rcus had
discharged a debt of private gratitude, at the expense, indeed, of the
happiness of the state. By associating a friend and a fellow-soldier
to the labors of government, Diocletian, in a time of public danger,
provided for the defence both of the East and of the West. Maximian
was born a peasant, and, like Aurelian, in the territory of Sirmium.
Ignorant of letters, careless of laws, the rusticity of his appearance
and manners still betrayed in the most elevated fortune the meanness
of his extraction. War was the only art which he professed. In a long
course of service, he had distinguished himself on every frontier of the
empire; and though his military talents were formed to obey rather than
to command, though, perhaps, he never attained the skill of a consummate
general, he was capable, by his valor, constancy, and experience, of
executing the most arduous undertakings. Nor were the vices of Maximian
less useful to his benefactor. Insensible to pity, and fearless of
consequences, he was the ready instrument of every act of cruelty which
the policy of that artful prince might at once suggest and disclaim. As
soon as a bloody sacrifice had been offered to prudence or to revenge,
Diocletian, by his seasonable intercession, saved the remaining few whom
he had never designed to punish, gently censured the severity of his
stern colleague, and enjoyed the comparison of a golden and an iron age,
which was universally applied to their opposite maxims of government.
Notwithstanding the difference of their characters, the two emperors
maintained, on the throne, that friendship which they had contracted in
a private station. The haughty, turbulent spirit of Maximian, so fatal,
afterwards, to himself and to the public peace, was accustomed to
respect the genius of Diocletian, and confessed the ascendant of reason
over brutal violence. From a motive either of pride or superstition,
the two emperors assumed the titles, the one of Jovius, the other of
Herculius. Whilst the motion of the world (such was the language of
their venal orators) was maintained by the all-seeing wisdom of Jupiter,
the invincible arm of Hercules purged the earth from monsters and
tyrants.

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