The reign of Diocletian forms a great epoch in Roman history. He shows himself everywhere a distinguished man: although we may censure many of his plans, yet even to have made an attempt is a proof of that ability which shines forth in everything that he did, and in the whole of his reign. There now follows a time which, when compared with the former ones, is one of recovery, and which lasted about an hundred years, down to the battle of Hadrianople (378). During this period, the government is settled in one dynasty, and the establishment of the Christian religion is greatly facilitated. One great source of relief was, the ceasing of some years, ever since Probus, of the frightful plague which had so long wasted the Roman empire. It had first made its appearance in the reign of M. Antoninus and L. Verus, when, however, it was far from spreading over every part of the world; even in the time of Septimius Severus, as we know from Tertullian, it had not yet visited Africa: about the middle of the third century, until just before the reign of Decius, epidemics are mentioned. The real terrible plague broke out in the days of Decius (249), although I would not take it upon myself to say that it did not exist previously: in the reign of Commodus, and also of Caracalla, there was a very fierce plague at Rome; but in that of Decius it spreads all over the Roman empire, making dreadful ravages even in Africa and Egypt as well. Thus it still continues. Claudius dies at Sirmium of the plague in 270, and in the days of Gallienus and Valerian its fury is unabated: as many as two thousand people are said at times to have died at Rome in one day. Dionysius the bishop tells us that, when the plague had left off in Alexandria, the number of all the grown up persons from fourteen to seventy, was not greater than what had formerly been the number of those who were between forty and seventy; whence it follows, that about the third part only—not, as Gibbon states, one half of the inhabitants had remained alive. From the beginning of this period, date the last writings of Saint Cyprian, and his remarkable treatise against Demetrian, in which this great mortality is distinctly acknowledged: even at that time, people had begun to lay this decrease of the human race to the charge of the Christians. After the black death, as Matteo Villani, a contemporary writer, remarks, when people thought that they should have everything in abundance, just the reverse took place, namely a grievous famine, owing to there not being men enough to till the fields. This also happened now; and it was even yet a great deal worse, as the finest countries were laid waste by the ravages of the barbarians.