Word: diocletian
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...weakness at the outposts. The Goths became uncontrollable, and when the Emperor Valerian tried to fight off the Persians, he was captured and finally skinned and stuffed with straw. As Gibbon breaks off his story, early in the 4th century, a number of strong Emperors-Aurelian, Diocletian, Constantine-have temporarily imposed a kind of order, but it is clear that their strength is that of men, not of enduring institutions, and that the fall of the empire is inescapable. Gibbon is no moralist intent on admonisinng modern readers, and he has no interest in encouraging American Patriots in rebellion...
...custodians, but with holidays and sick leave it often happens that only four or five guards are left to patrol the whole area at the height of the tourist season. The superintendent of antiquities-who is in charge of the Forum, the Palatine, the Colosseum, and the Baths of Diocletian and Caracalla-has a diminutive annual budget...
...religious experience, however humble or bizarre, is excluded; James treats them all with tender indulgence. The majestic agonies of Augustine are followed by the fussy gropings of an alcoholic. The founder of the Quakers, George Fox, has a vision of blood flowing through the streets of Lichfield (where Diocletian slaughtered 1,000 Christians), and strides barefoot through the city, crying: "Woe to the bloody city of Lichfield!" The doughty little evangelist Billy Bray hears the Lord speaking to him. "Worship me with clean lips," the Lord thunders. In ecstasy, Billy stomps on his favorite pipe, muttering solemnly: "Ashes to ashes...
...church's satisfaction that it was in deed St. Felix's head. The skull hidden in the other bust was identified as that of his friend and fellow 4th century martyr, St. Nabor. Tradition tells that the saints were Moorish soldiers in the army of the Emperor Diocletian, stationed in what is now Milan in about A.D. 303. Under repeated torture they refused to renounce their Christian faith. At last they were both beheaded, and their remains were eventually buried in Milan's oldest Christian cemetery. Turned over to the keeping of the Franciscans, the heads...
...Rome, attentive delegates plugged in United Nations-type earphones, scribbled notes as speeches were broadcast in five languages. Among the speakers: U.S. Midwife Carolyn A. Banghart, dean of Kentucky's Frontier Graduate School of Midwifery. Afterward the midwives adjourned to a reception in the ancient Baths of Diocletian, where they downed martinis, danced spiritedly with one another, and scaled a low wall to stage playful mass dashes at food-bearing Italian waiters...