To
you they bound themselues by vow, to you they bound their children:
yea and to your children they vowed all the posteritie of their race
and ofspring.
[Sidenote: Dioclesian and Maximian.]
"We trulie (O perpetuall parents and lords of mankind) require
this of the immortall gods with most earnest supplication and heartie
praier, that our children and their children, and such other as shall
come of them for euer hereafter, may be dedicated vnto you, and to
those whom you now bring vp, or shall bring vp hereafter. For what
better hap can we wish to them that shall succeed vs, than to be
enioiers of that felicitie which now we our selues enioy? The Romane
common wealth dooth now comprehend in one coniunction of peace, all
whatsoeuer at sundrie times haue belonged to the Romans, and that huge
power which with too great a burden was shroonke downe, and riuen in
sunder, is now brought to ioine againe in the assured ioints of the
imperiall gouernment. For there is no part of the earth nor region
vnder heauen, but that either it remaineth quiet through feare, or
subdued by force of armies, or at the lestwise bound by clemencie.
And is there anie other thing else in other parts, which if will and
reason should mooue men thereto, that might be obteined? Beyond the
Ocean, what is there more than Britaine, which is so recouered by
[Sidenote: Nations neere to Britaine obeie the emperours.
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