s of Syria,
they exposed their shame and distress to the provinces of the East,
which, during thirty years, had respected their august dignity.
Diocletian (who before this had abdicated his throne and was therefore
powerless) made several ineffectual efforts to alleviate the misfortunes
of his daughter; and, as the last return that he expected for the
imperial purple, which he had conferred upon Maximin, he entreated that
Valeria might be permitted to share his retirement at Salona, and to
close the eyes of her afflicted father. He entreated; but as he could no
longer threaten, his prayers were received with coldness and disdain;
and the pride of Maximin was gratified in treating Diocletian as a
suppliant, and his daughter as a criminal.

"The death of Maximin seemed to assure the empresses of a favorable
alteration in their fortune. The public disorders relaxed the vigilance
of their guard, and they easily found means to escape from the place of
their exile, and to repair, though with some precaution, and in
disguise, to the court of Licinius. His behavior, in the first days of
his reign, and the honorable reception which he gave to young
Candidianus, inspired Valeria with secret satisfaction, both on her own
account and on that of her adopted son. But these grateful prospects
were soon succeeded by horror and astonishment; and the bloody
executions which stained the palace of Nicomedia sufficiently convinced
her that the throne of Maximin was filled by a tyrant more inhuman than
himself. Valeria consulted her safety by a hasty flight, and, still
accompanied by her mother, Prisca, they wandered above fifteen months
through the provinces, concealed in the disguise of plebeian habits.
They were at length discovered at Thessalonica; and as the sentence of
their death was already pronounced, they were immediately beheaded, and
their bodies thrown into the sea. The people gazed on the melancholy
spectacle; but their grief and indignation were suppressed by the
terrors of a military guard. Such was the unworthy fate of the wife and
daughter of Diocletian. We lament their misfortunes, we cannot discover
their crimes." It is by no means unlikely, judging from the character of
these women, that if the true facts were known, though they were not
martyrs in the accepted sense of the word, it would be seen that they
suffered for their Christianity, being induced by its principles to
refuse their consent to such conduct as would ha