Only the picked group of Imperial Guards Constantine had selected to accompany the Emperor into retirement occupied the top platform besides Diocletian and Carinus, whose duty it would be to read the proclamation connected with the abdication. Constantine commanded the troops, with Dacius as his lieutenant. At his appearance a spontaneous cheer broke out from the crowd lining the slopes of the knoll, for he was very popular in Nicomedia and many of his mother’s kinspeople were from the area around Drepanum. He saw a frown of displeasure crease the forehead of Galerius at this evidence of popular acclaim but did not let it trouble him, for nothing, he was sure, could make the living entombment to which he was going with Diocletian any worse than it already was.
The ceremony began with a sacrifice carried out upon the altar before the pedestal and the statue of Jupiter. When it was finished, Diocletian took his seat upon the throne, with the purple cloak about his shoulders and the pearlset circlet upon his head, while Carinus read the royal proclamation of abdication. It was long and boring as such documents usually were beginning with salutations to the most important of the subject kings present and ending with the announcement of the new Augustus of the East. As the words died away, a detail of trumpeters sounded the “Call of the Emperor” and Galerius, resplendent in ceremonial uniform and armor, rose and dropped his cloak to the throne upon which he had been sitting. Diocletian, meanwhile, had moved away from his own throne so Galerius could take a position before it.
Valerius Maximianus
“Caius Galerius Valerius Maximianus, I name you Augustus of the East in my stead,” Diocletian announced in a voice loud enough for the crowd to hear. “May your hands be more vigorous and more able than mine have been and may Rome ever prosper under your rule.”
A roar came from the people at the words, not so much in pleasure at the crowning of Galerius, for he was not well liked, but because each man knew that if he did not show enthusiasm for the new Augustus, word of his lack might shortly find its way to the ears of the spies who were known to be everywhere.
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