CHAP. XIII.
whose harmony was regulated and maintained by the skilful hand of the first artist[1].
Series of events. This important measure was not carried into execution till about six years after the association of Maximian, and that interval of time had not been destitute of memorable incidents. But we have preferred, for the sake of perspicuity, first to describe the more perfect form of Diocletian's government, and afterwards to relate the actions of his reign, following rather the natural order of the events, than the dates of a very doubtful chronology.
A.D. 287.
State of the peasents of Gaul.
The first exploit of Maximian, though it is mentioned in a few words by our imperfect writers, deserves, from its singularity, to be recorded m a history Gaul.
of human manners. He suppressed the peasants of
Gaul, who, under the appellation of Bagaudæ[2], had
risen in a general insurrection; very similar to those
which in the fourteenth century successively afflicted
both France and England[3], It should seem, that very
many of those institutions, referred by an easy solution
to the feudal system, are derived from the Celtic barbarians. When Cæsar subdued the Gauls, that great
nation was already divided into three orders of men;
the clergy, the nobility, and the common people. The
first governed by superstition, the second by arms, but
the third and last was not of any weight or account in
their public councils. It was very natural for the plebeians, oppressed by debt, or apprehensive of injuries,
to implore the protection of some powerful chief, who
acquired over their persons and property, the same
absolute right as, among the Greeks and Romans, a
master exercised over his slaves[4] The greatest part
- ↑ Julian in Cæsarib. p. 315 ; Spanheim's notes to the French translation, p. 122.
- ↑ The general name of Bagaudæ (in the signification of rebels) continued till the fifth century in Gaul. Some critics derive it from a Celtic word bagad, a tumultuous assembly. Scaliger ad Euseb. ; Du Cange, Glossar.
- ↑ Chronique de Froissart, vol. i. c. 182. ii. 73 — 79. The naïveté of his story is lost in our best modern writers.
- ↑ Cæsar de Bell. Gallic, vi. 13. Orgetorix, the Helvetian, could arm for his defence a body of ten thousand slaves.
