here
about 1890 B.C.; had lasted fifteen centuries, as the wont of
them appears to be; and had given place to pralaya about 390;
and that, in turn, was due to end in or about 220 A.D. We
should, if we had confidence in these cycles, look for what
remained of the Crest-Wave in Europe to be wandering flickeringly
eastward about this time. Hitherto it had been in two of the
three world-centers of civilization: in China and in Europe;
now for a few centuries it was to be divided between three.--I am
irrigating the garden, and get a fine flow from the faucet, which
gives me a sense of inward peace and satisfaction. Suddenly the
fine flow diminishes to a miserable dribble, and all my happiness
is gone. I look eastward, to the next garden below on the slope;
and see my neighbors busy there: their faucet has been turned
on, and is flowing royally; and I know where the water is going.
The West-Asian faucet was due to be turned on in the two-twenties;
now watch the spray from the sprinklers in the Chinese and
Roman gardens. In those two-twenties we saw China split into
three; and it rather looked as if the manvantara had ended. I
shall not look at West Asia yet, but leave it for a future
lecture. But in Europe, with Marcus Aurelius died almost the
last Italian you could call a Crest-Wave Ego. The cyclic forces,
outworn and old, produced after that no order that you can go
upon: events followed each other higgledipiggledy and inertly;--
but it was the Illyrian legions that put him on the throne. Note
that Illyria: it is what we shall soon grow accustomed to
calling _Jugoslavia._ Severus's reign of eighteen years, from
193 to 211, was the only strong one, almost the only one not
disgraceful, until 268; by which time the Roman world was in
anarchy, split into dozens, with emperors springing up like
mushrooms everywhere. Then came a succession of strong soldiers
who reestablished unity: Claudius Gothicaus, an Illyrian
peasant; Aurelian, an Illyrian peasant; Tacitus, a Roman
senator, for one year only; Probus, an Illyrian peasant; Caus,
an Illyrian; then the greatest of all statesmen since Hadian,
who refounded the empire on a new plan,--the Illyrian who began
life as Docles the slave, rose to be Diocles the soldier, and
finally, in 284, tiaraed Diocletian reigning with all the pomp
and mystery and magnificence of an Eastern King of kings. He it
was who felt the cyclic flow, and moved his capital to Nicomedia,
whic