[235] Vol. I. b. 4, c. 1.
[236] During the Crusades, Sidon fell into the hands of the Christians. They lost it A. D. 1111. In 1250 it was recovered by the Saracens; but in 1289 they were compelled to surrender it again to the Christians.
[237] In the sixteenth century.
[238] Herodotus; Diodorus; Pliny; Plutarch; Arrian; Quintus Curtius; Justin; Prideaux; Rollin; Stackhouse; Volney; Drummond; Buckingham; Robinson.
[239] A very ancient basso-rilievo, among the antiquities at Wilton House, brought from Smyrna, represents Mantheus, the son of Æthus, giving thanks to Jupiter, for his son’s being victor in the five exercises of the Olympic games; wherein is shown, by an inscription of the oldest Greek letters, the ancient Greek way of writing that was in use six hundred years before our Saviour.
[240] Pausanias; Arrian; Quintus Curtius; Wheler; Pococke; Chandler; Barthelemy; Hobhouse; La Martine.
[241] The valour of Diocletian was never found inadequate to his duty or to the occasion; but he appears not to have possessed the daring and generous spirit of a hero, who courts danger and fame, disdains artifice, and boldly challenges the allegiance of his equals. His abilities were useful rather than splendid; a vigorous mind, improved by the experience and study of mankind; dexterity and application in business; a judicious mixture of liberality and economy; steadiness to pursue his ends; flexibility to vary his means; and, above all, the great art of submitting his own passions, as well as those of others, to the interest of his ambition, and of colouring his ambition with the most specious pretences of justice and public utility. Like Augustus, Diocletian may be considered as the founder of a new empire; like the adopted son of Cæsar, he was distinguished as a statesman rather than a warrior; nor did either of those princes employ force whenever their purpose could be effected by policy.—Gibbon.
[242] De Administrando Imperio.
[243] Adam’s Antiquities at Diocletian’s palace at Spalatro, p. 67. Thus the Abate Fortis:—“E ‘bastevolmente nota agli amatori dell’ architettura, e dell’ antichità, l’opera del Signor Adam, che a donato molto a que’ superbi vestigi coll’ abituale eleganza del suo toccalapis e del bulino. In generale la rozzezza del scalpello, e ‘l cativo gusto del secolo vi gareggiano colla magnificenza del fabricato.”—Vide Viaggio in Dalmazia, p. 40. For the plan and views of the palace, temples of Jupiter and Æsculapius, with the Dalmatian coast, vide “Voyage de l’Istrie et de la Dalmatie.”
[244] Gibbon; Adam.