Diocletian

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Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus (ca. 244–311), born Diocles (Greek Διοκλής) and known in English as Diocletian, was Roman Emperor from November 20 284 to May 1 305.

Diocletian brought an end to the period popularly known to historians as the "Crisis of the Third Century" (235–84). He established an autocratic government and was responsible for laying the groundwork for the second phase of the Roman Empire, which is known variously as the "Dominate" (as opposed to the Principate instituted by Augustus), the "Tetrarchy", or simply the "Later Roman Empire". Diocletian's reforms fundamentally changed the structure of imperial government and helped stabilize the empire economically and militarily, enabling it to remain essentially intact for another hundred years.

The empire's last systematic persecution of Christianity began late in Diocletian's reign and continued until 311. It was the most serious persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire since the Decian Persecution of 250-251, though, like the latter, it was not pursued with equal vigor in all parts of the Empire.

Early life

Diocletian was probably born near near Salona in Dalmatia (Solin, Croatia), some time around 244, perhaps on December 22. Named Diocles, potentially Diocles Valerius, the child's parents were of low status. Writers hostile to him would later claim that his father was a scribe or a freedman. The first forty years of his life are mostly obscure. Zonaras mentions that he was Dux Moesiae, holding responsibility for defending the lower Danube. In 282, the legions of the upper Danube, of Raetia and Noricum, proclaimed the praetorian prefect M. Aurelius Carus as emperor, beginning a rebellion against what had been the apparently secure government of the emperor Probus. Probus' army, stationed in Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia), decided against fighting Carus, and assassinated Probus instead. Diocles started gaining the new emperor's trust, obtaining the consulship in 283 and the rank of Comes domesticorum, commander of the cavalry arm of the imperial bodyguard.

Carus, already sixty, wishing to establish a dynasty, and possessing the distinct advantage of having two adult sons, immediately elevated his sons Carinus and Numerian to the rank of Caesar. In 283, Carus raised Carinus to the title Augustus, left him in charge of the care of the West, and moved with Numerian, Diocles, and the praetorian prefect Aper to the East, against the Sassanid Empire. The Sassanids had been suffering from a succession dispute since the death of Shapur, and were in no position to oppose Carus' advance. According to Zonaras, Eutropius, and Festus, Carus won a major victory against the unstable empire, taking Seleucia and the Sassanid capital of Ctesiphon (near modern Al-Mada'in, Iraq), cities on opposite banks of the Tigris. In celebration, Carus and his sons each took the title of Persici maximi in celebration, and Carus gave Numerianus the title of Augustus. Carus then died, either in July or early August, reportedly due having been struck by lightning.

Rise to power

Death of Numerian

Carus's death left his unpopular sons Numerian and Carinus as the new Augusti. Carinus quickly made his way to Rome, arriving there by January 284, but Numerian lingered in the east. The retreat from Persia was orderly: the regnant Bahram II was still struggling to establish his authority, and left the Roman troops to withdraw unopposed. By March 284 he had only reached Emesa (Homs) in Syria; by November, only Asia Minor. In Emesa he was apparently still alive and in good health, as he issued the only extant rescript in his name while there. After his stop in Emesa, however, Numerian's staff, including the prefect Aper, began to claim that Numerian was ill, that he was suffering from an inflammation of the eyes, and had to travel in a closed coach. In Bithynia, some of Numerian's soldiers sensed a bad smell emanating from the coach, the kind of smell corpses are known to emanate in the later stages of decay, especially in hot climates. They opened its curtains. Inside, they found Numerian, dead.

Aper officially broke the news in Nicomedia (İzmit) in November. Numerianus' generals and tribunes then called a council for the succession, where they chose Diocles as emperor, despite Aper's attempts to garner their support. On November 20 284, the army of the east gathered on a hill three miles (5 km) outside Nicomedia, the soldiers unanimously saluted their new Augustus. Diocletian accepted the purple vestments of the emperor. He raised his sword to the light the sun, and swore upon oath that Numerian's death happened through no fault of his own: it was Aper that had both committed and concealed the emperor's assassination. In full view of the army, Diocletian drew his blade and plunged it into the helpless Aper, who died on the spot. Following Aper's death, Diocles changed his name to the more Latinate and grand "Diocletianus", fully Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus. This act placed Diocletian in the line of legitimate emperors succeeding Gallienus (r. 253–68).

Conflict with Carinus

In a lesser ceremony following his accession, Diocletian elevated a man called Bassus to be his consular colleague. The two assumed the fasces in place of Carinus and Numerianus. Bassus was a member of a Campanian senatorial family, a man who had previously been consul, proconsul of Africa, and chosen by Probus for signal distinction; he was a man skilled in areas of government where Diocletian, presumably, had no experience. Diocletian's elevation of Bassus to consulship symbolized his rejection of Carinus' government in Rome, his refusal to accept second-tier status to any other emperor, and his willingness to continue the long-standing collaboration between senatorial and military aristocracies. It also tied his success to that of the Senate, whose support he would need in an advance on Rome.

Diocletian was not the sole challenge to Carinus' rule: at the time, the usurper M. Aurelius Julianus, Carinus' corrector Venetiae, was in control of northern Italy and Pannonia. Julianus took control in the period following Numerian's death and Diocletian's accession, printing coins from the mint at Siscia (Sisak, Croatia) establishing himself as emperor and promising freedom. It was all good press for Diocletian, aiding in his presentation of Carinus as a cruel and oppressive tyrant. But Julianus' forces were weak, and he was handily dispersed as Carinus' armies traveled from distant Britain south through northern Italy. Diocletian, as the man to whom the eastern provinces were quickly swearing their allegiance, was clearly the much greater threat. Over the winter months, Diocletian advanced west across the Balkans. In the spring, at some time before the end of May, his armies met those of Carinus across the river Margus (Great Morava) in Moesia. In modern accounts, the site has been located between the Mons Aureus (Seone, west of Smederevo) and Viminacium, near modern Belgrade, Serbia.

Despite having the stronger army, Carinus held the weaker position. Carinus' rule was unpopular, and it is possible that Flavius Constantius, the governor of Dalmatia, had already defected to Diocletian in early spring; certainly, his prefect Aristobulus defected when the battle begun. It was subsequently alleged that Carinus had not only maltreated the Senate and its associated women, but also seduced the wives of his officers. In the course of the ensuing battle, Carinus was killed by his own men, and both western and eastern armies subsequently acclaimed Diocletian emperor. Diocletian exacted an oath of allegiance from the defeated army and moved on.

Early rule

In the immediate period after his defeat of Carinus, Diocletian may have become involved in battles against the Quadi and Marcomanni, preventing him from moving on to Rome. At some time, Diocletian made his way to northern Italy and forced some changes in imperial government, but it is not known with certainty whether Diocletian visited the city of Rome in the ensuing years. There is a contemporary issue of coins that has been argued as suggestive of an imperial adventus (arrival) for the city, but others state that Diocletian avoided the city, and that he did so on principle: the city was simply no longer politically relevant to the affairs of the empire, and its residents needed to be taught as much. If Diocletian ever did enter the city, he did not stay long: he is attested back in the Balkans by November 2 285, on a campaign against the Sarmatians.

While in Italy, Diocletian solidified his rule by providing some favored individuals imperial appointments. He replaced the prefect of Rome with Bassus. Diocletian exercised clemency with those who served under Carinus and Numerianus, some of whom may have betrayed Carinus at the Margus. In an act the epitomator Aurelius Victor denotes as unusual act of clementia, he did not kill or depose Carinus' traitorous praetorian prefect and consul Ti. Claudius Aurelius Aristobulus, but instead confirmed him in both roles, and later gave him the proconsulate of Africa and the rank of urban prefect. Indeed, most officials who had served under Carinus continued their posts under Diocletian.

Maximian made co-emperor

Recent history had demonstrated that sole rulership was dangerous to the stability of the empire, most clearly in the ignominious terminations of of Aurelian (270–275) and Probus. What is more, contemporary imperial concerns stretched across the whole of the empire: conflicts had only recently arisen in every region from Gaul to Syria, from Egypt to the lower Danube. The empire was simply too much for a single administrator to control. Diocletian needed a lieutenant. At some time in 285 in Milan, perhaps July 21, perhaps July 25, Diocletian proclaimed his thirty-four year old fellow-officer Maximian as his Caesar, his co-ruler.

The concept of dual rulership enshrined in Maximian's appointment was nothing new to the Roman Empire. Augustus, the first emperor (r. 27 BC–AD 19), had shared power with his colleagues, and more formal offices of co-emperor had existed from Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180) on. Most recently, the emperor Carus and his sons supplied a model of co-rulership, albeit an unsuccessful one. But Diocletian was in a less comfortable position than most of his predecessors: he could not fall back on dynastic models, as he had a daughter, but no sons. His appointment had to be made outside of his family. It has been argued that Diocletian, like some childless appointees of co-rulers before him, declared Maximian his filius Augusti, his "Augustan son", in a form of symbolic adoption, but this argument has not been universally accepted.

The relationship was quickly couched in religious terms. In c. 287 Diocletian assumed the title Iovius, while Maximian assumed Herculius, titles that would soon appear on their coinage. The titles were probably meant to convey certain characteristics of their associated leaders: Diocletian, in Jovian style, would take on the dominating roles of planning and commanding; Maximian, in Herculian mode, would take on the lesser, but still heroic, role of completing assigned tasks. For all their religious connotations, however, the emperors were not meant to be "gods" in the tradition of the Imperial cult—although they may have been hailed as such in Imperial panegyrics. Instead, they were seen as the representatives of the gods, as the tools effecting the gods' will on earth. Maximian was assigned the government of the West and dispatched to fight the rebel Bagaudae in Gaul. Diocletian returned to the East.

Conflict with Sarmatia and Persia

Diocletian progressed slowly, encountering and defeating Sarmatian raiders in the Balkans in the autumn, before November 2 285. The Sarmatians had demanded assistance from the emperor, requesting that he either help them regain territories now lost to their people, or grant them rights to pasturage within the imperial borders. Diocletian refused, and took them to battle, but, like his predecessors, was unable to eliminate them entirely. The nomadic pressures of the European Plain remained, and could not be solved by a single war. He wintered in Nicomedia, where he is placed by a rescript of March 3 286, the following spring. There may have been a revolt in the eastern provinces at this time, because Diocletian is recorded as having brought settlers from Asia to populate emptied farmlands in Thrace. The following spring, he visited Judea, where he is attested in a rescript of May 31 287. He returned to spend the following winter in Nicomedia. Diocletian earned some diplomatic success in the East: in 287, Bahram II, king of Persia, granted him precious gifts, declared open friendship with the empire, and invited Diocletian to visit him. Roman sources insist that the act was entirely voluntary.

At approximately the same time, Persia ceased laying claim to Armenia and recognized Roman authority over territory to the west and south of the Tigris. The western portion of Armenia was incorporated into the Roman empire and made a province. Tiridates III, Arsacid claimant to the Armenian throne and client of the Roman empire, disinherited and forced to take refuge in the Roman empire after the Persian conquest of 252/3, returned to lay claim to the eastern half of his ancestral domain. He would encounter no opposition. Bahram II's gifts were widely recognized as symbolic of a victory in the ongoing conflict with Persia, and Diocletian was hailed as the "founder of eternal peace". The events might have represented a formal end to Carus' eastern campaign, which may have ended without an acknowledged peace. At the conclusion of discussions with the Persians, the Mesopotamian frontier was re-organized, and Circesium, a city on the Euphrates, was fortified.

Maximian made Augustus

In the West, Maximian's campaigns were not proceeding as smoothly. The Bagaudae had been easily suppressed, but the man he had put in charge of operations against Saxon and Frankish pirates on the Saxon Shore, Carausius had begun keeping the goods secured from the pirates for himself, refusing to relinquish them to either the population at large or the imperial treasury. Spurred by the crisis, on April 1 286, Maximian took up the title of Augustus. Maximian's appointment is made somewhat spectacular by the fact that it was physically impossible for Diocletian to have been on site to witness the event. It has even been suggested that Maximian usurped the title, and was only later recognized by Diocletian in hopes of avoiding civil war. In any case, Maximian played his role with a certain amount of necessary independence from Diocletian.

Following his rise to the office of Augustus, Maximian moved to confront the rebellious governor. Carausius, threatened by his advance, proclaimed himself Augustus, and spurred Britain and northwestern Gaul into open revolt against the central authorities. Maximian realized that he could not immediately suppress the rogue commander, and so, for the whole campaigning season of 287, campaigned against tribes beyond the Rhine instead. The following spring, as Maximian made preparations for dealing with Carausius, Diocletian returned from the East. Meeting at Moguntiacum (Mainz, Germany), the two emperors agreed on a joint campaign against the Alamanni. Diocletian invaded into Germania through Raetia while Maximian progressed from Mainz, each emperor burning crops and foot supplies as they went, destroying the Germans' means of sustenance and denying them their rest. The two men added territory to the empire and allowed Maximian's build-up to proceed without further disturbance. The two emperors met once again before Diocletian returned again to the East. On his way, Diocletian managed what was probably a rapid campaign against resurgent Sarmatians. No details survive, but surviving inscriptions indicate that Diocletian took the title Sarmaticus Maximus after the 289 campaign.

Maximian quickly lost the fleet he raised, probably in the early spring of 290. The panegyrist who refers to the loss suggests that its cause was a storm. This might simply be the panegyrist's attempt to play down the difference between Constantius, who defeated Carausius, and Maximian, who did not. Diocletian broke off a tour of the Eastern provinces soon thereafter, potentially after having received news of Maximian's failure. He might have been attempting to persuade the desert tribes in the regions between Rome and Persia to ally themselves with Rome, reviving the old, Rome-friendly, Palmyrene sphere of influence, but no details survive for these events. He returned with haste to the West, reaching Emesa by May 10 290, and Sirmium on the Danube by July 1 290.

Diocletian met Maximian in Mediolanum (Milan, Italy) in the winter of 290–1, either in late December 290 or January 291. The meeting was undertaken with a sense of solemn pageantry. Much of the emperors' time was spent making public appearances. A deputation from the Roman Senate met with the emperors, renewing that body's infrequent contact with the imperial office. It has been surmised that the ceremonies were arranged to demonstrate Diocletian's continuing support for his faltering colleague. Some matters of politics and war were most likely made, but they were made in secret. The emperors would not meet again until 303.

Tetrarchy

Foundation of the Tetrarchy

Some time after his return, and before 293, the command of the war against Carausius was transfered from Maximian to Constantius. Constantius was a former governor of Dalmatia, husband to Maximian's daughter, Theodora, and a man of military experience stretching back to Aurelian's campaigns against Zenobia (272–73). On March 1 293, Maximian gave Constantius the office of Caesar. On either March 1 or May 21 293, in either Philippopolis (Plovdiv, Bulgaria) or Sirmium, Diocletian would do the same for one Galerius, husband to Diocletian's daughter Valeria, and perhaps Diocletian's praetorian prefect. Constantius was assigned to govern Gaul and Britain. Galerius was assigned Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and responsibility for the eastern borderlands.

With its total of four emperors, this form of government is called the tetrarchy, from a Greek term meaning "rulership by four". The tetrarchic emperors were more or less sovereign in their own lands, travelling with their own imperial courts, administrators, secretaries, and armies. The four emperors were joined by blood and marriage. Diocletian and Maximian styled themselves as brothers, and formally adopted Galerius and Constantius as sons in 293. These relationships implied a certain line of potential heirs, in which the imperial line would move through Maximian to his son Maxentius, and from Constantius to his son Constantine, by way of hereditary succession. In preparation for their future roles, both Constantine and Maxentius were taken to Diocletian's court in Nicomedia.

Conflict in the Balkans and Egypt

Diocletian spent the spring of 293 traveling with the new Caesar of the East, Galerius, from Sirmium to Byzantium (Istanbul, Turkey). Following that excursion, Diocletian returned to Sirmium, where he would remain for the following winter and spring. He campaigned again against the Sarmatians in the campaigning season of 294, probably in the autumn, winning a victory and building forts north of the Danube. In 295 and 296, Diocletian would see further campaigning in the region. He would also win some consolidation over the Danube frontier with a victory over the Carpi in the summer of 296. Galerius, meanwhile, was engaged in disputes in Upper Egypt for the period, and would only return to Syria in 295, just in time to meet a revanchist Persia on the march.

Diocletian's attempts to bring the local tax system in line with imperial standards stirred discontent, and a revolt soon swept the region. The usurper L. Domitius Domitianus had seized authority for himself in July or August 297, or perhaps 296. Much of Egypt, including Alexandria, recognized his rule. Diocletian moved into Egypt to suppress him, first suppressing rebels in the Thebaid in the autumn of 297, then moving on to make a siege on Alexandria. Domitianus died in December 297, by which time Diocletian had secured control of the Egyptian countryside. Alexandria, whose defense was organized under Diocletian's corrector Aurelius Achilleus, held out until a later date, probably March 298.

The following summer, Diocletian traveled south along the Nile, visiting Oxyrhynchus and Elephantine, and reaching Nubia to make peace with the Nobatae and Blemmyes. Under the terms of the peace treaty Rome's borders were moved north to Philae and the two tribes were to receive an annual gold stipend. Some bureaucratic affairs were tied up during Diocletian's stay: a census took place, and Alexandria the ability to mint an independent coinage. Diocletian left Africa quickly after the event, moving from Upper Egypt in September 298 to Syria in February 299, to reconvene with Galerius, newly victorious in his campaign against Persia.

War with Persia

Invasion, counterinvasion

In 294, Narseh, a son of Shapur who had been passed over for the Sassanid succession, came into power in Persia. Narseh probably moved to eliminate Bahram III, a young man installed by a noble named Vahunam in the wake of Bahram II's death in 293. In 295 or 296, Narseh declared war on Rome. He appears to have first invaded western Armenia, retaking the lands delivered to Tiridates in the peace of 287. He would occupy the lands there until the following year. Narseh then moved south into Roman Mesopotamia, where he inflicted a severe defeat on Galerius, then commander of the Eastern forces, in the region between Carrhae (Harran, Turkey) and Callinicum (Ar-Raqqah, Syria). Diocletian may or may not have been present at the battle, but would present himself soon afterwards at Antioch, where the official version of events was made clear: Galerius was to take all the blame for the affair. In Antioch, Diocletian forced Galerius to walk a mile in advance of his imperial cart while still clad in the purple robes of an emperor. The message conveyed was clear: the loss at Carrhae was not due to the failings of the empire's soldiers, but due to the failings of their commander, and Galerius' failures would not be accepted.

Galerius had been reinforced, probably in the spring of 298, by a new contingent collected from the empire's Danubian holdings. Narseh did not advance from Armenia and Mesopotamia, leaving Galerius to lead the offensive in 298 with an attack on northern Mesopotamia via Armenia. Diocletian may or may not have been present to assist the campaign. Narseh retreated to Armenia to fight Galerius' force, to Narseh's disadvantage: the rugged Armenian terrain was favorable to Roman infantry, but unfavorable to Sassanid cavalry. Local aid gave Galerius the advantage of surprise over the Persian forces, and, in two successive battles, Galerius secured victories over Narseh. During the second encounter, Roman forces seized Narseh's camp, his treasury, his harem, and his wife along with it. Narseh's wife would live out the remainder of the war in Daphne, a suburb of Antioch, serving to the Persians as a constant reminder of Roman victory. Galerius advanced into Media and Adiabene, winning continuous victories, most prominently near Erzurum, and securing Nisibis (Nusaybin, Turkey) before October 1 298. He moved down the Tigris, taking Ctesiphon, and gazing onwards to the ruins of Babylon before returning to Roman territory via the Euphrates.

Peace negotiations

Narseh had previously sent an ambassador to Galerius to plead for the return of his wives and children, but Galerius had dismissed this ambassador, reminding him of how Shapur had treated Valerian (r. 253–260), how he had demanded that the skin of the emperor be posthumously removed and kept for public display. The Romans, in any case, treated Narseh's captured family with tact, perhaps seeking to evoke comparisons to Alexander and his beneficent conduct towards the family of Darius III. Peace negotiations began in the spring of 299, with both Diocletian and Galerius presiding. Their magister memoriae (secretary), Sicorius Probus, was sent to Narseh to present terms.

The terms of the peace were heavy: Persia would give up territory to Rome, making the Tigris the boundary between the two empires. Further terms specified that Armenia was returned to Roman domination, with the fort of Ziatha as its border; Caucasian Iberia would pay allegiance to Rome under a Roman appointee; Nisibis, now under Roman rule, would become the sole conduit for trade between Persia and Rome; and Rome would exercise control over the five satrapies between the Tigris and Armenia: Ingilene, Sophanene (Sophene), Arzanene (Aghdznik), Corduene, and Zabdicene (near modern Hakkâri, Turkey). These regions included the passage of the Tigris through the Anti-Taurus range; the Bitlis pass, the quickest southerly route into Persian Armenia; and access to the Tur Abdin plateau. With these territories, Rome would have an advance station north of Ctesiphon, and would be able to slow any future advance of Persian forces through the region. Under the terms of the peace Tiridates would regain both his throne and the entirety of his ancestral claim, and Rome would secure a wide zone of cultural influence in the region. The fact that the empire was able to sustain such constant warfare on so many fronts has been taken as a sign of the essential efficacy of the Diocletianic system and the goodwill of the army towards the tetrarchic enterprise.

Religious persecutions

Early persecutions

At the conclusion of the peace, Diocletian and Galerius returned to Syrian Antioch. At some time in 299, the emperors were engaged in sacrifice and divination in an attempt to predict the future. The haruspices were unable to read the sacrificed animals, and blamed Christians in the imperial household for it. The emperors declared that all members of the court perform an act of sacrifice. Following this, the emperors sent letters to the military command, demanding the entire army to either perform the required sacrifices or else face discharge. Diocletian was conservative in matters of religion, a man faithful to the traditional Roman pantheon and understanding of demands for religious purification, but Eusebius, Lactantius and Constantine each state that it was Galerius, not Diocletian, who was the prime facilitator of the purge, and its prime beneficiary. Galerius, even more devoted and passionate than Diocletian, perhaps saw political advantage in persecutionary politics, and was willing to break with a government policy of inaction on the issue.

Affairs quieted after the initial persecution. Diocletian remained in Antioch for the following three years. He visited Egypt once, over the winter of 301–2, where he began the grain dole in Alexandria. Following some public disputes with Manicheans, Diocletian ordered that the leading followers of Mani be burnt alive along with their scriptures. In a March 31 302 rescript from Alexandria, he declared that low-status Manicheans were to be executed by the blade, and high-status Manicheans were to be sent to work in either the quarries of Proconnesus (Marmara Island, Turkey) or the mines of Phaeno in southern Palestine. All Manichean property was to be seized and deposited in the imperial treasury. Diocletian found much to be offended by in Manichean religion: its novelty, its alien origins, the way it corrupted the morals of the Roman race, and its inherent opposition to long-standing religious traditions. The reasons for which he disliked Manicheanism were equally applicable, if not more so, to Christianity.

Great Persecution

Diocletian returned to Antioch in the autumn of 302, where he ordered that the deacon Romanus of Caesarea have his tongue removed for defiling the order of the courts and interrupting official sacrifices. This being done, Romanus was sent to prison, where he would be executed on November 17 303. The arrogance of this Christian displeased Diocletian, and he left the city and made for Nicomedia for the winter, accompanied by Galerius. According to Lactantius, Diocletian and Galerius entered into an argument over what imperial policy towards Christians should be while wintering at Nicomedia in 302. Diocletian argued that forbidding Christians from the bureaucracy and military would be sufficient to appease the gods, while Galerius pushed for their extermination. The two men sought to resolve their dispute by sending a messenger to consult the oracle of Apollo at Didyma. Upon returning, the messenger told the court that "the just on earth hindered Apollo's ability to speak. These "just", Diocletian was informed by members of the court, could only refer to the Christians of the empire. At the behest of his court, Diocletian finally acceded to demands for universal persecution.

On February 23 303, Diocletian ordered that the newly-built Christian church at Nicomedia be razed, its scriptures set to flame, and its precious stores collected as treasure. The next day, Diocletian's first "Edict against the Christians" was published. This ordered the destruction of Christian scriptures and places of worship across the Empire, and prohibited Christians from assembling for worship. Before the end of February, a fire destroyed part of the imperial palace. Galerius convinced Diocletian that the culprits were Christians, conspirators who had plotted with the eunuchs of the palace. An investigation was commissioned, but no responsible party was found. Executions followed. The palace eunuchs Dorotheus and Gorgonius were eliminated. One individual, a Peter, was stripped, raised high, and scourged. Salt and vinegar were poured in his wounds, and Peter was slowly boiled over an open flame. The executions continued until at least April 24 303, when six individuals, including the bishop Anthimus, were decapitated. A second fire occurred sixteen days after the first. Galerius left the city, declaring it unsafe. Diocletian would soon follow.

Later life

Illness and abdication

The journey from Nicomedia to Rome took most of the remainder of the year. Diocletian entered the city of Rome shortly before November 20 303. On that day, he celebrated, with Maximian, the twentieth anniversary of his reign (vicennalia), the tenth anniversary of the tetrarchy (decennalia), and a triumph for the war against the Persians. Diocletian soon grew impatient with the city. It did not give enough deference to his supreme authority; it expected him to act the part of the aristocratic ruler, not a monarchic one. On December 20 303, Diocletian left Rome without performing the ceremonies investing him with his ninth consulate. He would perform them on January 1 304 in Ravenna. There are suggestions in the Panegyrici Latini and Lactantius that Diocletian arranged plans for his and Maximian's future renunciation of power while in Rome. Maximian, according to these accounts, swore to uphold Diocletian's plan in a ceremony in the temple of Jupiter.

From Ravenna, Diocletian moved on to the Danube. There, potentially in Galerius' company, he took part in a campaign against the Carpi. He contracted a minor illness in the spring on the Danube before his arrival in Nicomedia on August 28. On November 20, he appeared in public to dedicate the opening of the circus beside his palace. Soon after the ceremonies, he collapsed. He became increasingly sick over the winter of 304–5; on December 13, he seemed to have finally died. The city was sent into a mourning from which it was only retrieved by rumors of his continuing life. Some skeptics alleged that Diocletian's death was merely being kept secret until Galerius could come to assume power. When Diocletian at last reappeared in public on March 1 305, he was emaciated and barely recognizable.

Later in March, Galerius arrived in the city. According to Lactantius, he came armed with plans to reconstitute the tetrarchy, force Diocletian to step down, and to fill the imperial office with men compliant to his will. Through coercion and threats, he eventually convinced Diocletian to comply with his plan. Lactantius also claims that he had done the same to Maximian at Sirmium previously. On May 1 305, Diocletian called an assembly of his generals, traditional companion troops, and representatives from distant legions. They met at the same hill, three miles out of Nicomedia, where Diocletian had been proclaimed emperor. In front of a statue of Jupiter, his patron deity, Diocletian addressed the crowd. With tears in his eyes, he told them of his weakness, his need for rest, and his will to resign. He declared that he needed to pass the duty of empire on to someone stronger.

Most in the crowd believed they knew what would follow: Constantine and Maxentius, the only adult sons of a reigning emperor, men who long been preparing to succeed their fathers, would be granted the title of Caesar. Constantine had traveled through Palestine at the right hand of Diocletian, and was present at the palace in Nicomedia in 303 and 305. It is likely that Maxentius received the same treatment. In Lactantius' account, when Diocletian announces that he was to resign, the entire crowd turned to face Constantine. It was not to be: Severus and Maximin were declared Caesars. Maximin appeared at the scene, taking his robes from Diocletian. On the same day, Severus would receive his robes from Maximian in Milan. Constantius succeeded Maximian as Augustus of the West, but Constantine and Maxentius, individuals who had been trained for the position, were entirely ignored in the transition of power. This did not bode well for the future security of the tetrarchic system.

Retirement and death

Diocletian retired to his homeland, to the expansive palace he had built in Dalmatia near the administrative center of Salona on the Adriatic. The regions were distant from political life, but Diocletian and Maximian were close enough to remain in regular contact with each other. Galerius assumed the consular fasces in 308 with Diocletian as his colleague. In the autumn of 308, Galerius again conferred with Diocletian at Carnuntum (Petronell-Carnuntum, Austria). Diocletian and Maximian were both present on November 11 308, to see Galerius appoint Licinius to be Augustus in place of Severus, who had died at the hands of Maxentius. He ordered Maximian, who had attempted to return to power after his retirement, to step down permanently. At Carnuntum Galerius begged Diocletian to return to the throne, to resolve the conflicts that had arisen through Constantine's rise to power and Maxentius' usurpation. Diocletian's reply: "If you could show the cabbage that I planted with my own hands to your emperor, he definitely wouldn’t dare suggest that I replace the peace and happiness of this place with the storms of a never-satisfied greed.

He lived on for three more years, spending his days occupied in his gardens. He would have seen his tetrarchic system collapsing around him, torn by the selfish ambitions of his successors. He would have heard of Maximian's third claim to the throne, his forced suicide, his damnatio memoriae. In his own palace, statues and portraits of the two emperors together were torn down, destroyed. Deep in despair and illness, Diocletian perhaps even personally accelerated the advent of his death. He died on December 3 311.

Reforms

His position secure, a remarkable feat after over fifty years of internal instability that nearly saw the collapse of the Roman Empire (what has become known as the Crisis of the Third Century), Diocletian believed that going forward under the current system of Roman Imperial government was unsustainable. He initiated a number of reforms to prevent a return to the disorder of previous generations and maintain the viability of the Empire. These included splitting the Empire into two in order to be more manageable, creating a new system of Imperial succession, ruling as an autocrat and stripping away any remaining façade of republicanism, and economic reforms aimed at the problem of hyperinflation.

The position of emperor had originally been a dictatorial post carefully disguised as a constitutional monarch. While it drew much of its legitimacy from a complex array of republican titles and practices, with the "Emperor" being the Princeps ("First among equals", hence "Principate"), it drew most of its actual power from command over the legions and the Praetorian Guard. This is reflected in the most important of all Imperial titles, imperator (Supreme Commander), from which the word emperor itself is derived. These arrangements, while awkward at times and followed more closely by some emperors than others, worked for the first two centuries of the empire's existence. However, starting with the reign of Septimius Severus, rulers began to strip away or simply ignore many of the republican conventions, and reigned more as dictators than constitutional monarchs. This process undermined the office's foundations and legitimacy. Diocletian recognized that the title had to be based on something more than simply military force, in order to be more recognized and stable. So he sought to build a new basis for imperial legitimacy in the state religion, with himself as semi-divine monarch and high priest. The old republican title of Pontifex Maximus would begin to take on a new importance.

According to an analysis by Edward Gibbon in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Diocletian did not require such ritual out of vanity. This type of majesty regarding the emperor had existed since the rule of Augustus. However, whereas Augustus disguised it, Diocletian simply displayed it.

Roman Empire under Diocletian

Diocese	Territories
EAST
Oriens	Libya, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Cilicia
Pontus	Cappadocia, Armenia Minor, Galatia, Bithynia
Asia (Asiana)	Asia, Phrygia, Pisidia, Lycia, Lydia, Caria
Thrace	Moesia Inferior, Thrace
Moesia	Moesia Superior, Dacia, Epirus, Macedonia, Thessaly, Achaea, Dardania
WEST
Africa	Africa Proconsularis, Byzacena, Tripolitana, Numidia, part of Mauretania
Hispania	Mauretania Tingitana, Baetica, Lusitania, Tarraconensis
Prov. Viennensis	Narbonensis, Aquitania, Viennensis, Alpes Maritimae
Gallia	Lugdunensis, Germania Superior, Germania Inferior, Belgica
Britannia	Britannia, Caesariensis
Italia	Venetia et Histria, Aemilia et Liguria, Flaminia et Picenum, Raetia, Alpes Cottiae, Tuscia et Umbria, Valeria, Campania et Samnium, Apulia et Calabria, Sicilia, Sardinia et Corsica
Pannonia	Pannonia Inferior, Pannonia Superior, Noricum, Dalmatia

Tetrarchy

Certain styles of imperial display began to shift over the course of the period. Imperial coinage, which had already displayed Maximian and Diocletian as visually similar before 293, began giving all four emperors more rounded features, losing any distinctive traits. The cities where emperors had come to reside so frequently and for such periods of time over the course of the period, cities like Milan, Trier, Arles, Sirmium, Serdica, Thessaloniki, Nicomedia, and Antioch, eventually came to be treated as alternate imperial seats. Of these cities, Milan was Maximian's favored after Constantius set up residence in his former capital of Trier; Diocletian, when not campaigning in the years 293–96, would prefer the comforts of Sirmium; and Galerius probably chose Antioch. The typical tetrarchic residence, like those at Milan, Nicomedia, Aquileia, and Sirmium, would include an imperial palace, and most would contain public circuses and large public baths. The typical tetrarchic palace was a grand structure holding within itself a large basilica for the hosting of public receptions.

Associated with these visual developments came a new style of ceremony, one which emphasized the distinction of the emperor from all other persons; the quasi-republican ideals of Augustus' primus inter pares were abandoned for all but the tetrarchs themselves. Diocletian took to wearing a gold crown and jewels, forbidding the use of the purple cloth to all but the emperors. His subjects would now need to prostrate themselves in his presence (adoratio). Only the most fortunate were allowed the privilege of kissing the hem of his imperial robe (proskynesis, προσκύνησις). The new circuses and basilicas were designed with the intention of keeping the face of the emperor always in view, always in a seat of authority. The emperor became a figure of transcendent authority, a man beyond the grip of the masses. This ideology had first been expressed by the emperor Aurelian, but it was only under the tetrarchs that it was refined and made into an explicit system. The sanctified isolation of the emperor was easy enough to accept for the most: in the East, emperor-gods were an established tradition; beyond the Northern frontiers, tribal leaders better understood heroic leadership than they understood refined diplomacy; in the West, Severus had already established a similar kind of self-portrayal.

Economic reforms

When Diocletian ascended to the throne, the Roman economy was on the verge of dissolution. Five decades of civil war, conflict with Sassanid Persia, politically motivated confiscations of property, and looting of the citizenry by the army had caused widespread impoverishment. Most of the existing taxes, which were traditionally low, already went to pay the army, either in the form of regular pay or generous bonuses meant to ensure loyalty. This left little or no fiscal breathing room. Imperial budgets were crude, when they existed at all, and there were few opportunities to cancel other spending in order to meet sudden expenses. The quickest and easiest solution to this problem was to debase the silver coinage, to "print more money," as it were. This resulted in extreme hyperinflation, mass distrust of imperial coinage, and, in some areas, localized regression to a barter economy. Despite these developments, quality of life for many residents of the empire didn't change significantly. Regions that were free from conflict fared better, naturally, than those which frequently saw the armies march through. Farmers and landlords who had direct access to the empire's agricultural base were not seriously affected by the currency fluctuations.

In 290, Diocletian began a comprehensive reform of the coinage system. In 294, he introduced the argenteus, the first pure silver coin in decades. The follis, a large bronze coin with added silver to provide intrinsic value, was issued for the first time. A new, heavier aureus and several smaller fractions were also introduced. Further, in 301, Diocletian attempted to curb the rampant inflation with his Edict on Maximum Prices. This edict fixed prices for over a thousand goods, fixed wages, and threatened the death penalty to merchants who overcharged. Instead of curbing inflation, the edict's price controls drove goods onto the black market and created shortages. In some areas, the edict was simply ignored, and it was soon withdrawn in failure.

Diocletian increased tax collection and, correspondingly, the size of the Roman civil services. An extensive new tax system based on "heads" (capita) and land (iugatio) was linked to a regular, five-year census conducted beginning in 287. Skilled laborers, local bureaucrats and tenant farmers (coloni) were made hereditary by law in an effort to stabilize both the tax base and the apparatus for tax collection. The position of decurion, very roughly analogous to a mayor, had been an honor sought by wealthy aristocrats during the Principate. While tax collection had always been part of the job description, under Diocletian, its requirements became much more rigorous. Decurions were responsible for producing the taxes dictated by the census data for their area (and for making up the shortfall when they failed to collect from the populace). Whatever benefits the posting may have afforded in earlier times were quickly outweighed by its financial burdens, and many decurions abandoned their posts and fled. If caught, the penalties for this ranged from forfeiture of property to execution. Nor was flight from taxation restricted to the bureaucracy. Lactantius, a contemporary Christian chronicler who was understandably hostile to Diocletian, wrote that because of the new obligations, "There began to be fewer men who paid taxes than there were who received wages; so that the means of the husbandmen being exhausted by enormous impositions, the farms were abandoned, cultivated grounds became woodland, and universal dismay prevailed. Although Lactantius's description undoubtedly contains some exaggeration, it seems equally certain that the Roman populace, long accustomed to irregular and ineffective tax collection, went through an uncomfortable period of adjustment to Diocletian's reforms. Taxes under Diocletian's system remained low by modern standards: usually no more than 10 percent of the agrarian surplus. The ability of the peasant classes to bear this burden is graphically illustrated by the system's longevity; in Anatolia, the tax structure instituted by Diocletian remained largely in place until the end of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century.

Military reforms

It is archaeologically difficult to distinguish Diocletian's fortifications from those of his successors or predecessors. The Danubian earthworks known as the Devil's Dyke, for example, cannot even be securely dated to a particular century, but have still been attributed to Diocletian. The most that can be said about built structures under Diocletian's reign is that he rebuilt forts along the Rhine-Iller-Danube line, in Egypt, and on the frontier with Persia. Beyond that, much discussion is necessarily speculative, and reliant on the broad generalizations of written sources. Diocletian and the tetrarchs had no consistent plan for frontier advancement, and records of raids and forts built across the frontier are likely to indicate only temporary claims. The Strata Diocletiana along the eastern frontier is the classic Diocletianic frontier system, consisting of an outer road followed by tightly-spaced forts followed by further fortifications in the rear.

Diocletian expanded the army from around 400,000 to over 450,000: about two-thirds of the army's strength was frontier forces (limitanei or ripenses); The remainder were in the mobile units that the Augusti and Caesares kept centrally located in their territories (comitatenses). Since they were closer to the centers of power, and therefore more politically dangerous, the mobile troops were better paid than the frontier forces. This proved a cause for resentment and, later on, trouble.

The experience with the vexillatio system led Diocletian to reduce the legions of the field forces to about 1,000 men each, to assure greater strategic and tactical flexibility without the need for detachments. The legions of the frontier were kept at full strength (4,000–6,000 men). Auxiliary units in both mobile and frontier forces were usually 1,000 men each.

Also, under Diocletian the post of Praetorian prefect was greatly reduced in power. Instead, each Augustus and Caesar had two major military commanders, a Magister militum (commander of the infantry) and a Magister Equitum (commander of the cavalry). This not only divided military responsibilities, thus reducing political dangers, but it also acknowledged the increased importance of cavalry in the Roman army.

Many of the military reforms started by Diocletian were continued by his successors and largely completed under Constantine, who abolished the Praetorian Guard, replacing it with a smaller, more controllable personal bodyguard (the Scholae) of about 4,000 men.

Legacy

Overall Diocletian's reforms — in particular those of the military, civil administration, and Roman bureaucracy — were sound and helped to extend the life of the empire for centuries longer. A.H.M. Jones observes that "It is perhaps Diocletian's greatest achievement that he reigned twenty-one years and then abdicated voluntarily, and spent the remaining years of his life in peaceful retirement". However, his Tetrarchy would prove a formula for civil war, as he witnessed before his death. Once he retired, the Tetrarch system collapsed upon itself, with a new, single strong ruler eventually emerging triumphant. The division of the empire into western and eastern halves, eventually led to a permanent split, with the eastern half becoming what historians would later call "the Byzantine Empire". Although the western empire would last only another couple of centuries, the Byzantine Empire, partly through Diocletian's own reforms, would continue in various forms for over one-thousand years.

Although his reign and achievements have been largely overshadowed by Constantine's, they mark an important turning point in Roman history. Diocletian remains one of the more enigmatic and contradictory personalities of history: although he stripped away much of what had remained of the Republic, he would end up in later life acting much as Cincinnatus had, in giving up power for a peaceful retirement.

In the arts

• Aranykoporsó ("Golden casket"), the novel of Ferenc Móra (a Hungarian writer of the early 20th century) is about the last years of Diocletian's reign.
• Henry Purcell's The Prophetess: or, The History of Dioclesian (1690), with a libretto by Thomas Betterton after "The Prophetess" of John Fletcher and Philip Massinger, is freely based on the historical Diocletian.

Notes

References

External links

• Diocletian from the Catholic Encyclopedia.
• 12 Byzantine Rulers, by Lars Brownworth. 15 minute audio lecture on Diocletian.
• Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia By Robert Adam, 1764. Plates made available by the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center. (N.B. "Spalatro" was a less used alternative form of "Spalato", the Italian name for Croatian "Split").

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