ardt,
_Geschichte Roms von Valerian bis zu Diocletians Tod_ (1867); A. J.
Mason, _The Persecution of Diocletian_ (1876); P. Allard, _La
Persecution de Diocletien_ (1890); V. Schultze in Herzog-Hauck's
_Realencyklopadie fur protestantische Theologie_, iv. (1898); Gibbon.
_Decline and Fall_, chaps. 13 and 16; A. W. Hunzinger, _Die
Diocletianische Staatsreform_ (1899); O. Seeck, "Die Schatzungsordnung
Diocletians" in _Zeitschrift fur Social- und Wirthschaftsgeschichte_
(1896), a valuable paper with notes containing references to sources;
and O. Seeck, _Geschichte des Untergangs der antiken Welt_, vol. i.
cap. 1. On his military reforms see T. Mommsen in _Hermes_, xxiv., and
on his tariff system, Diocletian, Edict of.

DIOCLETIAN, EDICT OF (_De pretiis rerum venalium_), an imperial edict
promulgated in A.D. 301, fixing a maximum price for provisions and other
articles of commerce, and a maximum rate of wages. Incomplete copies of
it have been discovered at various times in various places, the first
(in Greek and Latin) in 1709, at Stratonicea in Caria, by W. Sherard,
British consul at Smyrna, containing the preamble and the beginning of
the tables down to No. 403. This partial copy was completed by W. Bankes
in 1817. A second fragment (now in the museum at Aix in Provence) was
brought from Egypt in 1809; it supplements the preamble by specifying
the titles of the emperors and Caesars and the number of times they had
held them, whereby the date of publication can be accurately determined.
For other fragments and their localities see _Corpus Inscriptionum
Latinarum_ (iii., 1873, pp. 801 and 1055; and supplement i, 1893, p.
1909); special mention may be made of those of Elatea, Plataea and
Megalopolis. Latin being the official language all over the empire,
there was no official Greek translation (except for Greece proper), as
is shown by the variations in those portions of the text of which more
than one Greek version is extant. Further, all the fragments come from
the provinces which were under the jurisdiction of Diocletian, from
which it is argued that the edict was only published in the eastern
portion of the empire; certainly the phrase _universo orbi_ in the
preamble is against this, but the words may merely be an exaggerated
description of Diocletian's special provinces, and if it had been
published in the western portion as well, it is curious that no traces
have been found of it. The articl