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De la mort des persécuteurs de l'église

XVII.

Après tant de sanglantes exécutions, le bonheur s'éloigna de Dioclétien. Il se rendit à Rome pour la fête des Vicennales[^7] qu'on y devait célébrer le vingtième de novembre. Tous ces divertissements étant finis vers la fin de décembre, le consulat lui ayant été déféré pour la neuvième fois, son impatience et son chagrin l'emportèrent hors de la ville, on y parlait trop librement de sa conduite. Il ne put se résoudre à attendre encore treize jours dans Rome le commencement de sa nouvelle charge ; il alla la commencer à Ravenne; mais comme il fit ce voyage en hiver, il fut tellement incommodé du froid et des pluies, qu'il en tomba dans une indisposition qui lui dura toute sa vie. On le porta pourtant presque toujours dans une litière. A la fin de l’été, il se rendit à Nicomédie, son incommodité étant beaucoup augmentée; nais quoique son mal le pressât, il ne laissa pas toutefois, un an après la fête des Vicennales, de dédier le cirque qu'il avait fait bâtir. Enfin il s'affaiblit à tel point que l'on fit des prières publiques pour sa santé. Mais le treizième de décembre on ne voyait dans son palais que tristesse et que larmes; tout y était plein de frayeur et de silence. Le bruit de sa mort s'était déjà répandu par toute la ville. Le lendemain ce faux bruit se dissipa, et l'on revit l'allégresse sur le visage de ses officiers et de ses ministres. Quelques-uns pourtant soupçonnaient que l'on celait sa mort jusqu'à l'arrivée de Galérius César, de peur que les soldats n'entreprissent quelque nouveauté. L'empereur ne put dissiper ce soupçon que par sa présence. Le premier jour de mars il se fit voir en public, mais à peine reconnaissable, tant il était défiguré par une maladie d'une année entière. Il est vrai que le treizième de décembre il recouvra la vie ; mais ce ne fut qu'à moitié, car quelquefois il perdait l'usage de la raison, quelquefois aussi il avait de bons intervalles.

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Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died

Chap. XVII.

The wicked plan having been carried into execution, Diocletian, whom prosperity had now abandoned, set out instantly for Rome, there to celebrate the commencement of the twentieth year of his reign. That solemnity was performed on the twelfth of the kalends of December; ¹ and suddenly the emperor, unable to bear the Roman freedom of speech, peevishly and impatiently burst away from the city. The kalends of January ² approached, at which day the consulship, for the ninth time, was to be offered to him; yet, rather than continue thirteen days longer in Rome, he chose that his first appearance as consul should be at Ravenna. Having, however, begun his journey in winter, amidst intense cold and incessant rains, he contracted a slight but lingering disease: it harassed him without intermission, so that he was obliged for the most part to be carried in a litter. Then, at the close of summer, he made a circuit along the banks of the Danube, and so came to Nicomedia. His disease had now become more grievous and oppressing; yet he caused himself to be brought out, in order to dedicate that circus which, at the conclusion of the twentieth year of his reign, he had erected. Immediately he grew so languid and feeble, that prayers for his life were put up to all the gods. Then suddenly, on the ides of December, ³ there was heard in the palace sorrow, and weeping, and lamentation, and the courtiers ran to and fro; there was silence throughout the city, and a report went of the death, and even of the burial, of Diocletian: but early on the morrow it was suddenly rumoured that he still lived. At this the countenance of his domestics and courtiers changed from melancholy to gay. Nevertheless there were who suspected his death to be kept secret until the arrival of Galerius Caesar, lest in the meanwhile the soldiery should attempt some change in the government; and this suspicion grew so universal, that no one would believe the emperor alive, until, on the kalends of March, ⁴ he appeared in public, but so wan, his illness having lasted almost a year, as hardly to be known again. The fit of stupor, resembling death, happened on the ides of December; and although he in some measure recovered, yet he never attained to perfect health again, for he became disordered in his judgment, being at certain times insane and at others of sound mind.