d maintained by the skilful hand of the first
artist.

This important measure was not carried into execution till about six
years after the association of Maximian, and that interval of time had
not been destitute of memorable incidents. But we have preferred, for
the sake of perspicuity, first to describe the more perfect form of
Diocletian's government, and afterwards to relate the actions of his
reign, following rather the natural order of the events, than the dates
of a very doubtful chronology.

The first exploit of Maximian, though it is mentioned in a few words by
our imperfect writers, deserves, from its singularity, to be recorded
in a history of human manners. He suppressed the peasants of Gaul, who,
under the appellation of Bagaudae, had risen in a general insurrection;
very similar to those which in the fourteenth century successively
afflicted both France and England. It should seem that very many of
those institutions, referred by an easy solution to the feudal system,
are derived from the Celtic barbarians. When Caesar subdued the Gauls,
that great nation was already divided into three orders of men; the
clergy, the nobility, and the common people. The first governed by
superstition, the second by arms, but the third and last was not of any
weight or account in their public councils. It was very natural for the
plebeians, oppressed by debt, or apprehensive of injuries, to implore
the protection of some powerful chief, who acquired over their persons
and property the same absolute right as, among the Greeks and Romans,
a master exercised over his slaves. The greatest part of the nation
was gradually reduced into a state of servitude; compelled to perpetual
labor on the estates of the Gallic nobles, and confined to the soil,
either by the real weight of fetters, or by the no less cruel and
forcible restraints of the laws. During the long series of troubles
which agitated Gaul, from the reign of Gallienus to that of Diocletian,
the condition of these servile peasants was peculiarly miserable; and
they experienced at once the complicated tyranny of their masters, of
the barbarians, of the soldiers, and of the officers of the revenue.

Their patience was at last provoked into despair. On every side they
rose in multitudes, armed with rustic weapons, and with irresistible
fury. The ploughman became a foot soldier, the shepherd mounted on
horseback, the deserted villages and open towns were abandoned to the
f