The emperor reserved Zenobia for his triumph, but she was afterwards given land and property in Italy, so as to enable her to keep up considerable state. The people of Palmyra having revolted after Aurelian left it, he returned, massacred its inhabitants, and destroyed the town, of which glorious remains still exist in the Temple of the Sun at Baalbec.

In Egypt, a merchant of ample fortune, Firmus, had assumed the purple. He was easily overthrown. In the west Tetricus governed Gaul, Spain, and Britain; but he secretly begged Aurelian to deliver him from this burthen; "Eripe me his, invicte, malis," he wrote, quoting Virgil. At the battle of Chalons-surMarne, Tetricus passed to the side of Aurelian. The triumph of the emperor when Aurelian appeared on a car drawn by four stags, and Zenobia followed with her children, was the most splendid that had been seen for a long time.

Tetricus was named governor of Lucania, and Zenobia allowed a beautiful villa near Tivoli, between those of Horace and Adrian; her children intermarried with the great Roman families.

Peace being restored, Aurelian made vigorous efforts to reform the administration. His reforms led to a mutiny of the soldiers, in which 7000 perished. He was preparing an expedition against the Persians, but his secretary, Menestheus, being accused of malversation, caused him to be assassinated between Heraklea and Byzantium (A.D. 275). He died regretted by the troops.

TACITUS (A.D. 275); probus (a.d. 276); carus (a.d. 282); CARINUS AND NUMERIANUS (A.D. 284).

Eight months passed after the death of Aurelian in disputes about the election, till at length, on the invasion of Gaul by the Germans, the senate proclaimed, in September, A.D. 275, one of its members-Tacitus, an old man of 75 years, said to be a descendant of the historian, with a landed property of £300,000, and silver enough to pay all the armies. He was well received, and was about to begin a war against the Persians, when he died or was killed, April 12, 276.

Probus, now chosen by the soldiers, had served with distinction under Valerian. He took back 60 cities from the Alemanni in Gaul, and drove them behind the Necker. The Germans demanded peace, and gave up 16,000 of their young warriors, who were dispersed and enrolled in the Roman armies. The military operations of Probus were successful on all sides; Sarmatians, Goths, and even Narses, King of Persia, had to yield to bis arms. The envoys of the latter were led before an

old man, seated on the ground, covered with a simple woollen cassock, and eating a few peas. Without rising, the old man told them he was the emperor, and that, if their master refused justice, he would make Persia as bald as his head; and he showed them at these words his hairless head. "If you are hungry," he added, "take some from my dish; if not, retire."

Probus carried out the dangerous system of settling colonies of barbarians on the lands of the empire. A number of these savage populations, difficult to restrain, broke loose, especially the Franks, who seized some vessels, crossed the Bosphorus, and laid waste Asia Minor and Greece, revealing the riches of the empire to their countrymen.

Probus was about to march against the Persians, when his severity, especially to the soldiers," occasioned a mutiny, in which he perished. The prætorians chose as his successor Carus, prefect of the guard, a good general, who hastened to give the title of cæsar to his two sons, Carinus and Numerianus. Carus laid waste Mesopotamia, took Seleucia and Ctesiphon, and crossed the Tigris, but he perished, struck by lightning or cut off by disease, Dec. 25, 283.

His sons were immediately acknowledged emperors. Of these Numerianus was killed by his father-in-law, Arrius Aper; but the latter was slain five days after by Diocletian, who was proclaimed in his stead. Carinus was soon after slain by some officers whom he had offended.

Forty-one emperors had already worn the purple, of whom twenty-five had been assassinated, and four or five perished in battle or in prison. Only eleven or twelve had died a natural death, a sure evidence of the deplorable organization and condition of the empire.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

DIOCLETIAN AND MAXIMIANUS (A.D. 285-286).

DIOCLETIAN had risen by his talents from a low origin, and kept as long as he chose on the throne, by his experience and moderation, united sometimes with injustice, cunning, and cruelty. He established a complete military despotism, which effaced all that remained of the old constitution of the republic, substituting Oriental manners and principles, or want of principle. Rome

The first Rhine and Hungarian vineyards were planted by Roman soldiers.

was no longer the only residence of the emperors. Nicomedia, which had become the capital of Asia, Milan, and Sirmium in Pannonia, were often chosen instead. The ancient Paganism was also threatened with extinction by the steady advance of Christianity.

The empire, politically and religiously, was entering a new phase. Diocletian began the reform in politics; Constantine completed it in religion. Diocletian began by trying to give security to the empire against the incursions of the barbarians, by investing Carausius with the command of a fleet on the coasts of Belgium and Armorica. But Carausius assumed the purple in Britain (A.D. 286), in alliance with Saxon and Frank pirates, and kept in power till A.D. 293. He was then murdered by his minister, Alectus.

Diocletian, alarmed at the critical state of the empire, chose as colleague a man in the full vigour of life, Valerianus Maximianus (A.D. 286), issued from an obscure family of Pannonia. Maximianus was surnamed Hercules; Diocletian obtained that of Jupiter. These two augusti struggled with success-Maximianus in Gaul, whence he chased the Alemanni, Franks, and Burgundians; Diocletian against the Persians.

But they thought it necessary to add two more colleagues, forming

THE TETRARCHY (a.d. 292).

Two cæsars were proclaimed in 292, Galerius, a coarse man full of courage, and Constantius Chlorus, of a gentler but almost uncultivated mind. Diocletian forced them to repudiate their wives, and wed emperors' daughters, to strengthen the union of the four princes. Hence, Constantius had to repudiate his admirable and pious Christian wife, Helena, mother of Constantine the Great. In the partition of the empire, Diocletian kept the East, Galerius had Thrace, Maximianus, Italy and Africa, and Constantius Chlorus, Gaul, Spain, and Britain. Diocletian remained supreme, and his colleagues could do nothing without his orders. The power of the prætorians was weakened by the creation of herculians and jovians. Each of the chiefs of the state had his own capital, and Rome became deserted.

Diocletian maintained concord among these princes by his cleverness, but who could do so after him?

ORIENTAL PRACTICES.

Diocletian was the first Roman emperor who assumed the

pomp of Asiatic courts. He wore a diadem, dressed in silk and gold, and all admitted to have an audience were expected, on the Oriental system, to adore the imperial divinity and majesty.

FORTUNATE WARS.

Military operations were generally successful. Maximianus laid waste Germany, and subdued a rebellion in Gaul, but only for a time. Diocletian was more successful in the East. After defeating several usurpers, Galerius forced Narses, the Persian king, to yield five provinces beyond the Tigris. Constantius defeated the usurper Alectus in Britain and the Alemanni in Gaul, near Langres (A.D. 301). To preserve peace, Diocletian sowed divisions among the barbarians, repaired the fortresses on the frontiers, and built new stations (A.D. 303).

ABDICATION.

Unhappily, Diocletian was led by Galerius to inflict a new persecution on the Christians, who had become very numerous in the towns, and displayed publicly the symbols of their faith. A grand pontiff, who regretted to see the old Pagan rites neglected, tried to induce Diocletian to publish an edict against the Christians. The emperor resisted at first, but Galerius tore from him an edict forbidding Christians to hold public appointments, or to enter the law courts, closing their churches, and forbidding all external signs of their faith. The edict was

placarded at Nicomedia, and torn down by a Christian. Diocletian now passed from proscribing the worship to proscribing persons. A fire broke out in the imperial palace, and as the Christians were accused as its authors, his wrath was redoubled against them. The whole empire, except the provinces of Constantius, resounded with the tortures inflicted on the followers of the Cross.

Soon after, Diocletian became very ill, and anticipated death. On his recovery he abdicated, disgusted with the cares of empire, and retired to a magnificent villa near Salona (Spalatro), on the coast of Dalmatia, his native country, and passed his latter days in peaceful pursuits. He also obliged Maximianus to resign at Milan (A.D. 305).

CHAPTER XLIX.

SIX EMPERORS AT ONCE (A.D. 306).

THE two Cæsars, Galerius and Constantius, took the title of Augustus, and soon after two Cæsars were appointed, Maximin, to whom Syria and Egypt were allotted, and Severus receiving Italy and Africa, and later the title of Augustus. Constantine, son of Chlorus, remained a hostage in the court of Galerius, from which he could only escape by stratagem, reaching York a little time before the death of his father, who carried to the grave the finest title that an absolute prince ever enjoyed, Constantius the Poor.

The legions put Constantine in his place, giving him the title of Augustus, while Galerius only gave him that of Cæsar.

Galerius had made himself odious by his cruelties and exactions. Rome, incensed at being abandoned by all the sovereigns, rose in rebellion, and the prætorians named Maxentius, son of Maximianus, Augustus (A.D.306). He took his father as colleague, so that the empire had six masters at once-Galerius and Severus, the two Augusti, Constantine and Maximinus, the two Cæsars, and, lastly, the two usurpers, Maxentius and Maximianus. Severus marched against the latter, but, beaten off, he fled to Ravenna, where he was taken and slain by Maximianus (A.D. 307.) Galerius put his friend Licinius in the place of Severus, and Maximin, governor of Egypt, took also the title of Augustus.

VICTORIES OF CONSTANTINE.

Maximianus was forced by his son to retire to Illyria, and then to his son-in-law, Constantine, at Treves. But as he fomented intrigues and plots, he was pursued to Arles and Marseilles, and there put an end to himself. There were still four emperors, far from disposed to agree. Maxentius made himself odious at Rome by his cruelty, and was unwise enough to provoke his colleague, Constantine, who, invading Italy, beat his troops several times; on the last occasion at the Pons Milvius over the Tiber, and Maxentius in his flight was drowned in that river. It was during this march of Constantine that the extraordinary event is supposed to have taken place leading to his victory and conversion, when a brilliant cross, with a motto, Ev roura vinn, appeared to the emperor, deeply reflecting on the serious state of affairs, and also to his army. Adopting this sign on his standard, he invoked the God of the Christians to bless his arms, and he was successful