近日，一個節目訪談中，黃x生談到自己為何到臺灣發展，其中一個原因是 「一直以來其實我都很喜歡臺灣，我覺得臺灣保留了傳統的中國文化。 」
有網民則表示： 「你說『臺灣保留了傳統的中國文化』，看來你也認同臺灣是中國的一部分。 」
「哪裡有工作就留在哪」
早知今天，何必當初
尊嚴二字，太諷刺了！
各位街坊對此怎麼看？
歡迎留言區討論！
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suaded to subscribe
them. As this was the only article to which he refused his
consent, it was no longer insisted on; and the emperors either
suffered the trade to flow in its natural channels, or contented
themselves with such restrictions, as it depended on their own
authority to establish.
As soon as this difficulty was removed, a solemn peace was
concluded and ratified between the two nations. The
conditions of a treaty so glorious to the empire, and so
necessary to Persia Persian, may deserve a more peculiar
attention, as the history of Rome presents very few
transactions of a similar nature; most of her wars having
either been terminated by absolute conquest, or waged against
barbarians ignorant of the use of letters. I. The Aboras, or, as
it is called by Xenophon, the Araxes, was fixed as the
boundary between the two monarchies. That river, which rose
near the Tigris, was increased, a few miles below Nisibis, by
the little stream of the Mygdonius, passed under the walls of
Singara, and fell into the Euphrates at Circesium, a frontier
town, which, by the care of Diocletian, was very strongly
fortified. Mesopotomia, the object of so many wars, was ceded
to the empire; and the Persians, by this treaty, renounced all
pretensions to that great province. II. They relinquished to the
Romans five provinces beyond the Tigris. Their situation
formed a very useful barrier, and their natural strength was
soon improved by art and military skill. Four of these, to the
north of the river, were districts of obscure fame and
inconsiderable extent; Intiline, Zabdicene, Arzanene, and
Moxoene; but on the east of the Tigris, the empire acquired the
large and mountainous territory of Carduene, the ancient seat
of the Carduchians, who preserved for many ages their manly
freedom in the heart of the despotic monarchies of Asia. The
ten thousand Greeks traversed their country, after a painful
march, or rather engagement, of seven days; and it is
confessed by their leader, in his incomparable relation of the
retreat, that they suffered more from the arrows of the
Carduchians, than from the power of the Great King. Their
posterity, the Curds, with very little alteration either of name
or manners, * acknowledged the nominal sovereignty of the
Turkish sultan. III. It is almost needless to observe, that
Tiridates, the faithful ally of Rome, was restored to the throne
of his fathers, and that the rights of the Imperial supremacy
were fully asserted and secured. The limits of Armenia were
extended as far as the fortress of Sintha in Media, and this
increase of dominion was not so much an act of liberality as of
justice. Of the provinces already mentioned beyond the Tigris,
the four first had been dismembered by the
Parthians from the crown of Armenia; and when the Romans
acquired the possession of them, they stipulated, at the
expense of the usurpers, an ample compensation, which
invested their ally with the extensive and fertile country of
Atropatene. Its principal city, in the same situation perhaps as
the modern Tauris, was frequently honored by the residence of
Tiridates; and as it sometimes bore the name of Ecbatana, he
imitated, in the buildings and fortifications, the splendid
capital of the Medes. IV. The country of Iberia was barren, its
inhabitants rude and savage. But they were accustomed to the
use of arms, and they separated from the empire barbarians
much fiercer and more formidable than themselves. The
narrow defiles of Mount Caucasus were in their hands, and it
was in their choice, either to admit or to exclude the
wandering tribes of Sarmatia, whenever a rapacious spirit
urged them to penetrate into the richer climes of the South.
The nomination of the kings of Iberia, which was resigned by
the Persian monarch to the emperors, contributed to the
strength and security of the Roman power in Asia. The East
enjoyed a profound tranquillity during forty years; and the
treaty between the rival monarchies was strictly observed till
the death of Tiridates; when a new generation, animated with
different views and different passions, succeeded to the
government of the world; and the grandson of Narses
undertook a long and memorable war against the princes of
the house of Constantine.
The arduous work of rescuing the distressed empire from
tyrants and barbarians had now been completely achieved by
a succession of Illyrian peasants. As soon as Diocletian
entered into the twentieth year of his reign, he celebrated that
memorable æra, as well as the success of his arms, by the
pomp of a Roman triumph. Maximian, the equal partner of his
power, was his only companion in the glory of that day. The
two Cæsars had fought and conquered, but the merit of their
exploits was ascribed, according to the rigor of ancient
maxims, to the auspicious influence of their fathers and
emperors. The triumph of Diocletian and Maximian was less
magnificent, perhaps, than those of Aurelian and Probus, but
it was dignified by several circumstances of superior fame and
good fortune. Africa and Britain, the Rhine, the Danube, and
the Nile, furnished their respective trophies; but the most
distinguished ornament was of a more singular nature, a
Persian victory followed by an important conquest. The
representations of rivers, mountains, and provinces, were
carried before the Imperial car. The images of the captive
wives, the sisters, and the children of the Great King, afforded
a new and grateful spectacle to the vanity of the people. In the
eyes of posterity, this triumph is remarkable, by a distinction
of a less honorable kind. It was the last that Rome ever beheld.
Soon after this period, the emperors ceased to vanquish, and
Rome ceased to be the capital of the empire.
The spot on which Rome was founded had been consecrated
by ancient ceremonies and imaginary miracles. The presence
of some god, or the memory of some hero, seemed to animate
every part of the city, and the empire of the world had been
promised to the Capitol. The native Romans felt and confessed
the power of this agreeable illusion. It was derived from their
ancestors, had grown up with their earliest habits of life, and
was protected, in some measure, by the opinion of political
utility. The form and the seat of government were intimately
blended together, nor was it esteemed possible to transport
the one without destroying the other. But the sovereignty of
the capital was gradually annihilated in the extent of
conquest; the provinces rose to the same level, and the
vanquished nations acquired the name and privileges, without
imbibing the partial affections, of Romans. During a long
period, however, the remains of the ancient constitution, and
the influence of custom, preserved the dignity of Rome. The
emperors, though perhaps of African or Illyrian extraction,
respected their adopted country, as the seat of their power,
and the centre of their extensive dominions. The emergencies
of war very frequently required their presence on the frontiers;
but Diocletian and Maximian were the first Roman princes
who fixed, in time of peace, their ordinary residence in the
provinces; and their conduct, however it might be suggested
by private motives, was justified by very specious
considerations of policy. The court of the emperor of the West
was, for the most part, established at Milan, whose situation,
at the foot of the Alps, appeared far more convenient than that
of Rome, for the important purpose of watching the motions of
the barbarians of Germany. Milan soon assumed the splendor
of an Imperial city. The houses are described as numerous
and well built; the manners of the people as polished and
liberal. A circus, a theatre, a mint, a palace, baths, which bore
the name of their founder Maximian; porticos adorned with
statues, and a double circumference of walls, contributed to
the beauty of the new capital; nor did it seem oppressed even
by the proximity of Rome. To rival the majesty of Rome was
the ambition likewise of Diocletian, who employed his leisure,
and the wealth of the East, in the embellishment of Nicomedia,
a city placed on the verge of Europe and Asia, almost at an
equal distance between the Danube and the Euphrates. By the
taste of the monarch, and at the expense of the people,
Nicomedia acquired, in the space of a few years, a degree of
magnificence which might appear to have required the labor of
ages, and became inferior only to Rome, Alexandria, and
Antioch, in extent of populousness. The life of Diocletian and
Maximian was a life of action, and a considerable portion of it
was spent in camps, or in the long and frequent marches; but
whenever the public business allowed them any relaxation,
they seemed to have retired with pleasure to their favorite
residences of Nicomedia and Milan. Till Diocletian, in the
twentieth year of his reign, celebrated his Roman triumph, it is
extremely doubtful whether he ever visited the ancient capital
of the empire. Even on that memorable occasion his stay did
not exceed two months. Disgusted with the licentious
familiarity of the people, he quitted Rome with precipitation
thirteen days before it was expected that he should have
appeared in the senate, invested with the ensigns of the
consular dignity.
The dislike expressed by Diocletian towards Rome and Roman
freedom, was not the effect of momentary caprice, but the
result of the most artful policy. That crafty prince had framed
a new system of Imperial government, which was afterwards
completed by the family of Constantine; and as the image of
the old constitution was religiously preserved in the senate, he
resolved to deprive that order of its small remains of power
and consideration. We may recollect, about eight years before
the elevation, of Diocletian the transient greatness, and the
ambitious hopes, of the Roman senate. As long as that
enthusiasm prevailed, many of the nobles imprudently
displayed their zeal in the cause of freedom; and after the
successes of Probus had withdrawn their countenance from
the republican party, the senators were unable to disguise
their impotent resentment. As the sovereign of Italy, Maximian
was intrusted with the care of extinguishing this troublesome,
rather than dangerous spirit, and the task was perfectly suited
to his cruel temper. The most illustrious members of the
senate, whom Diocletian always affected to esteem, were
involved, by his colleague, in the accusation of imaginary
plots; and the possession of an elegant villa, or a wellcultivated estate, was interpreted as a convincing evidence of
guilt. The camp of the Prætorians, which had so long
oppressed, began to protect, the majesty of Rome; and as
those haughty troops were conscious of the decline of their
power, they were naturally disposed to unite their strength
with the authority of the senate. By the prudent measures of
Diocletian, the numbers of the Prætorians were insensibly
reduced, their privileges abolished, and their place supplied by
two faithful legions of Illyricum, who, under the new titles of
Jovians and Herculians, were appointed to perform the service
of the Imperial guards. But the most fatal though secret
wound, which the senate received from the hands of Diocletian
and Maximian, was inflicted by the inevitable operation of
their absence. As long as the emperors resided at Rome, that
assembly might be oppressed, but it could scarcely be
neglected. The successors of Augustus exercised the power of
dictating whatever laws their wisdom or caprice might suggest;
but those laws were ratified by the sanction of the senate. The
model of ancient freedom was preserved in its deliberations
and decrees; and wise princes, who respected the prejudices of
the Roman people, were in some measure obliged to assume
the language and behavior suitable to the general and first
magistrate of the republic. In the armies and in the provinces,
they displayed the dignity of monarchs; and when they fixed
their residence at a distance from the capital, they forever laid
aside the dissimulation which Augustus had recommended to
his successors. In the exercise of the legislative as well as the
executive power, the sovereign advised with his ministers,
instead of consulting the great council of the nation. The name
of the senate was mentioned with honor till the last period of
the empire; the vanity of its members was still flattered with
honorary distinctions; but the assembly which had so long
been the source, and so long the instrument of power, was
respectfully suffered to sink into oblivion. The senate of Rome,
losing all connection with the Imperial court and the actual
constitution, was left a venerable but useless monument of
antiquity on the Capitoline hill.
Chapter XIII: Reign Of Diocletian And This Three Associates. -Part IV.
When the Roman princes had lost sight of the senate and of
their ancient capital, they easily forgot the origin and nature of
their legal power. The civil offices of consul, of proconsul, of
censor, and of tribune, by the union of which it had been
formed, betrayed to the people its republican extraction. Those
modest titles were laid aside; and if they still distinguished
their high station by the appellation of Emperor, or Imperator,
that word was understood in a new and more dignified sense,
and no longer denoted the general of the Roman armies, but
the sovereign of the Roman world. The name of Emperor,
which was at first of a military nature, was associated with
another of a more servile kind. The epithet of Dominus, or
Lord, in its primitive signification, was expressive, not of the
authority of a prince over his subjects, or of a commander over
his soldiers, but of the despotic power of a master over his
domestic slaves. Viewing it in that odious light, it had been
rejected with abhorrence by the first Cæsars. Their resistance
insensibly became more feeble, and the name less odious; till
at length the style of our Lord and Emperor was not only
bestowed by flattery, but was regularly admitted into the laws
and public monuments. Such lofty epithets were sufficient to
elate and satisfy the most excessive vanity; and if the
successors of Diocletian still declined the title of King, it seems
to have been the effect not so much of their moderation as of
their delicacy. Wherever the Latin tongue was in use, (and it
was the language of government throughout the empire,) the
Imperial title, as it was peculiar to themselves, conveyed a
more respectable idea than the name of king, which they must
have shared with a hundred barbarian chieftains; or which, at
the best, they could derive only from Romulus, or from
Tarquin. But the sentiments of the East were very different
from those of the West. From the earliest period of history, the
sovereigns of Asia had been celebrated in the Greek language
by the title of Basileus, or King; and since it was considered as
the first distinction among men, it was soon employed by the
servile provincials of the East, in their humble addresses to
the Roman throne. Even the attributes, or at least the titles, of
the Divinity, were usurped by Diocletian and Maximian, who
transmitted them to a succession of Christian emperors. Such
extravagant compliments, however, soon lose their impiety by
losing their meaning; and when the ear is once accustomed to
the sound, they are heard with indifference, as vague though
excessive professions of respect.
From the time of Augustus to that of Diocletian, the Roman
princes, conversing in a familiar manner among their fellowcitizens, were saluted only with the same respect that was
usually paid to senators and magistrates. Their principal
distinction was the Imperial or military robe of purple; whilst
the senatorial garment was marked by a broad, and the
equestrian by a narrow, band or stripe of the same honorable
color. The pride, or rather the policy, of Diocletian, engaged
that artful prince to introduce the stately magnificence of the
court of Persia. He ventured to assume the diadem, an
ornament detested by the Romans as the odious ensign of
royalty, and the use of which had been considered as the most
desperate act of the madness of Caligula. It was no more than
a broad white fillet set with pearls, which encircled the
emperor's head. The sumptuous robes of Diocletian and his
successors were of silk and gold; and it is remarked with
indignation, that even their shoes were studded with the most
precious gems. The access to their sacred person was every
day rendered more difficult by the institution of new forms and
ceremonies. The avenues of the palace were strictly guarded
by the various schools, as they began to be called, of domestic
officers. The interior apartments were intrusted to the jealous
vigilance of the eunuchs, the increase of whose numbers and
influence was the most infallible symptom of the progress of
despotism. When a subject was at length admitted to the
Imperial presence, he was obliged, whatever might be his
rank, to fall prostrate on the ground, and to adore, according
to the eastern fashion, the divinity of his lord and master.
Diocletian was a man of sense, who, in the course of private as
well as public life, had formed a just estimate both of himself
and of mankind: nor is it easy to conceive, that in substituting
the manners of Persia to those of Rome, he was seriously
actuated by so mean a principle as that of vanity. He flattered
himself, that an ostentation of splendor and luxury would
subdue the imagination of the multitude; that the monarch
would be less exposed to the rude license of the people and the
soldiers, as his person was secluded from the public view; and
that habits of submission would insensibly be productive of
sentiments of veneration. Like the modesty affected by
Augustus, the state maintained by Diocletian was a theatrical
representation; but it must be confessed, that of the two
comedies, the former was of a much more liberal and manly
character than the latter. It was the aim of the one to disguise,
and the object of the other to display, the unbounded power
which the emperors possessed over the Roman world.
Ostentation was the first principle of the new system instituted
by Diocletian. The second was division. He divided the empire,
the provinces, and every branch of the civil as well as military
administration. He multiplied the wheels of the machine of
government, and rendered its operations less rapid, but more
secure. Whatever advantages and whatever defects might
attend these innovations, they must be ascribed in a very
great degree to the first inventor; but as the new frame of
policy was gradually improved and completed by succeeding
princes, it will be more satisfactory to delay the consideration
of it till the season of its full maturity and perfection.
Reserving, therefore, for the reign of Constantine a more exact
picture of the new empire, we shall content ourselves with
describing the principal and decisive outline, as it was traced
by the hand of Diocletian. He had associated three colleagues
in the exercise of the supreme power; and as he was convinced
that the abilities of a single man were inadequate to the public
defence, he considered the joint administration of four princes
not as a temporary expedient, but as a fundamental law of the
constitution. It was his intention, that the two elder princes
should be distinguished by the use of the diadem, and the title
of Augusti; that, as affection or esteem might direct their
choice, they should regularly call to their assistance two
subordinate colleagues; and that the Csars, rising in their turn
to the first rank, should supply an uninterrupted succession
of emperors. The empire was divided into four parts. The East
and Italy were the most honorable, the Danube and the Rhine
the most laborious stations. The former claimed the presence
of the Augusti, the latter were intrusted to the administration
of the Csars. The strength of the legions was in the hands of
the four partners of sovereignty, and the despair of
successively vanquishing four formidable rivals might
intimidate the ambition of an aspiring general. In their civil
government, the emperors were supposed to exercise the
undivided power of the monarch, and their edicts, inscribed
with their joint names, were received in all the provinces, as
promulgated by their mutual councils and authority.
Notwithsta
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