greatly altered in Appearance. Gaieties soon after came to Nicomedia, and it is said that be persuaded and almost forced Diocletian to abdicate. Others say that Diocletian did it spontaneously. On the ]et of May ho 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 officers and court, be 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 Crease Constantine, who has given an account of the ceremony, which is quoted by Eusabiun in his life of that prince, was present, and the troops fully expected that he would be the new Car ; when they heard another mentioned, they asked each other whether Constantine had changed his name. But Galerius did not leave them long in suspense ; he pushed forward Maximinus 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 his life, respected by the other emperors, without cares and without regret. Part of the external walla which inclosed the area belonging to his palace and other buildings still remain, with three of the gates, as well as a temple, which is now a ohurch at Spalatro, or Spalato, in Dalmatia, a comparatively modern town, grown out of the decay of the ancient Salons, and built in great part within the walls of Diocletian's residence, from the name of which, Palatinm,' it is believed that 'Spalato' is derived. At the same time that Diocletian abdicated at Nicomedia, Maximianus, accordiog to an agreement between them, performed a similar ceremony at Milan, proclaiming Constantine as Augustus, and Severus as Closer. Both Severus and Maximinus Daza were inferior persona, and creatures of Calories, who insisted upon their nomination in preference to that of Maxenties and Constantino, whom Diocletian had at first proposed. Maximlanua retired to his seat in Lucania, but not being endowed with the firmness of Diocletian 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 Selena," answered Diocletian, "and see the vegetables which I grow in my garden with my own hands, you would no longer talk to me of empire." In his retirement he used to observe to his associates how difficult it is even for the besteintentioned man to govern well, as he cannot see everything with his own eyes, but must trust to others, who often deceive him. Once only ho left his retirement to meet Gaieties in Pannonia for the purpose of appointing a new Caner, Licinius, in the room of Severus, who had died. Licinius however did not prove grateful, for after the death of Galcrius in 31], he ill treated his widow, Valeria, Diocletian's daughter, who then with her mother, Prism, took refuge in the territories of Maximinus Daze. 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 their attendants. Diocletian remonstrated in favour of his wife 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.
Diocletian ranks among the moat distinguished emperors of Rome ; his reign of twenty-one years was upon the whole prosperous for the empire, and creditable to the Roman name. Ile was severe, but not wantonly cruel, and we ought to remember that mercy was not a Roman virtue. His conduct after his abdication shows 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, and especially Lactantius, have spoken unfavourably of him ; but Lactantiva cannot be implicitly trusted. Of the regular historians of his reign wo have only the meagre narra tives of Eutropius and Aurelius Victor, the others being now lost; but notices of Diooletian's life are scattered about iu various authors, Libanius, Vopiscus, Eusebius, Julian in his and the contem porary panegyrists, Eumenes and Mamertinus. His laws or edicts are in the ' Code.' Among other useful reforms, he abolished the fru mentarii, or licensed informers, who were stationed in every province to report any attempt at mutiny or rebellion, and who basely enriched themselves by working on the fears of the inhabitants. He also reformed and reduced the number of the insolent Praetorians, who were afterwards totally disbanded by Constantine.