Chap. XVII.

The wicked plan having been carried into execution, Diocletian, whom prosperity had now abandoned, set out instantly for Rome, there to celebrate the commencement of the twentieth year of his reign. That solemnity was performed on the twelfth of the kalends of December;19    20th of November.   and suddenly the emperor, unable to bear the Roman freedom of speech, peevishly and impatiently burst away from the city. The kalends of January20    1st of January.   approached, at which day the consulship, for the ninth time, was to be offered to him; yet, rather than continue thirteen days longer in Rome, he chose that his first appearance as consul should be at Ravenna. Having, however, begun his journey in winter, amidst intense cold and incessant rains, he contracted a slight but lingering disease: it harassed him without intermission, so that he was obliged for the most part to be carried in a litter. Then, at the close of summer, he made a circuit along the banks of the Danube, and so came to Nicomedia. His disease had now become more grievous and oppressing; yet he caused himself to be brought out, in order to dedicate that circus which, at the conclusion of the twentieth year of his reign, he had erected. Immediately he grew so languid and feeble, that prayers for his life were put up to all the gods. Then suddenly, on the ides of December,21    13th of December.   there was heard in the palace sorrow, and weeping, and lamentation, and the courtiers ran to and fro; there was silence throughout the city, and a report went of the death, and even of the burial, of Diocletian: but early on the morrow it was suddenly rumoured that he still lived. At this the countenance of his domestics and courtiers changed from melancholy to gay. Nevertheless there were who suspected his death to be kept secret until the arrival of Galerius Cæsar, lest in the meanwhile the soldiery should attempt some change in the government; and this suspicion grew so universal, that no one would believe the emperor alive, until, on the kalends of March,22    1st of March.   he appeared in public, but so wan, his illness having lasted almost a year, as hardly to be known again. The fit of stupor, resembling death, happened on the ides of December; and although he in some measure recovered, yet he never attained to perfect health again, for he became disordered in his judgment, being at certain times insane and at others of sound mind.  

XVII. 0219B Hoc igitur scelere perpetrato, Diocletiani cum jam felicitas ab eo recessisset, perrexit statim Romam, ut illic vicennalium diem celebraret, qui erat futurus ad XII kalendas Decembres. Quibus solennibus celebratis, cum libertatem populi Romani ferre non poterat, impatiens, et aeger animi, prorupit ex urbe impendentibus kalendis Januariis, quibus illi nonus consulatus deferebatur. Tredecim dies tolerare non potuit, ut Romae potius quam Ravennae procederet Consul. Sed profectus hyeme, saeviente frigore atque imbribus verberatus, morbum levem, at perpetuum traxit; vexatusque per omne iter, lectica plurimum 0220A vehebatur. Sic aestate transacta, per circuitum ripae Istricae Nicomediam venit, morbo jam gravi insurgente. Quocumque se premi videret, prolatus est tamen, ut circum, quem fecerat, dedicaret anno post vicennalia repleto; deinde ita languore oppressus, ut per omnes deos pro vita ejus rogaretur, donec Idibus Decembribus luctus repente in palatio, moestitia et lacrymae, judicum trepidatio, et silentium. Tota civitate jam non modo mortuum, sed etiam sepultum dicebant, cum repente mane postridie pervagari fama quod viveret, domesticorum ac judicum vultus alacritate mutari. Non defuerunt qui suspicarentur celari mortem ejus, donec Caesar veniret, ne quid forte a militibus novaretur. Quae suspicio tantum valuit, ut nemo crederet eum vivere, nisi kalendis 0220B Martiis prodiisset, vix agnoscendus, quippe qui anno fere toto aegritudine tabuisset. Et ille idibus Decembribus sopitus animam receperat, nec tamen totam. Demens enim factus est, ita ut certis horis insaniret, certis resipisceret.