ns (Tongres), in Belgica, had on its
muster-roll a Dalmatian named Diocletian, not yet very high in rank,
but already much looked up to by his comrades on account of his
intelligence and his bravery. He lodged at a woman's, who was, they
said, a Druidess, and had the prophetic faculty. One day when he was
settling his account with her, she complained of his extreme parsimony:
"Thou'rt too stingy, Diocletian," said she; and he answered laughing,
"I'll be prodigal when I'm emperor." "Laugh not," rejoined she: "thou'lt
be emperor when thou hast slain a wild boar" (aper). The conversation
got about amongst Diocletian's comrades. He made his way in the army,
showing continual ability and valor, and several times during his changes
of quarters and frequent hunting expeditions he found occasion to kill
wild boars; but he did not immediately become emperor, and several of his
contemporaries, Aurelian, Tacitus, Probus, Carus, and Numerian, reached
the goal before him. "I kill the wild boars," said he to one of his
friends, "and another eats them." The last mentioned of these ephemeral
emperors, Numerian, had for his father-in-law and inseparable comrade a
Praetorian prefect named Arrius Aper. During a campaign in Mesopotamia
Numerian was assassinated, and the voice of the army pronounced Aper
guilty. The legions assembled to deliberate about Numerian's death and
to choose his successor. Aper was brought before the assembly under a
guard of soldiers. Through the exertions of zealous friends the
candidature of Diocletian found great favor. At the first words
pronounced by him from a raised platform in the presence of the troops,
cries of "Diocletian Augustus "were raised in every quarter. Other
voices called on him to express his feelings about Numerian's murderers.
Drawing his sword, Diocletian declared on oath that he was innocent of
the emperor's death, but that he knew who was guilty and would find means
to punish him. Descending suddenly from the platform, he made straight
for the Praetorian prefect, and saying, "Aper, be comforted; thou shalt
not die by vulgar hands; by the right hand of great AEneas thou fallest,"
he gave him his death-wound. "I have killed the prophetic wild boar,"
said he in the evening to his confidants; and soon afterwards, in spite
of the efforts of certain rivals, he was emperor.

"Nothing is more difficult than to govern," was a remark his comrades had
often heard made by him amidst so