73

ERA THE FIFTH.

THE LIFE OF DIOCLETIAN.

THE PARTITION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE; AND THE LAST, OR TENTH GENERAL PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS.

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1. Like Augustus, Diocletian may be considered as the founder of a new empire."

Such is the observation of the historian of the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." This reign may therefore be selected as one of the most remarkable eras of the world's history. Lest the reader should entirely lose sight of the interval between this era and that of Marcus Aurelius, a sketch is here given of those who carried on the succession of the imperial power during so important a period. From the death of this Emperor (A.D. 180) to the accession of Diocletian (A.D. 284), 104 years intervened, which are to be distributed among at least twenty reigns, so that the average of these would scarcely exceed five years, a few of them being longer, but the greater part less.

2. After a peaceful, and, but for the persecution of his Christian subjects, a happy sway, Marcus Aurelius left the empire to Commodus, a son who inherited none of his father's virtues. His reign, though protracted to twelve years, was marked by follies of the most contemptible kind, and by vices which the pens of modern historians dare not describe. He was at last murdered by some of the inmates of the palace (A.D. 192), and Pertinax, an aged senator of consular rank, whose virtues formed a pleasing contrast with the character of his predecessor, was called to the empire. He reigned only a few months, falling a sacrifice to the Prætorian soldiers, the guards of the capital, who at

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this time numbered about 16,000, and whose licentious fury was one symptom of the declining authority of the state.

3. Severus next assumed the station of Emperor (A.D. 193). His reign of 18 years was comparatively a long one, and rendered memorable by his visit to Britain, and by his dying at York, after he had built another wall near that of Hadrian. He is also said to have sent an army into Caledonia, to encounter Fingal, the hero of Ossian; but death saved the heroes of the north from their powerful enemy (A.D. 211). He left two sons to inherit his dominions. Caracalla, upon his brother Geta's assassination (A.D. 212), became sole possessor of the empire, but was murdered after a period of five years (A.D. 217).

4. Macrinus, his destroyer, held the empire for less than one year, when he was put to death by a mutiny of the Prætorian guards (A.D. 218).

Elegabalus, whose proper name was Bassianus, then succeeded to the supreme power. He was the grandson of Severus, and had been a priest of the sun at Emesa, in Phoenicia. His name, after he was Emperor, was derived from this circumstance, for the sun was adored in that city, by this title, under the figure of a black conical stone, believed to have fallen from heaven*. He was an effeminate youth, who introduced into Rome the voluptuous idolatry of the Syrians. Luxury, gluttony, and profligacy in every form were the principal features of his reign. He abandoned himself to the grossest indulgences, endeavouring to subvert every law of nature and decency, and was deservedly cut off by the Prætorians after a reign of four years (A.D. 222).

5. The same military power raised to the empire Alexander Severus, another grandson of the family, bearing the latter name. He was a youth of singularly virtuous character; and recalled to mind the days of the Antonines. He fell a sacrifice (A.D. 235), after a thirteen years' reign, to a conspiracy raised against him by Maximin an old General of the empire, of gothic extraction. Of this brutal savage we are told that his stature was eight feet and a half in height, that he could drink in a day seven gallons of wine, eat thirty or forty pounds of flesh, and that his strength was in proportion far greater than that of ordinary men. It was this circumstance which, when he was a peasant youth, at* Probably an aerolite.

tracted the notice of the Emperor Severus. He overthrew successively seven of the strongest soldiers of the army in a wrestling match, and to this circumstance he owed his subsequent advancement. In the first year of his reign a revolt took place in Africa, in which two of the Gordians, a family then most illustrious in Rome, were raised to the dangerous dignity of the supreme authority against their own inclinations. The father and the son were both named Emperor (A.D. 236), and the son was a last relic of the best age of Roman sovereigns. But he fell in a skirmish with some Mauritanians near Carthage, and his father an old man whose reign had not exceeded 36 days, put an end to his life on hearing the news of this defeat.

6. Maximus and Balbinus, the first a soldier, and the second an experienced magistrate of the provinces, were now by the voice of the Senate raised to the situation of Emperors, Maximin having been already denounced as a public enemy. But a tumult ensuing among the Roman populace, another of the Gordian family was brought forward, the grandson of the elder who had already reigned. He was a boy of 13 years, and being produced to the people with the ornaments and title of Cæsar, the tumult was appeased. For about a year, in conjunction with Gordian, the two Emperors were permitted to exercise the authority. During this period, Maximin was advancing to Rome, to assert his claims at the head of an army. But while he was besieging Aquileia, he was deprived of life by a party of the Prætorian guards (A.D. 238). A few months afterwards, the two Emperors were put to death in the palace by an outbreak of the same military fury. The youthful Gordian now remained sole Emperor for about six years, and for the greater part of this time was under the influence of Misitheus a wise minister, whose counsels had no object but the glory of his sovereign and the happiness of the people. This young Emperor was cut off by a secret conspiracy, in his march to Antioch to oppose the Persians (A.D. 244). Philip, who headed this conspiracy, was an Arab by birth, and was raised by the votes of the soldiers to the vacant dignity; but fell in his turn, after a reign of five years, in a rebellion which broke out among the legions in Mæsia (A.D. 249).

7. Decius now succeeded, whose short reign of two years

is in some measure remarkable for a severe persecution (A.D. 250) which Christianity sustained throughout the whole of it, and for the first formidable invasion of the Goths, that people who afterwards broke the Roman power, sacked its capital, and reigned in Gaul, Spain and Italy. These barbarians, whose settlements were in the north of Europe, from Prussia to the Ukraine, had made an irruption into the province of Dacia, in the time of Philip, but were induced to retreat by the inhabitants of the city of Marcianopolis consenting to ransom their lives and property for a large sum of money. In the reign of Decius, they passed the Danube with an army of 70,000 Germans and Sarmatians. On this occasion the Roman soldiers failed to vindicate their ancient renown. For the first time, their Emperor was seen retreating before a crowd of half-armed barbarians. The pride of the Roman people and of their legions was humbled by the fatal results of a war, ending in the defeat and death of Decius (A.D. 251), and in the agreement of Gallus his successor to pay them an annual tribute, on condition of their remaining in their own territories.

8. There was now an interval of two years divided between Gallus and Emilianus his rival, both of whom fell victims successively to the caprice of a tumultuous military power which ruled over all (A.D. 253). Valerian then ascended the throne of the Cæsars. He was at the head of the legions of Gaul and Germany, but he obtained the empire, not by the will of the populace, or by the clamours of the army, but by the unanimous consent of all classes. He was so universally revered, that it has been observed of him by an ancient writer, that the choice of mankind, if left at liberty to elect a master, would have fallen on Valerian. With the partiality of a father, howhe took for his associate a son who was unworthy of the office. Their joint government lasted about five years, and the sole administration of Gallienus about eight years. But the period was one of continued calamity, the empire at this time being attacked by the Franks, the Alemanni, the Goths, and the Persians. In a war conducted with the last of these nations (A.D. 259), Valerian fell into their power, by an act of treachery, and was doomed to spend the last year of his life in captivity. If we may credit one

ever,

account given of his misfortunes, they were such as monarchs have seldom experienced. Whenever Sapor, the king who had betrayed him, mounted his horse, it is said, he placed his foot on the neck of Valerian. We are also told that he was at length flayed alive, and that his skin being stuffed with straw, and formed into the likeness of his former figure, was preserved for several ages in the court of Persia.

9. When the whole power of empire was intrusted to Gallienus (A.D. 260), he proved himself a worthless tyrant. And at this season a number of usurpers started up in different parts of the empire, assuming a brief authority, and claiming the title of Emperors. They have been fancifully called the thirty tyrants, but their real number was nineteen, and they were thus designated, not that they were better or worse than the generality of usurpers, but because the word Tyrant was given by the ancients to all persons who illegally seized the supreme power. Several of those who on this occasion made pretensions to the empire, possessed great excellence and virtue, but not one of them died a natural death. Italy, Rome, and the Senate considered Gallienus alone as the lawful sovereign. He perished in a tumult of his own soldiers, by a dart thrown from some unknown hand (A.D. 268).

10. Claudius, an Illyrian general, succeeded him. He vindicated the Roman honour in a most signal victory obtained over the Goths, and thus acquired the noble appellation of the Gothic Claudius. After a short but brilliant reign of two years he expired (A.D. 270), of a fever at Sirmium, leaving the empire to Aurelian, one of his Generals. This reign lasted only four years and six months, but every part of it was distinguished by some striking achievement. This Emperor put an end to the Gothic war, chastised the Germans who had invaded Italy, recovered Gaul, Spain, and Britain out of the hands of Tetricus, a usurper of the imperial authority, and destroyed the proud monarchy of Zenobia, queen of Palmyra. He fell by the hands of a treacherous general who had been his friend (A.D. 275), and was followed in the empire by Tacitus, who, during his short reign of six months, laboured to restore the image of the ancient republic, as it was preserved by its best Emperors.

11. Probus, the next sovereign, maintained his place for