Graham, Alexander: Roman Africa: an outline of the history of the Roman occupation of North Africa ; based chiefly upon inscriptions and monumental remains in that country (London [u.a.], 1902)

Africa under the later Emperors 263

age of Constantine is not recorded, nor do contemporary his-
torians tell us whether this upholder of Paganism survived her
imperial son to witness the temples of her gods overthrown and
the symbols of a despised creed carved on post and lintel in
most parts of the Empire.

There is considerable doubt whether Diocletian personally
approved of the persecution of the adherents to the new creed.
He was no ardent believer in the gods of any section of Pagan
worshippers, nor was he addicted during a long reign to the
shedding of blood. It has been stated that his wife Prisca
respected the creed of the Christians, and not only worshipped
secretly at their gatherings, but encouraged her daughter
Valeria, the wife of Galerius, to uphold the new faith by dis-
seminating its doctrines. As a matter of justice to Diocletian,
it may fairly be presumed that his edict of repression was a
political necessity and not the outcome of personal animosity.
His revolutionary changes in administration had spread discon-
tent throughout his dominions, and more especially in Italy.
Rome had ceased to be the capital of the world, and the Senate,
no longer able to exercise authority as a political body or to
assert its rights, as of old, in the selection of an emperor, had
become little more than an assemblage of citizens discharging
the ordinary municipal functions. Diocletian, moreover, had
no personal interest in the welfare of Rome, but regarded
Nicomedia, his newly chosen capital in Bithynia, and Milan, the
selected residence of his colleague Maximinian, as better located
for a dual form of imperial government. His Oriental tastes
and sumptuous surroundings gave encouragement to ways of
extravagance hitherto unknown in provincial life; and the
burden of taxation, essential to the support of a large army of
court officials, pressed heavily upon all classes of citizens. Local
resources were drained to fill the coffers of the imperial treasury ;
agriculture, unequal to the demands of pitiless collectors, was
neglected ; and industrial arts, fostered by Trajan and his
successors, received a check from which they never recovered.
This assumption of monarchical authority, so little in harmony
with the traditions associated with the Empire of the Caesars,
proved a death-blow to municipal life, and henceforth the
vitality which was so conspicuous in the remote towns of
Northern Africa imperceptibly dwindled away into nothingness.