the splendor of an imperial city, and was defended by a double
wall.

(M1125) Diocletian made choice, at first, of Nicomedia, the old capital of
the Bithynian kings, as the seat of his Eastern government, equally
distant from the Danube and the Euphrates. He assumed the manner and state
of an Oriental monarch. He wore a diadem set with pearls, and a robe of
silk and gold instead of the simple toga with its purple stripe. His shoes
were studded with precious stones, and his court was marked by Oriental
ceremonials. His person was difficult of access, and the avenues to his
palace were guarded by various classes of officers. No one could approach
him without falling prostrate in adoration, and he was addressed as "My
lord the emperor." But he did not live in Oriental seclusion, and was
perpetually called away by pressing dangers.

(M1126) The Caesars Galerius and Constantius were sent to govern the
provinces on the frontiers; the former, from his capital, Sirmium, in
Illyricum, watched the whole frontier of the Danube; the latter spent his
time in Britain. Galerius was adopted by Diocletian, and received his
daughter Valeria in marriage; while Constantius was adopted by Maximian,
and married his daughter Theodora.

The division of the empire under these four princes nearly corresponded
with the prefectures which Constantine subsequently established, and which
were deemed necessary to preserve the empire from dissolution--a
dissolution inevitable, had it not been for the great emperors whom the
necessities of the empire had raised up, but whose ruin was only for a
time averted. Not even able generals and good emperors could save the
corrupted empire. It was doomed. Vice had prepared the way for violence.
The four emperors, who now labored to prevent a catastrophe, were engaged
in perpetual conflicts, and through their united efforts peace was
restored throughout the empire, and the last triumph that Rome ever saw
was celebrated by them.

(M1127) Only one more enemy, to the eye of Diocletian, remained to be
subdued, and this was Christianity. But this enemy was unconquerable.
Silently, surely, without pomp, and without art, the new religion had made
its way, against all opposition, prejudice, and hatred, from Jews and
pagans alike, and was now a power in the empire. The followers of the
hated sect were, however, from the humble classes, and but few great men
had arisen among them, and even these were unimportant to the v