Through the exertions of zealous friends the candidature of Diocletian found great favor.

At the first words pronounced by him from a raised platform in the presence of the troops, cries of "Diocletian Augustus "were raised in every quarter.

Other voices called on him to express his feelings about Numerian's murderers.
Drawing his sword, Diocletian declared on oath that he was innocent of the emperor's death, but that he knew who was guilty and would find means to punish him.

Descending suddenly from the platform, he made straight for the Praetorian prefect, and saying, "Aper, be comforted; thou shalt not die by vulgar hands; by the right hand of great AEneas thou fallest," he gave him his death-wound.

"I have killed the prophetic wild boar," said he in the evening to his confidants; and soon afterwards, in spite of the efforts of certain rivals, he was emperor.
"Nothing is more difficult than to govern," was a remark his comrades had often heard made by him amidst so many imperial catastrophes.