Chap. VII.

While Diocletian, that author of ill, and deviser of misery, was ruining all things, he could not withhold his insults, not even against God. This man, by avarice partly, and partly by timid counsels, overturned the Roman empire. For he made choice of three persons to share the government with him; and thus, the empire having been quartered, armies were multiplied, and each of the four princes strove to maintain a much more considerable military force than any sole emperor had done in times past.10    [See p. 12, note 1, supra.]   There began to be fewer men who paid taxes than there were who received wages; so that the means of the husbandmen being exhausted by enormous impositions, the farms were abandoned, cultivated grounds became woodland, and universal dismay prevailed. Besides, the provinces were divided into minute portions, and many presidents and a multitude of inferior officers lay heavy on each territory, and almost on each city. There were also many stewards of different degrees, and deputies of presidents. Very few civil causes came before them: but there were condemnations daily, and forfeitures frequently inflicted; taxes on numberless commodities, and those not only often repeated, but perpetual, and, in exacting them, intolerable wrongs.  

Whatever was laid on for the maintenance of the soldiery might have been endured; but Diocletian, through his insatiable avarice, would never allow the sums of money in his treasury to be diminished: he was constantly heaping together extraordinary aids and free gifts, that his original hoards might remain untouched and inviolable. He also, when by various extortions he had made all things exceedingly dear, attempted by an ordinance to limit their prices. Then much blood was shed for the veriest trifles; men were afraid to expose aught to sale, and the scarcity became more excessive and grievous than ever, until, in the end, the ordinance, after having proved destructive to multitudes, was from mere necessity abrogated. To this there were added a certain endless passion for building, and on that account, endless exactions from the provinces for furnishing wages to labourers and artificers, and supplying carriages and whatever else was requisite to the works which he projected. Here public halls, there a circus, here a mint, and there a workhouse for making implements of war; in one place a habitation for his empress, and in another for his daughter. Presently great part of the city was quitted, and all men removed with their wives and children, as from a town taken by enemies; and when those buildings were completed, to the destruction of whole provinces, he said, “They are not right, let them be done on another plan.” Then they were to be pulled down, or altered, to undergo perhaps a future demolition. By such folly was he continually endeavouring to equal Nicomedia with the city Rome in magnificence.  

I omit mentioning how many perished on account of their possessions or wealth; for such evils were exceedingly frequent, and through their frequency appeared almost lawful. But this was peculiar to him, that whenever he saw a field remarkably well cultivated, or a house of uncommon elegance, a false accusation and a capital punishment were straightway prepared against the proprietor; so that it seemed as if Diocletian could not be guilty of rapine without also shedding blood.  

VII. Diocletianus, qui scelerum inventor et malorum machinator fuit, cum disperderet omnia, nec a Deo quidem manus potuit abstinere. Hic orbem terrae simul et avaritia, et timiditate subvertit. Tres enim participes regni sui fecit, in quatuor partes orbe diviso, et multiplicatis exercitibus, cum singuli eorum longe majorem numerum militum habere contenderunt, quam priores principes habuerant, cum soli rempublicam gererent. Adeo major esse coeperat numerus accipientium, quam dantium, ut enormitate indictionum 0204B consumptis viribus colonorum, desererentur agri, et culturae verterentur in sylvam. Et ut omnia terrore complerentur, provinciae quoque in frusta concisae, multi praesides et plura officia singulis regionibus, ac pene jam civitatibus incubare, item rationales 0205A multi et magistri, et vicarii praefectorum, quibus omnibus civiles actus admodum rari, sed condemnationes tantum et proscriptiones frequentes, exactiones rerum innumerabilium, non dicam crebrae, sed perpetuae, et in exactionibus injuriae non ferendae. Nec quoque tolerari possunt, quae ad exhibendos milites spectant. Idem insatiabili avaritia thesauros nunquam minui volebat: sed semper extraordinarias opes ac largitiones congerebat, ut ea quae recondebat, integra atque inviolata servaret. Idem cum variis iniquitatibus immensam faceret charitatem, legem pretiis rerum venalium statuere conatus est. Tunc ob exigua et vilia multus sanguis effusus, nec venale quidquam metu apparebat, et charitas multo deterius exarsit, donec lex necessitate ipsa post multorum 0205B exitium solveretur. Huc accedebat infinita quaedam cupiditas aedificandi, non minor provinciarum exactio in exhibendis operariis, et artificibus, et plaustris omnibus, quaecumque sint fabricandis operibus necessaria. Hic basilicae, hic circus, hic moneta, hic armorum fabrica, hic uxori domus, hic filiae. Repente magna pars civitatis exceditur. Migrabant 0206A omnes cum conjugibus ac liberis, quasi urbe ab hostibus capta. Et cum perfecta haec fuerant cum interitu provinciarum: Non recte facta sunt, aiebat: alio modo fiant. Rursus dirui ac mutari necesse erat, iterum fortasse casura. Ita semper dementabat, Nicomediam studens urbi Romae coaequare. Jam illud praetereo, quam multi perierint possessionum aut opum gratia. Hoc enim usitatum et fere licitum consuetudine malorum. Sed in hoc illud fuit praecipuum, quod ubicumque cultiorem agrum viderat, aut ornatius aedificium, jam parata domino calumnia et poena capitalis, quasi non posset rapere aliena sinc sanguine.