them all himself. Now the provinces were subdivided so as to make about a hundred and twenty. These were grouped into thirteen dioceses, each under a vicar. The dioceses were grouped into the four prefectures, each under its prefect, who was subject to a Caesar or Augustus in person. A prefect had under him three or five vicars; a vicar had under him several provincial governors. Each officer sifted all business that came to him from his subordinates, sending on to his superior only the more important matters.

553. Table of Prefectures and Dioceses. The following table shows more clearly to the eye the grouping of these units of government:—

554. Separation of Civil and Military Duties; Other Military Reforms. The provincial governors were now of too little importance to rebel successfully against the emperor, but another measure guarded still further against such internal disorder. The governors and vicars became merely civil officials. All military command was intrusted to other officers, who were

1 For an illustration of the minute oversight attempted by industrious emperors, see once more the correspondence of Trajan with Pliny, referred to in §§ 527 and 540.

responsible, not to the vicars, but directly to the emperor. Thus the civil and military powers watched and checked each other.1

At the same time, still more careful precaution was taken against military adventurers. The powerful legions were broken up into small regiments, which had less corps spirit and were less able to act in concert against the central authority.

555. Development of a Highly Organized Administration.— Most of these reforms were meant to divide duties and to fix responsibility precisely. One more change was aimed at the same end. In the Early Empire the friends or servants of the emperor were often given great power in the administration, but in an irregular and varying manner. Hadrian (§ 497, note) had made these irregular assistants into regular officers and advisers. But now each such officer became the head of an extensive department of government,2 organized into a hierarchy of many ranks; and, along with this change at court, went also the multiplication of subordinate officials throughout the provinces.3

556. Despotic Forms. To secure for the emperor's person greater reverence, Diocletian adopted the forms of monarchy. The Republican cloak of Augustus was cast aside, and the Principate gave way to an open despotism. At last, absolutism was avowed as a policy, and adorned with its characteristic trappings. The emperor assumed a diadem of gems and robes of silk and gold. He dazzled the multitude by the oriental magnificence of his court, and fenced himself round,

1 Cf. § 63 for the use of a similar device in a ruder way.

2 Imperial Rome developed her machinery of government out of the offices of the emperor's household. The chief of the attendants in the emperor's chamber became the Great Chamberlain, the head of an important branch of the administration. See Wilson's The State, 135, 136. In like manner, the great administrative officers of medieval kingdoms were developed from the household officers of the kings.

3 The heads of departments exercised great control over the emperor's knowledge of the empire and had much influence upon his plans. In like manner they themselves were influenced by their subordinates.

even from his nearest associates, with minute ceremonial and armies of functionaries. When subjects were allowed to approach him at all they were obliged, in place of the old Republican greeting, to prostrate themselves servilely at his feet.

At this time the Senate of Rome - the last of the old Republican influences - ceased to have part in the management of the empire. It became thenceforth only a city council, just as the officers of the Republic had long before become mere city officials (cf. §§ 473, 496, 497).

557. Summary; a Centralized Despotism.—Like the reforms which had preserved the declining society of Caesar's day (§ 458), the changes introduced by Diocletian were in the direction of absolutism. The medicine had to be strengthened; soon its virtue would be exhausted, and only the poison would be left.

The government became a centralized despotism, a vast, highly complex machine. For a time its new strength warded off foreign foes, and it even stimulated society into fresh life. But the cost of the various courts and of the immense body of officials pressed upon the masses with crushing weight, and the omnipotence and omnipresence of the central government oppressed the minds of men. Patriotism died; enterprise disappeared.1

To this despotic organization we owe thanks, however, for putting off the catastrophe in Western Europe for two centuries more. In this time, Christianity won its battle over paganism, and Roman law took on a system (§ 613) that enabled it to live even under the barbarian conquest (§§ 582 ff.).

1 It is desirable for students to discuss in class more fully some of these forms of government of which the text has to treat. Absolutism refers to the source of political power: i.e., in a system of absolutism, supreme political power is in the hands of one person. "Centralization" refers to the kind of administration. A centralized administration is one carried on by a body of officials of many grades, all appointed from above. Thus absolutism and centralization do not necessarily go together. A government may come from the people, and yet rule through a centralized administration, as in France to-day. It may be absolute, and yet allow much freedom to local agencies, as in Turkey, or in Russia in past centuries. But absolutism is likely to develop centralized agencies, as Russia has been doing rapidly of late.

Under a great genius, like Napoleon the First, a centralized government may for a time produce rapid benefits. But the system always decays, and it does nothing to educate the people politically. Local self-government is often provokingly slow and faulty, but it is surer in the long run.

II. CONSTANTINE AND THE VICTORY OF CHRISTIANITY.

558. From Diocletian to Constantine, 305-312. - In 305, Diocletian laid down his power, to retire to private life,' persuading his colleague Maximian to do the same. The two Caesars became emperors, Galerius in the East and Constantius in Each appointed a Caesar as an assistant and sucBut Constantius died in a few months, before the

the West.

cessor.

ARCH OF CONSTANTINE TO-DAY. - This arch was erected at Rome to commemorate the victory at the Milvian Bridge.

position of the new Caesars was firmly established, and this misfortune plunged the empire into new strife. For eight years civil war raged between six claimants for the throne. Then, in 312, Constantine, son of Constantius, by the victory of

1 When pressed to assume the government again during the disorders that followed, Diocletian wrote from his rural retreat: "Could you come here and see the vegetables that I raise in my garden with my own hands, you would no more talk to me of empire."