slate the language of flattery into that of truth.]

[Footnote 8: Lactantius de M. P. c. 8. Aurelius Victor. As among the
Panegyrics, we find orations pronounced in praise of Maximian, and
others which flatter his adversaries at his expense, we derive some
knowledge from the contrast.]

[Footnote 9: See the second and third Panegyrics, particularly iii.
3, 10, 14 but it would be tedious to copy the diffuse and affected
expressions of their false eloquence. With regard to the titles, consult
Aurel. Victor Lactantius de M. P. c. 52. Spanheim de Usu Numismatum, &c.
xii 8.]

But even the omnipotence of Jovius and Herculius was insufficient
to sustain the weight of the public administration. The prudence of
Diocletian discovered that the empire, assailed on every side by the
barbarians, required on every side the presence of a great army, and of
an emperor. With this view, he resolved once more to divide his unwieldy
power, and with the inferior title of Caesars, [901] to confer on two
generals of approved merit an unequal share of the sovereign authority.
[10] Galerius, surnamed Armentarius, from his original profession of a
herdsman, and Constantius, who from his pale complexion had acquired
the denomination of Chlorus, [11] were the two persons invested with
the second honors of the Imperial purple. In describing the country,
extraction, and manners of Herculius, we have already delineated those
of Galerius, who was often, and not improperly, styled the younger
Maximian, though, in many instances both of virtue and ability, he
appears to have possessed a manifest superiority over the elder. The
birth of Constantius was less obscure than that of his colleagues.
Eutropius, his father, was one of the most considerable nobles of
Dardania, and his mother was the niece of the emperor Claudius. [12]
Although the youth of Constantius had been spent in arms, he was endowed
with a mild and amiable disposition, and the popular voice had long
since acknowledged him worthy of the rank which he at last attained. To
strengthen the bonds of political, by those of domestic, union, each of
the emperors assumed the character of a father to one of the Caesars,
Diocletian to Galerius, and Maximian to Constantius; and each, obliging
them to repudiate their former wives, bestowed his daughter in marriage
or his adopted son. [13] These four princes distributed among themselves
the wide extent of the Roman empire. The defence of Gaul, Spain, [1