At last the civil commotions were settled by the accession of Claudius to the empire in 268. He found the Roman force so exhausted, that, when marching against the Goths, he wrote to the senate in the following terms: “If I should not be attended with success, you will remember that I fight after the reign of Gallienus. The whole empire is quite spent and exhausted, partly by him, and partly by the many tyrants who, during his reign, usurped the sovereignty, and laid waste our provinces. We want even shields, swords and spears.” In this miserable plight, however, he gained a most extraordinary victory; three hundred thousand of the enemy being killed or taken. But, while Claudius thus carried on the work of death successfully against the barbarians, he was attacked from a quarter where he could make no resistance: a violent plague broke out in his army, and carried off himself and a vast number of his men. The dreadful defeat given to the Goths did not long preserve the tranquillity of the empire. New invasions took place, and new massacres ensued. At last, on the accession of Dioclesian to the empire, it was thought proper, on account of the present emergences, to divide such wide-extended territories into four parts, to be governed by four emperors of equal authority. By the activity and valour of these, particularly of one of them, named Galerius, the northern barbarians were repressed, and the Persians reduced so low, that they were obliged to yield up a great part of their territories; and it is said that their country might even have been reduced to a Roman province, had the emperor so inclined. We know not whether, in his eastern expedition, the Roman army received any infection, nor do we hear of any plague breaking out in it; but we are told that Galerius himself died of an uncommon distemper; an ulcer, attended with mortifications, violent pains, and the production of an infinite number of vermin, which devoured and tormented him day and night. This distemper, however, seems rather to have been a cancer than a pestilential disorder, as he laboured under it for more than a year. After his death, dreadful wars continued, both by reason of the incursions of barbarians, and the contests of those who enjoyed, or wished to enjoy, the empire. The eastern parts, however, had for some time kept free from pestilential contagion; of which the christian writers say, that Maximin, who reigned there, had made his boast; and, being a heathen, ascribed it to the care he took of preserving the worship of the gods. But, if this was really the case, he soon found his gods unable to protect him; for, soon after the accession of Constantine the great, and his embracing christianity, the dominions of Maximin were afflicted with famine accompanied with pestilence, and that attended by symptoms of a most extraordinary nature; particularly ulcers about the eyes, which rendered multitudes of those who were infected with the distemper totally blind.