ould
no longer talk to me of empire." In his retirement he used to observe
to his associates how difficult it is, even for the best-intentioned
man, to govern well, as he cannot see everything with his own eyes,
but must trust to others, who often deceive him.

Once only he left his retirement to meet Galerius in Pannonia for the
purpose of appointing a new Caesar, Licinius, in the place of Severus,
who had died. Licinius, however, did not prove grateful, for after the
death of Galerius, in 311, he ill-treated his widow, Valeria,
Diocletian's daughter, who then, with her mother, Prisca, took refuge
in the territories of Maximinus Daza. 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 favor 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 most distinguished emperors of Rome; his
reign of twenty-one years was upon the whole prosperous for the
empire, and creditable to the Roman name. He 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 unfavorably
of him; but Lactantius cannot be implicitly trusted. Of the regular
historians of his reign we have only the meagre narratives of
Eutropius and Aurelius Victor, the others being now lost; but notices
of Diocletian's life are scattered about in various authors, Libanius,
Vopiscus, Eusebius, Julian in his "Caesars," and the contemporary
panegyrists, Eumenes and Mamertinus. His laws or edicts are in the
"Code." Among other useful reforms, he abolished the _frumentarii_, 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 afterward
totally disbanded by Constantine.

ALARIC THE BOLD

By ARCHDEACON FARRAR, D.D.,