Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/445

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 421 whose harmony was regulated and maintained by the CHAP, skilful hand of the first artiste ^^^^• This important measure was not carried into execu- Series of tion till about six years after the association of Max- ^^ents. imian, 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 per- fect 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 men-A.D. 287. tioned in a few words by our imperfect writers, de- ^^^^^°^*^^® p. . |., IT. peasants of serves, from its smgularity, to be recorded m a history Gaul. 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 bar- barians. 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 ple- beians, 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 P Julian in Caesarib. p. 315 ; Spanheim's notes to the French transla- tion, p. 122. 1 The general name of Bagaudte (in the signification of rebels) con- tinued till the fifth century in Gaul. Some critics derive it from a Celtic word bagud, a tumultuous assembly. Scaliger ad Euseb. ; Du Cange, Glossar. "^ Chronique de Froissart, vol. i. c. 182. ii. 73 — 79. The naivete of his story is lost in our best modern writers. for his defence a body of ten thousand slaves.
 * Caesar de Bell. Gallic, vi. 13. Orgetorix, the Helvetian, could arm