This also may be regarded in effect as the ordinance of
Dioclesian; for he, by his long residence at Nicomedia, expressed his
opinion pretty plainly, that Rome was not central enough to perform the
functions of a capital to so vast an empire; that this was one cause of
the declension now become so visible in the forces of the state; and that
some city, not very far from the Hellespont or the Aegean Sea, would be a
capital better adapted by position to the exigencies of the times.
But the revolutions effected by Dioclesian did not stop here. The
simplicity of its republican origin had so far affected the external
character and expression of the imperial office, that in the midst of
luxury the most unbounded, and spite of all other corruptions, a majestic
plainness of manners, deportment, and dress, had still continued from
generation to generation, characteristic of the Roman imperator in his
intercourse with his subjects. All this was now changed; and for the Roman
was substituted the Persian dress, the Persian style of household, a
Persian court, and Persian manners, A diadem, or tiara beset with pearls,
now encircled the temples of the Roman Augustus; his sandals were studded
with pearls, as in the Persian court; and the other parts of his dress
were in harmony with these.
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