airs.
Diocletian appreciated this disadvantage himself, and remarked that the
sovereign, shut up in his palace, cannot know the truth, but must rely
on what his attendants and officers tell him. We may also remark that
absolute monarchy, by its very nature, tends in this direction; for
absolute monarchy naturally tends to a dynasty, and a dynasty implies
that there must sooner or later come to the throne weak men,
inexperienced in public affairs, reared up in an atmosphere of flattery
and illusion, easily guided by intriguing chamberlains and eunuchs.
Under such conditions, then, aulic cabals and chamber cabinets are sure
to become dominant sometimes. Diocletian, whose political insight and
ingenuity were remarkable, tried to avoid the dangers of a dynasty by
his artificial system, but artifice could not contend with success
against nature.

The greatest blot on the ministry of Eutropius--for, as he was the most
trusted adviser of the Emperor, we may use the word ministry--was the
sale of offices, of which Claudian gives a vivid and exaggerated
account. This was a blot, however, that stained other men of those days
as well as Eutropius, and we must view it rather as a feature of the
times than as a personal enormity. Of course, the eunuch's spies were
ubiquitous; of course, informers of all sorts were encouraged and
rewarded. All the usual stratagems for grasping and plundering were put
into practice.

The strong measures that a determined minister was ready to take for the
mere sake of vengeance may be exemplified by a treatment which the whole
Lycian province received at the hands of Rufinus. On account of a single
individual, Tatian, who had offended that minister, all the provincials
were excluded from public offices. After the death of Rufinus, the
Lycians were relieved from these disabilities; but the fact that the
edict of emancipation expressly enjoins "that no one henceforward
venture to wound a Lycian citizen with a name of scorn" shows what a
serious misfortune their degradation was.

The eunuch won considerable odium in the first year of his power (396)
by bringing about the fall of two men of distinction--Abundantius, to
whose patronage he owed his rise in the world, and Timasius, who had
been the commander-general in the East. An account of the manner in
which the ruin of the latter was wrought will illustrate the sort of
intrigues that were spun at the Byzantine court.

Timasius had brought with him