He carried his plan into immediate
execution, by appointing an associate to his own rank of Augustus in the
person of Maximian--an experienced general; whilst each of them in effect
multiplied his own office still farther by severally appointing a Caesar,
or hereditary prince. And thus the very same partition of the public
authority, by means of a duality of emperors, to which the senate had
often resorted of late, as the best means of restoring their own
republican aristocracy, was now adopted by Dioclesian as the simplest
engine for overthrowing finally the power of either senate or army to
interfere with the elective privilege. This he endeavored to centre in the
existing emperors; and, at the same moment, to discourage treason or
usurpation generally, whether in the party choosing or the party chosen,
by securing to each emperor, in the case of his own assassination, an
avenger in the person of his surviving associate, as also in the persons
of the two Caesars, or adopted heirs and lieutenants. The associate
emperor, Maximian, together with the two Caesars--Galerius appointed by
himself, and Constantius Chlorus by Maximian--were all bound to himself by
ties of gratitude; all owing their stations ultimately to his own favor.
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