[26] Diocletian became emperor of Rome in the year 284, and shortly after associated Maximian with himself in the imperial government. In the division of the empire, Diocletian received the eastern portion, including Thrace, Egypt, Syria, and Asia--the territory of which Constantinople was afterwards the capital, though he made his capital in Nicomedia. This emperor is infamous from his severe persecution of the Christians 303–305. In the latter year he abdicated, compelling Maximian to do the same, and spent the remainder of his life in the cultivation of his gardens in Dalmatia. To the successors of this man, the popes as head of the Church that had suffered so signally by the cruelty of the imperial persecution, did abject homage. [27] Lancashire contains 1,887 square miles. [28] Silentiary is defined one who is sworn not to divulge the secrets of the state; hence, a privy councillor. [29] The exarchate was the dominion of the vicegerent of the Byzantine emperor in Italy. Justinian originally conferred the title of exarch upon his commander-in-chief Narses, who reconquered Italy from the Goths and established his seat of government at Ravenna. The extent of the exarchate was gradually diminished by the varying fortunes of wars, until it comprised only a small district about Ravenna. [30] The word Pentapolis means “the five cities,” and in different countries refers to various celebrated groups. In Italy the group included Rimini, Ancona, Fano, Pesaro, and Sinigaglia, with part of the exarchate of Ravenna. [31] “One of the most interesting caves is that of Moustier (Perigord).... It has yielded remains of hyena, cave-bear, and mammoth, with flint implements.... From the caves of Perigord and some of those in the Pyrenees have come the most numerous and best finished examples of carved and engraved horns, and bones, and ivory.”--Geikie, _Prehistoric Europe_, p. 111. [32] See p. 104. [33] The Monk of St. Gall (Monachus Sangallensis) is by some supposed to be Notker, surnamed Balbulus (the Stammerer), who lived about 840–912. He was famous as a hymn writer and the inventor of that peculiar kind of hymn called “sequence.” The book, whether its author be Notker or a fellow monk, was written about the year 883, and is valuable not only for its anecdotes--some of which are doubtless legendary--but because it gives the popular opinion of Charlemagne that prevailed at the time the book was written, three quarters of a century after the king’s death.