Per idem tempus ā Cōnstantiō Caesare in Galliā bene pūgnātum est. Circā Lingonās diē ūnā adversam et secundam fortūnam expertus est. Nam cum repente barbarīs ingruentibus intrā cīvitātem esset coāctus tam praecipitī necessitate, ut, clausīs portīs, in mūrum fūnibus tollerētur, vix quīnque hōrīs mediīs adventante exercitū sexāgintā ferē mīlia Alamannōrum cecīdit. Maximiānus quoque Augustus bellum in Āfricā prōflīgāvit domitīs Quīnquegentiānīs et ad pācem redāctīs. Dioclētiānus obsessum Alexandrīae Achilleum octāvō ferē mēnse superāvit eumque interfēcit. Victōriā acerbē usus est: tōtam Aegyptum gravibus prōscrīptiōnibus caedibusque foedāvit. Eā tamen occāsiōne ōrdināvit providē multa et disposuit, quae ad nostrum aetātem manent.
notes
Military successes during the reign of Diocletian (298 CE)
ā Cōnstantiō: Constantius Chlorus
bene pūgnātum est: used impersonally (AG 207.d)
Circā Lingonas: "near Langres"
secundam: in contrast to adversam, "favorable" (LS secundus B.3)
expertus est: "he experienced" < experior
esset coāctus: "was forced," > cogo
tam praecipitī necessitate: "with such dire necessity, that..." tam signals the following result clause (AG 537)
vix quīnque hōrīs mediīs: "with scarcely five hours intervening," i.e., "less that five hours later." The phrase is unusual, although medius = "intervening" is classical.
Māximiānus: Maximian
Quīnquegentiānīs: on the Quinquegentiani see the previous chapter.
Alexandrīae: "in Alexandria," locative (AG 427.3)
octāvō ferē mēnse: Diocletian defeated Achilleus in 298 CE.
Victōriā acerbē usus est: "he made harsh use of his victory" (Bird); the deponent verb utor takes an ablative object.
gravibus prōscrīptiōnibus: From the time of Sulla (82 BCE) prōscrīptiō came to mean the sale of the property of those whom he had condemned to death and who were themselves styled proscripti. During the civil strife of the following fifty years, other leaders used the precedent thus established as a means of weakening the opposing party. A famous proscription is that of the Second Triumvirate (43 BCE), under which Cicero was put to death (Harpers, s.v. proscriptio).