OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 209 the court, as well as city, was polluted with many CHAP. bloody executions ^ But as it was found impossible to '_ extort any discovery of this mysterious transaction, it seems incumbent on us either to presume the inno- cence, or to admire the resolution, of the sufferers. A few days afterwards, Galerius hastily withdrew himself from Nicomedia, declaring* that if he delayed his de- parture from that devoted palace, he should fall a sa- crifice to the rage of the christians. The ecclesiastical historians, from whom alone we derive a partial and imperfect knowledge of this persecution, are at a loss how to account for the fears and danger of the empe- rors. Two of these writers, a prince and a rheto- rician, were eyewitnesses of the fire of Nicomedia. The one ascribes it to lightning, and the divine wrath ; the other affirms, that it was kindled by the malice of Galerius himself ^ As the edict against the christians was designed for Execution a general law of the whole empire, and as Diocletian "jj^^^ "^^ and Galerius, though they might not wait for the con- sent, were assured of the concurrence of the western princes; it would appear more consonant to our ideas of policy, that the govei'nors of all the provinces should have received secret instructions to publish, on one and the same day, this declaration of war within their respective departments. It was at least to be ex- pected, that the convenience of the public highways and established posts would have enabled the empe- rors to transmit their orders with the utmost despatch from ih ; palace of Nicomedia to the extremities of the Roman world ; and that they would not have suffered fifty days to elapse before the edict was published in Syria, and near four months before it was signified to ' Lactantius de M. P. c. 13, 14. Potentissimi quondam eunuchi necati, per quos palatium et ipse constabat. Eusehius (1. viii. c. 6.) mentions the cruel extortions of the eunuchs Gorgonius and Dorotheus, and of Anthi- mius bishop of Nicomedia ; and both those writers describe, in a vague but tragical manner, the horrid scenes which were acted even in the im- perial presence.
- See Lactantius, Eusebius, and Constantino, ad Ccetum Sanctorum,
c. 25. Eusebius confesses his ignorance of the cause of the fire. VOL. II. P
