XII. CHAP. vessels, and replenished with the monsters of the deep. In the decoration of these scenes, the Roman empe rors displayed their wealth and liberality; and we read on various occasions, that the whole furniture of the amphitheatre consisted either of silver, or of gold, or of amber9. The poet who describes the games of Carinus, in the character of a shepherd attracted to the capital by the fame of their magnificence, affirms, that the nets designed as a defence against the wild beasts, were of gold wire; that the porticoes were gilded, and that the belt or circle which divided the several ranks of spectators from each other, was studded with a precious Mosaic of beautiful stones97. A. D. 284. Return of with the Persia. In the midst of this glittering pageantry, the emperor Carinus, secure of his fortune, enjoyed the accla mations of the people, the flattery of his courtiers, and the songs of the poets, who, for want of a more essential merit, were reduced to celebrate the divine graces of his person. In the same hour, but at the distance of nine hundred miles from Rome, his brother expired; and a sudden revolution transferred into the hands of a stranger the sceptre of the house of Carus99. The sons of Carus never saw each other after their Numerian father's death. The arrangements which their new siarmy from tuation required, were probably deferred till the return of the younger brother to Rome, where a triumph was decreed to the young emperors, for the glorious success of the Persian war100. It is uncertain whether they intended to divide between them the administration, or the provinces, of the empire; but it is very unlikely 95 Calphurn. Eclog. vii. 64. 73. These lines are curious, and the whole Eclogue has been of infinite use to Maffei. Calphurnius, as well as Martial (see his first book), was a poet; but when they described the amphitheatre, they both wrote from their own senses, and to those of the Romans. 96 Consult Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 16. xxxvii. 11. 97 Balteus en gemmis, en in lita porticus auro. Certatim radiant, &c. Calphurn. vii. 98 Et Martis vultus et Apollinis esse putavi, says Calphurnius; but John Malela, who had perhaps seen pictures of Carinus, describes him as thick, short, and white, tom. i. p. 403. 99 With regard to the time when these Roman games were celebrated, Scaliger, Salmasius, and Cuper, have given themselves a great deal of trouble to perplex a very clear subject. 100 Nemesianus (in the Cynegeticons) seems to anticipate in his fancy that auspicious day. XII. that their union would have proved of any long dura- CHAP. tion. The jealousy of power must have been inflamed by the opposition of characters. In the most corrupt of times, Carinus was unworthy to live: Numerian deserved to reign in a happier period. His affable manners and gentle virtues secured him, as soon as they became known, the regard and affections of the public. He possessed the elegant accomplishments of a poet and orator, which dignify as well as adorn the humblest and the most exalted station. His eloquence, however it was applauded by the senate, was formed not so much on the model of Cicero, as on that of the modern declaimers; but in an age very far from being destitute of poetical merit, he contended for the prize with the most celebrated of his contemporaries, and still remained the friend of his rivals; a circumstance which evinces either the goodness of his heart, or the superiority of his genius101. But the talents of Numerian were rather of the contemplative, than of the active kind. When his father's elevation reluctantly forced him from the shade of retirement, neither his temper nor his pursuits had qualified him for the command of armies. His constitution was destroyed by the hardships of the Persian war; and he had contracted, from the heat of the climate102, such a weakness in his eyes, as obliged him, in the course of a long retreat, to confine himself to the solitude and darkness of a tent or litter. The administration of all affairs, civil as well as military, was devolved on Arius Aper, the Prætonian præfect, who, to the power of his important office, added the honour of being father-in-law to Numerian. The Imperial pavilion was strictly guarded by his most trusty adherents; and during many days, Aper delivered to the army the supposed mandates of their invisible sovereign 103 101 He won all the crowns from Nemesianus, with whom he vied in di. dactic poetry. The senate erected a statue to the son of Carus, with a very ambiguous inscription, "To the most powerful of orators." See Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 251. 102 A more natural cause, at least, than that assigned by Vopiscus, (Hist. August. p. 251.), incessantly weeping for his father's death. 103 In the Persian war, Aper was suspected of a design to betray Carus, Hist. August. p. 250. CHAP. XII. Death of It was not till eight months after the death of Carus, that the Roman army, returning by slow marches from the banks of the Tigris, arrived on those of the Thra, Numerian cian Bosphorus. The legions halted at Chalcedon in Asia, while the court passed over to Heraclea, on the European side of the Propontis104. But a report soon circulated through the camp, at first in secret whispers, and at length in loud clamours, of the emperor's death, and of the presumption of his ambitious minister, who still exercised the sovereign power in the name of a prince who was no more. The impatience of the soldiers could not long support a state of suspense. With rude curiosity they broke into the Imperial tent, and discovered only the corpse of Numerian105. The gra dual decline of his health might have induced them to believe that his death was natural; but the concealment was interpreted as an evidence of guilt, and the measures which Aper had taken to secure his election, became the immediate occasion of his ruin. Yet, even in the transport of their rage and grief, the troops observed a regular proceeding, which proves how firmly discipline had been re-established by the martial successors of Gallienus. A general assembly of the army was appointed to be held at Chalcedon, whither Aper was transported in chains, as a prisoner and a criminal. A vacant tribunal was erected in the midst of the camp, and the generals and tribunes formed a A. D. 284. great military council. They soon announced to the Sept. 17. multitude, that their choice had fallen on Diocletian, of the em- commander of the domestics or body guards, as the peror Dio-person the most capable of revenging and succeeding Election cletian. their beloved emperor. The future fortunes of the candidate depended on the chance or conduct of the present hour. Conscious that the station which he had filled, exposed him to some suspicions, Diocletian ascended the tribunal, and raising his eyes towards the 104 We are obliged to the Alexandrian Chronicle, p. 274, for the knowledge of the time and place where Diocletian was elected emperor. 105 Hist. August. p. 251. Eutrop. ix. 88. Hieronym. in Chron. Accord ing to these judicious writers, the death of Numerian was discovered by the stench of his dead body. Could no aromatics be found in the imperial household? XII. Sun, made a solemn profession of his own innocence, CHAF in the presence of that all-seeing Deity 106. Then, assuming the tone of a sovereign and a judge, he commanded that Aper should be brought in chains to the foot of the tribunal. "This man," said he," is the "murderer of Numerian ;" and, without giving him time to enter on a dangerous justification, drew his sword, and buried it in the breast of the unfortunate præfect. A charge supported by such decisive proof, was admitted without contradiction, and the legions, with repeated acclamations acknowledged the justice and authority of the emperor Diocletian07, Carinus: Before we enter upon the memorable reign of that Defeat and prince, it will be proper to punish and dismiss the death of unworthy brother of Numerian. Carinus possessed arms and treasures sufficient to support his legal title to the empire. But his personal vices overbalanced every advantage of birth and situation. The most faithful servants of the father despised the incapacity, and dreaded the cruel arrogance, of the son. The hearts of the people were engaged in favour of his rival, and even the senate was inclined to prefer an usurper to a tyrant. The arts of Diocletian inflamed the general discontent; and the winter was employed in secret intrigues, and open preparations for a civil war. In the spring, the forces of the East and of the A. D. 285, West encountered each other in the plains of Margus, a small city of Mæsia, in the neighbourhood of the Danube 108. The troops, so lately returned from the Persian war, had acquired their glory at the expense of health and numbers, nor were they in a condition to contend with the unexhausted strength of the legions of Europe. Their ranks were broken, and, for a moment, Diocletian despaired of the purple and of life, But the advantage which Carinus had obtained by the 106 Aurel, Victor. Eutropius, ix. 20. Hieronym. in Chron. 107 Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 252. The reason why Diocletian kill ed Aper, (a wild boar,) was founded on a prophecy and a pun, as foolish as they are well known. 108 Eutropius marks its situation very accurately; it was between the Mons Aureus and Viminiacum. M. d'Anville (Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 304.) places Margus at Kastolatz in Servia, a little below Belgrade and Semendria. May. XII. CHAP. valour of his soldiers, he quickly lost by the infidelity of his officers. A tribune, whose wife he had seduced, seized the opportunity of revenge, and by a single blow extinguished civil discord in the blood of the adulterer109 109. Hist. August. p. 254. Eutropius, p. ix. 20. Aurelius Victor. Victor in Epitome. Elevation racter of Diocletian. A. D. 285. CHAPTER XIII. The Reign of Diocletian and his three Associates, AS the reign of Diocletian was more illustrious and cha- than that of any of his predecessors, so was his birth more abject and obscure. The strong claims of merit and of violence had frequently superseded the ideal prerogatives of nobility; but a distinct line of separation was hitherto preserved between the free and the servile part of mankind. The parents of Diocletian had been slaves in the house of Annulinus, a Roman senator; nor was he himself distinguished by any other name, than that which he derived from a small town in Dalmatia, from which his mother deduced her origin1. It is, however, probable, that his father obtained the freedom of the family, and that he soon acquired an office of scribe, which was commonly exercised by persons of his condition'. Favourable oracles, or rather the consciousness of superior merit, prompted his aspiring 1 Eutrop. ix. 19. Victor in Epitom. The town seems to have been properly called Doclia, from a small tribe of Illyrians (see Cellarius, Geograph. Antiqua, tom. i. p. 393.); and the original name of the fortunate slave was probably Docles; he first lengthened it to the Grecian harmony of Diocles, and at length to the Roman majesty of Diocletianus. He likewise assumed the Patrician name of Valerius, and it is usually given him by Au relius Victor. 2 See Dacier on the sixth satire of the second book of Horace. Cornel. Nepos, in Vit. Eumen. c. 1. |