f the adulterer. [109]

[Footnote 108: Eutropius marks its situation very accurately; it
was between the Mons Aureus and Viminiacum. M. d'Anville (Geographic
Ancienne, tom. i. p. 304) places Margus at Kastolatz in Servia, a little
below Belgrade and Semendria. * Note: Kullieza--Eton Atlas--M.]

[Footnote 109: Hist. August. p. 254. Eutropius, ix. 20. Aurelius Victor
et Epitome]

Chapter XIII: Reign Of Diocletian And This Three Associates.--Part I.

The Reign Of Diocletian And His Three Associates, Maximian,
Galerius, And Constantius.--General Reestablishment Of
Order And Tranquillity.--The Persian War, Victory, And
Triumph.--The New Form Of Administration.--Abdication And
Retirement Of Diocletian And Maximian.

As the reign of Diocletian was more illustrious than that of any of
his predecessors, so was his birth more abject and obscure. The strong
claims of merit and of violence had frequently superseded the ideal
prerogatives of nobility; but a distinct line of separation was hitherto
preserved between the free and the servile part of mankind. The parents
of Diocletian had been slaves in the house of Anulinus, a Roman senator;
nor was he himself distinguished by any other name than that which he
derived from a small town in Dalmatia, from whence his mother deduced
her origin. [1] It is, however, probable that his father obtained the
freedom of the family, and that he soon acquired an office of scribe,
which was commonly exercised by persons of his condition. [2] Favorable
oracles, or rather the consciousness of superior merit, prompted his
aspiring son to pursue the profession of arms and the hopes of fortune;
and it would be extremely curious to observe the gradation of arts and
accidents which enabled him in the end to fulfil those oracles, and to
display that merit to the world. Diocletian was successively promoted
to the government of Maesia, the honors of the consulship, and the
important command of the guards of the palace. He distinguished his
abilities in the Persian war; and after the death of Numerian, the
slave, by the confession and judgment of his rivals, was declared the
most worthy of the Imperial throne. The malice of religious zeal,
whilst it arraigns the savage fierceness of his colleague Maximian,
has affected to cast suspicions on the personal courage of the emperor
Diocletian. [3] It would not be easy to persuade us of the cowardice of a
soldier of fortune, who ac