Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/478

 45* THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, with the most precious gems. The access to their ]__ sacred person was every day rendered more difficult, by the institution of new forms and ceremonies. The avenues of the palace were strictly guarded by the va- rious schools^ as they began to be called, of domestic officers. The interior apartments were intrusted to the jealous vigilance of the eunuchs ; the increase of whose numbers and influence was the most infallible symptom of the progress of despotism. When a sub- ject was at length admitted to the imperial presence, he was obliged, whatever might be his rank, to fall prostrate on the ground, and to adore, according to the eastern fashion, the divinity of his lord and master''. Diocletian was a man of sense, who, in the course of private as well as public life, had formed a just esti- mate both of himself and of mankind : nor is it easy to conceive, that in substituting the manners of Persia to those of Rome, he was seriously actuated by so mean a principle as that of vanity. He flattered himself, that an ostentation of splendour and luxury would subdue the imagination of the multitude; that the monarch would be less exposed to the rude licence of the people and the soldiers, as his person was secluded from the public view ; and that habits of submission would in- sensibly be productive of sentiments of veneration. Like the modesty affected by Augustus, the state main- tained by Diocletian was a theatrical representation ; but it must be confessed, that of the two comedies, the former was of a much more liberal and manly character than the latter. It was the aim of the one to disguise, and the object of the other to display, the unbounded power which the emperors possessed over the Roman world. New form of Ostentation was the first principle of the new system Tion -"twr instituted by Diocletian. The second was division. Augusti He divided the empire, the provinces, and every branch '' Aurelius Victor; Eutropius, ix. 26. It appears by the panegyrists, that the Romans were soon reconciled to the name and ceremony of ado- ration.