Emperor in his turn, Diocletian treasured up this profound idea of the difficulty of government, and he set to work, ably, if not successfully, to master it.
Convinced that the empire was too vast, and that a single man did not suffice to make head against the two evils that were destroying it,--war against barbarians on the frontiers, and anarchy within,--he divided the Roman world into two portions, gave the West to Maximian, one of his comrades, a coarse but valiant soldier, and kept the East himself.

To the anarchy that reigned within he opposed a general despotic administrative organization, a vast hierarchy of civil and military agents, everywhere present, everywhere masters, and dependent upon the emperor alone.

By his incontestable and admitted superiority, Diocletian remained the soul of these two bodies.

At the end of eight years he saw that the two empires were still too vast; and to each Augustus he added a Caesar,--Galerius and Constantius Chlorus,--who, save a nominal, rather than real, subordination to the two emperors, had, each in his own state, the imperial power with the same administrative system.

In this partition of the Roman world, Gaul had the best of it: she had for master, Constantius Chlorus, a tried warrior, but just, gentle, and disposed to temper the exercise of absolute power with moderation and equity.