Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/61

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 4^ and to close the eyes of her afflicted father °. He en- C ll A P. treated ; but as he could no longer threaten, his prayers _____ were received with coldness and disdain ; and the ])ride 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 fa- vourable alteration in their fortune. The public dis- orders 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 behaviour in the first days of his reign, and the honourable re- ception which he gave to young Candidianus, inspired Valeria with a secret satisfaction both on her own ac- count 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 in- human 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 Thessa- lonica ; 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 can- not discover their crimes ; and whatever idea we may ° Diocletian at last sent cognatum suum, (juendam militarem ac po:entem virum, to intercede in favour of his daughter. Lactantius de iM. P. c. 41. We are not sufficiently acquainted with the history of these times to point out the person who was employed. I* Valeria quoque per varias provincias quindecim mensibus plebeio cultu pervagata. Lactantius de M. P. c. 51. There is some doubt whether we should compute the fifteen months from the moment of her exile, or from that of her escape. The expression of periagata seems to denote the latter ; but in that case we must suppose, that the treatise of Lactantius was written after the first civil war between Licinius and Constanline. See Cuper, p. 254.