Diocletian Totally Explained

Everything about Diocletian totally explained

Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus (ca. December 22 244 The modern historian Timothy Barnes takes December 22 as his birthdate, but other historians are not so certain. Diocles' parents were of low status, and writers critical of him claimed that his father was a scribe or a freedman of the senator Anullinus, or even that Diocles was a freedman himself. The first forty years of his life are mostly obscure. The Byzantine chronicler Joannes Zonaras states that he was Dux Moesiae, a commander of forces on the lower Danube. The unreliable Historia Augusta states that he served in Gaul, where he received an omen of his future rule, but this statement isn't corroborated by other sources. In 282, the legions of the upper Danube in 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 soon gained Carus' trust, for Carus declared him commander of the Protectores Domestici, the cavalry arm of the imperial bodyguard.
Carus, already sixty, wished to establish a dynasty; he 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 embroiled in 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 Persians, 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 took the title Persici maximi. Carus died in July or early August, reportedly struck by lightning.

Rise to power

Death of Numerian

Carus' death left his unpopular sons Numerian and Carinus as the new Augusti. Carinus quickly made his way to Rome from Gaul, and arrived by January 284; Numerian lingered in the East. The Roman retreat from Persia was orderly and unopposed, for the Persian King, Bahram II, was still struggling to establish his authority. By March 284 Numerian 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 there. After Emesa, Numerian's staff, including the prefect Aper, reported that Numerian suffered from an inflammation of the eyes, and had to travel in a closed coach. When the army reached Bithynia,
Aper officially broke the news in Nicomedia (İzmit) in November. Numerianus' generals and tribunes called a council for the succession, and chose Diocles as emperor, in spite of Aper's attempts to garner support. On November 20 284, the army of the east gathered on a hill three miles outside Nicomedia. The army unanimously saluted their new Augustus, and Diocles accepted the purple imperial vestments. He raised his sword to the light of the sun, and swore an oath declaiming responsibility for Numerian's death. He asserted that Aper had killed Numerian and concealed it. In full view of the army, Diocles drew his blade and killed Aper. Soon after Aper's death, Diocles changed his name to the more Latinate "Diocletianus", fully Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus.

Conflict with Carinus

After his accession, Diocletian and Lucius Caesonius Bassus were named as consuls. They assumed the fasces in place of Carinus and Numerianus. Bassus was a member of a Campanian senatorial family, a former consul and a proconsul of Africa. He had been 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 as consul 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 the empire's senatorial and military aristocracies. It also tied his success to that of the Senate, whose support he'd need in an advance on Rome.
Diocletian wasn't the only challenger to Carinus' rule; the usurper M. Aurelius Julianus, Carinus' corrector Venetiae, controlled northern Italy and Pannonia. Julianus took power following Diocletian's accession. He minted coins from the mint at Siscia (Sisak, Croatia) declaring himself as emperor and promising freedom. It was all good press for Diocletian, and aided in his portrayal of Carinus as a cruel and oppressive tyrant. Julianus' forces were weak, however, and were handily dispersed when Carinus' armies moved from Britain to northern Italy. With the East under control, Diocletian was clearly a greater threat. Over the winter of 284–5, Diocletian advanced west across the Balkans. In the spring, some time before the end of May, his armies met 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. His rule was unpopular; it was subsequently alleged that Carinus had mistreated the Senate and seduced the wives of his officers. It is possible that Flavius Constantius, the governor of Dalmatia and Diocletian's associate in the household guard, had already defected to Diocletian in the early spring. When the Battle of the Margus began, Carinus' prefect Aristobulus also defected. In the course of the battle, Carinus was killed by his own men. Following Diocletian's victory, both the western and the eastern armies acclaimed him emperor. Diocletian exacted an oath of allegiance from the defeated army and departed for Italy.

Early rule

Diocletian may have become involved in battles against the Quadi and Marcomanni immediately after the Battle of the Margus. He eventually made his way to northern Italy and made an imperial government, but it isn't known whether Diocletian visited the city of Rome at this time. There is a contemporary issue of coins suggestive of an imperial adventus (arrival) for the city, but some modern historians state that Diocletian avoided the city, and that he did so on principle; the city and its Senate were no longer politically relevant to the affairs of the empire, and needed to be taught as much. Diocletian dated his reign from his elevation by the army, not the date of his ratification by the Senate. If Diocletian ever did enter Rome, he didn't stay long; he's attested back in the Balkans by November 2 285, on campaign against the Sarmatians.
Diocletian replaced the prefect of Rome with his consular colleague Bassus. Most officials who had served under Carinus, however, retained their offices under Diocletian. In an act the epitomator Aurelius Victor denotes as unusual act of clementia, Diocletian didn't kill or depose Carinus' traitorous praetorian prefect and consul Ti. Claudius Aurelius Aristobulus, but confirmed him in both roles, and later gave him the proconsulate of Africa and the rank of urban prefect. The other figures who retained their offices might have also betrayed Carinus.

Maximian made co-emperor

Recent history had demonstrated that sole rulership was dangerous to the stability of the empire. The assassinations of Aurelian (r. 270–275) and Probus testified to that truth. Conflict boiled in every province of the empire, from Gaul to Syria, from Egypt to the lower Danube. It was too much for a single person to control, and Diocletian needed a lieutenant. At some time in 285 at Mediolanum (Milan, Italy), Diocletian raised his fellow-officer Maximian to the office of Caesar, making him co-emperor.
The concept of dual rulership was nothing new to the Roman Empire. Augustus, the first emperor (r. 27 BC–AD 14), 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 had ruled together, albeit unsuccessfully. Diocletian was in a less comfortable position than most of his predecessors, as he'd a daughter, Valeria, but no sons. His co-ruler had to be from outside his family. He could not, therefore, be easily trusted. Some historians state that Diocletian, like some emperors before him, adopted Maximian as his filius Augusti, his "Augustan son", upon his appointment to the throne. This argument hasn't been universally accepted.
The relationship between Diocletian and Maximian was quickly couched in religious terms. Circa 287 Diocletian assumed the title Iovius, and Maximian assumed the title Herculius. 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 act as Jupiter's heroic subordinate. For all their religious connotations, the emperors were not "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 gods' representatives, effecting their will on earth. The shift to divine sanctification from military acclamation took the power to appoint emperors away from the army. Divine legitimization was what separated Diocletian and Maximian from potential rivals, more than mere military power or dynastic claims. After his acclamation, Maximian was dispatched to fight the rebel Bagaudae in Gaul. Diocletian returned to the East.

Conflict with Sarmatia and Persia

Diocletian progressed slowly. By November 2, he'd only reached Citivas Iovia (Botivo, near Ptuj, Slovenia). In the Balkans during the autumn of 285, he encountered a tribe of Sarmatians who demanded assistance from the emperor. The Sarmatians requested that Diocletian either help them recover their lost lands or grant them pasturage rights within the empire. Diocletian refused and fought a battle with them, but was unable to secure a complete victory. The nomadic pressures of the European Plain remained, and couldn't be solved by a single war; soon the Sarmatians would have to be fought again. He wintered in Nicomedia. There may have been a revolt in the eastern provinces at this time, because Diocletian is brought settlers from Asia to populate emptied farmlands in Thrace. He visited Judea the following spring. Presumably, he returned to spend the following winter in Nicomedia. Diocletian's stay in the East saw diplomatic success in the conflict with Persia: in 287, Bahram II 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.
Around the same time, perhaps in 287, Persia relinquished claims on 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 Roman client, had been disinherited and forced to take refuge in the Roman empire after the Persian conquest of 252/3. In 287, he returned to lay claim to the eastern half of his ancestral domain. He encountered no opposition. Bahram II's gifts were widely recognized as symbolic of a victory in the ongoing conflict with Persia; Diocletian was hailed as the "founder of eternal peace". The events might have represented a formal end to Carus' eastern campaign, which probably ended without an acknowledged peace. At the conclusion of discussions with the Persians, Diocletian re-organized the Mesopotamian frontier and fortified the city of Circesium (Buseire, Syria) the Euphrates.

Maximian made Augustus

Maximian's campaigns were not proceeding as smoothly. The Bagaudae had been easily suppressed, but Carausius, the man he'd put in charge of operations against Saxon and Frankish pirates on the Saxon Shore, had begun keeping the goods seized from the pirates for himself. Maximian issued a death-warrant for his larcenous subordinate. Carausius fled the Continent, proclaimed himself Augustus, and spurred Britain and northwestern Gaul into open revolt against Maximian and Diocletian. Spurred by the crisis, on April 1 286, Maximian took up the title of Augustus. Maximian's appointment is unusual in that it was impossible for Diocletian to have been present 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. Although this suggestion is unpopular, it's clear that Diocletian meant for Maximian to act with a certain amount of independence from Diocletian. Maximian realized that he couldn't 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 prepared a fleet for an expedition against Carausius, Diocletian returned from the East to meet Maximian. The two emperors agreed on a joint campaign against the Alamanni. Diocletian invaded Germania through Raetia while Maximian progressed from Mainz. Each emperor burned crops and food supplies as he went, destroying the Germans' means of sustenance. The two men added territory to the empire and allowed Maximian to continue preparations against Carausius without further disturbance. On his return to the East, Diocletian managed what was probably another rapid campaign against the resurgent Sarmatians. No details survive, but surviving inscriptions indicate that Diocletian took the title Sarmaticus Maximus after 289.
   In the East, Diocletian engaged in diplomacy with desert tribes in the regions between Rome and Persia. He might have been attempting to persuade them to ally themselves with Rome, thus reviving the old, Rome-friendly, Palmyrene sphere of influence, or simply attempting to reduce the frequency of their incursions. No details survive for these events. Some of the princes of these states were Persian client kings; a disturbing fact in light of increasing tensions with that kingdom. In the West, Maximian lost the fleet built in 288 and 289, probably in the early spring of 290. The panegyrist who refers to the loss suggests that its cause was a storm, but this might simply be the panegyrist's attempt to play down the embarrassment of defeat. Diocletian broke off his tour of the Eastern provinces soon thereafter. 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 Milan in the winter of 290–1, either in late December 290 or January 291. The meeting was undertaken with a sense of solemn pageantry. The emperors spent most of their time in public appearances. It has been surmised that the ceremonies were arranged to demonstrate Diocletian's continuing support for his faltering colleague. The choice of Milan over Rome further snubbed the capital's pride. The panegyric detailing the events implies that the true center of the empire isn't Rome, but where the emperor sits: "...the capital of the Empire appeared to be there, where the two emperors met." Decisions on matters of politics and war were most likely made, but they were made in secret. The Augusti wouldn't meet again until 303. In the spring of 293, in either Philippopolis (Plovdiv, Bulgaria) or Sirmium, Diocletian would do the same Galerius, husband to Diocletian's daughter Valeria, and perhaps Diocletian's praetorian prefect. Constantius was assigned Gaul and Britain. Galerius was assigned Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and responsibility for the eastern borderlands.
   This arrangement is called the Tetrarchy, from a Greek term meaning "rulership by four". The Tetrarchic emperors were more or less sovereign in their own lands, and they travelled with their own imperial courts, administrators, secretaries, and armies. They were joined by blood and marriage; Diocletian and Maximian now styled themselves as brothers. The senior co-emperors formally adopted Galerius and Constantius as sons in 293. These relationships implied a line of succession. Galerius and Constantius would become Augusti after Diocletian and Maximian's departure. Maximian's son Maxentius, and Constantius' son Constantine would then become Caesars. In preparation for their future roles, 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 Galerius from Sirmium to Byzantium (Istanbul, Turkey). Diocletian then returned to Sirmium, where he'd remain for the following winter and spring. He campaigned against the Sarmatians again in 294, probably in the autumn, and won a victory against them. The defeat kept the Sarmatians from the Danube provinces for a long time. He built forts north of the Danube, at Aquincum (Budapest, Hungary), Bononia (Vidin, Bulgaria), Ulcisia Vetera, Castra Florentium, Intercisa (Dunaújváros, Hungary), and Onagrinum (Begeč, Serbia). The new forts became part of a new defensive line called the Ripa Sarmatica. In 295 and 296 Diocletian campaigned in the region again, and won a victory over the Carpi in the summer of 296. By the end of his reign, Diocletian had secured the entire length of the Danube, provided it with forts, bridgeheads, highways, and walled towns, and sent fifteen or more legions to patrol the region. The defense came at a heavy cost, but was a significant achievement in an area difficult to defend.
Galerius, meanwhile, was engaged in disputes in Upper Egypt. He would return to Syria in 295 to fight the revanchist Persian Empire. Diocletian's attempts to bring the Egyptian tax system in line with imperial standards stirred discontent, and a revolt swept the region after Galerius' departure. The usurper L. Domitius Domitianus declared himself Augustus in July or August 297. Much of Egypt, including Alexandria, recognized his rule. Diocletian moved into Egypt to suppress him, first putting down rebels in the Thebaid in the autumn of 297, by which time Diocletian had secured control of the Egyptian countryside. Alexandria, whose defense was organized under Diocletian's former corrector Aurelius Achilleus, held out until a later date, probably March 298.
Bureaucratic affairs were completed during Diocletian's stay: a census took place, and Alexandria, in punishment for its rebellion, lost the ability to mint independently. Diocletian's reforms in the region, combined with those of Septimus Severus, brought Egyptian administrative practices much closer to Roman standards. Diocletian travelled south along the Nile the following summer, where he visited Oxyrhynchus and Elephantine.

War with Persia

Invasion, counterinvasion

In 294, Narseh, a son of Shapur who had been passed over for the Sassanid succession, came to power in Persia. Narseh eliminated Bahram III, a young man installed in the wake of Bahram II's death in 293. In early 294, Narseh sent Diocletian the customary package of gifts between the empires, and Diocletian responded with an exchange of ambassadors. Within Persia, however, Narseh was destroying every trace of his immediate predecessors from public monuments. He sought to identify himself with the warlike kings Ardashir (r. 226–41) and Shapur (r. 241–72), the same Shapur who had sacked Roman Antioch and skinned the Emperor Valerian (r. 253–260) to decorate his war temple.
Narseh declared war on Rome in 295 or 296. He appears to have first invaded western Armenia, where he seized the lands delivered to Tiridates in the peace of 287. Narseh moved south into Roman Mesopotamia in 297, where he inflicted a severe defeat on Galerius in the region between Carrhae (Harran, Turkey) and Callinicum (Ar-Raqqah, Syria) (and thus, the historian Fergus Millar notes, probably somewhere on the Balikh river). Diocletian may or may not have been present at the battle, but he'd divest himself of all responsibility in a ceremony soon afterwards at Antioch. The official version of events was made clear: Diocletian blamed Galerius for the defeat. Diocletian forced Galerius to walk a mile in advance of his imperial cart while still clad in the purple robes of an emperor. Galerius was reinforced, probably in the spring of 298, by a new contingent collected from the empire's Danubian holdings. Narseh didn't advance from Armenia and Mesopotamia, leaving Galerius to lead the offensive in 298 with an attack on northern Mesopotamia via Armenia. It is unclear if Diocletian was present to assist the campaign; he might have returned to Egypt or Syria. 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. In two battles, Galerius won major victories over Narseh. During the second encounter, Roman forces seized Narseh's camp, his treasury, his harem, and his wife. Galerius continued moving down the Tigris, and took the Persian capital at Ctesiphon before returning to Roman territory along the Euphrates.

Peace negotiations

Narseh sent an ambassador to Galerius to plead for the return of his wives and children in the course of the war, but Galerius had dismissed him. Serious peace negotiations began in the spring of 299. Diocletian and Galerius' magister memoriae (secretary) Sicorius Probus was sent to Narseh to present terms. The conditions of the peace were heavy; Armenia 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 (Carduene), 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.
A stretch of land containing the later strategic strongholds of Amida (Diyarbakır, Turkey) and Bezabde came under firm Roman military occupation. 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. 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 state that it was Galerius, not Diocletian, who was the prime supporter of the purge, and its greatest beneficiary. Galerius, even more devoted and passionate than Diocletian, saw political advantage in the politics of persecution. He was willing to break with a government policy of inaction on the issue.
Antioch was Diocletian's primary residence from 299 to 302. He visited Egypt once, over the winter of 301–2, and issued a grain dole in Alexandria. 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. Manichaeanism was also supported by Persia at the time, compounding religious dissent with international politics. Excepting Persian support, the reasons why he disliked Manichaenism were equally applicable, if not more so, to Christianity, his next target.

Great Persecution

Diocletian returned to Antioch in the autumn of 302. He ordered that the deacon Romanus of Caesarea have his tongue removed for defiling the order of the courts and interrupting official sacrifices. Romanus was then sent to prison, where he was executed on November 17 303. The arrogance of this Christian displeased Diocletian, and he left the city for Nicomedia in the winter, accompanied by Galerius. According to Lactantius, Diocletian and Galerius entered into an argument over imperial policy towards Christians while wintering at Nicomedia in 302. Diocletian argued that forbidding Christians from the bureaucracy and military would be sufficient to appease the gods, but Galerius pushed for extermination. The two men sought the advice of the oracle of Apollo at Didyma. The oracle responded that "the just on earth" hindered Apollo's ability to provide advice. 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 acceded to demands for universal persecution.
On February 23 303, Diocletian ordered that the newly built church at Nicomedia be razed. He demanded that its scriptures be burned, and seized its precious stores for the treasury. The next day, Diocletian's first "Edict against the Christians" was published. The edict 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 anyway, and the palace eunuchs Dorotheus and Gorgonius were executed. One individual, Peter, was stripped, raised high, and scourged. Salt and vinegar were poured in his wounds, and he 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 for Rome, declaring Nicomedia unsafe. Constantius and Maximian didn't apply the later provisions of the persecution, and left the Christians of the West unharmed. Galerius rescinded the edict in 311, announcing that the persecution had failed to bring Christians back to traditional religion. Within twenty-five years of the persecution's inauguration, the Christian emperor Constantine would rule the empire alone. He would reverse the consequences of the edicts, and return all confiscated property to Christians. Under Constantine's rule, Christianity would become the empire's preferred religion.

Later life

Illness and abdication

Diocletian entered the city of Rome in the early winter of 303. On November 20, he celebrated, with Maximian, the twentieth anniversary of his reign (vicennalia), the tenth anniversary of the Tetrarchy (decennalia), and a triumph for the war with Persia. Diocletian soon grew impatient with the city. It didn't give enough deference to his supreme authority; it expected him to act the part of an aristocratic ruler, not a monarchic one. On December 20 303, Diocletian cut short his stay in Rome and left for the north. He didn't even perform the ceremonies investing him with his ninth consulate; he did them in Ravenna on January 1 304 instead. There are suggestions in the Panegyrici Latini and Lactantius' account that Diocletian arranged plans for his and Maximian's future retirement of power in Rome. Maximian, according to these accounts, swore to uphold Diocletian's plan in a ceremony in the temple of Jupiter.
   From Ravenna, Diocletian left for the Danube. There, possibly in Galerius' company, he took part in a campaign against the Carpi.
   Galerius arrived in the city later in March. According to Lactantius, he came armed with plans to reconstitute the Tetrarchy, force Diocletian to step down, and 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'd done the same to Maximian at Sirmium. 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, 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. He thus became the first Roman emperor to voluntarily abdicate his title.
   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 announced that he was to resign, the entire crowd turned to face Constantine. It wasn't to be: Severus and Maximin were declared Caesars. Maximin appeared and took Diocletian's robes. On the same day, Severus received his robes from Maximian in Milan. Constantius succeeded Maximian as Augustus of the West, but Constantine and Maxentius were entirely ignored in the transition of power. This didn't bode well for the future security of the Tetrarchic system.

Retirement and death

Diocletian retired to his homeland, Dalmatia. He moved into the expansive palace he'd built on the Adriatic near the administrative center of Salona. Maximian retired to villas in Campania or Lucania. Their homes 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 people 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 in his palace gardens. He saw his Tetrarchic system implode, torn by the selfish ambitions of his successors. He heard of Maximian's third claim to the throne, his forced suicide, his damnatio memoriae. In his own palace, statues and portraits of his former companion emperor were torn down and destroyed. Deep in despair and illness, Diocletian may have committed suicide. He died on December 3 311. He arrogated, regimented and centralized political authority on a massive scale. In his policies, he enforced an imperial system of values on a diverse and sometimes unwilling provincial audience. In the imperial propaganda from the period, recent history is perverted and minimized in the service of the theme of the Tetrarchs as "restorers". Aurelian's achievements are ignored, the revolt of Carausius is backdated to the reign of Gallienus, and it's implied that the Tetrarchs engineered Aurelian's defeat of the Palmyrenes; the period between Gallienus and Diocletian is effectively erased. The history of the empire before the Tetrarchy is portrayed as a time of civil war, savage despotism, and imperial collapse. In those inscriptions that bear their names, Diocletian and his companions are referred to as "restorers of the whole world", men who succeeded in "defeating the nations of the barbarians, and confirming the tranquility of their world". Diocletian was written up as the "founder of eternal peace". The theme of restoration was conjoined to an emphasis on the uniqueness and accomplishments of the Tetrarchs themselves. A new style of ceremony was developed, emphasizing 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, and forbade the use of purple cloth to all but the emperors. His subjects were required to prostrate themselves in his presence (adoratio); the most fortunate were allowed the privilege of kissing the hem of his robe (proskynesis, προσκύνησις). Circuses and basilicas were designed with to keep the face of the emperor perpetually in view, and always in a seat of authority. The emperor became a figure of transcendent authority, a man beyond the grip of the masses. His every appearance was stage-managed. This style of presentation wasn't new—many of its elements were first seen in the reigns of Aurelian and Severus—but it was only under the Tetrarchs that it was refined and made into an explicit system.

Administrative

In keeping with his move from an ideology of republicanism to one of autocracy, Diocletian's council of advisers, his consilium, differed from those of earlier emperors. He destroyed the Augustan illusion of imperial government as a cooperative affair between emperor, army, and Senate. In its place he established an effectively autocratic structure, a shift later epitomized in the institution's name: it would become a consistorium ("consistory"), not a council. Diocletian regulated his court by distinguishing separate departments (scrina) for different tasks. From this structure came the offices of different magistri, like the Magister officiorum ("Master of offices"), and associated secretariats. These were men suited to dealing with petitions, requests, correspondence, legal affairs, and foreign embassies. Within his court Diocletian maintained a permanent body of legal advisers, men with significant influence on his re-ordering of juridical affairs. There were also two finance ministers, dealing with the separate bodies of the public treasury and the private domains of the emperor, and the praetorian prefect, the most significant person of the whole. Diocletian's reduction of the Praetorian Guards to the level of a simple city garrison for Rome lessened the civil powers of the office, but the office retained great power. The prefect kept a staff of hundreds and managed affairs in all segments of government: in taxation, administration, jurisprudence, and minor military commands, the praetorian prefect was often second only to the emperor himself.
For a more efficient collection of taxes and supplies, and to ease the enforcement of the law, Diocletian doubled the number of provinces from fifty to almost one hundred. The provinces were grouped into twelve dioceses, each governed by an appointed official called a vicarius, or "deputy of the praetorian prefects". Some of the provincial divisions required revision, and were modified either soon after 293 or early in the fourth century. The dissemination of imperial law to the provinces was facilitated under Diocletian's reign, because Diocletian's reform of the empire's provincial structure meant that there were now a greater number of governors ruling over smaller regions and smaller populations. Diocletian's reforms shifted the governors' main function to that of the presiding official in the lower courts: whereas in the early empire military and judicial functions were the function of governor, and procurators had supervised taxation; under the new system vicarii and governors were responsible for justice and taxation, and a new class of duces ("dukes"), acting independently of the civil service, had military command. These dukes sometimes administered two or three of the new provinces created by Diocletian, and had forces ranging from two thousand to more than twenty thousand men.

Legal

As with most emperors, much of Diocletian's daily routine rotated around legal affairs, responding to appeals and petitions, and delivering decisions. Rescripts, authoritative interpretations issued by the emperor in response to demands from disputants in both public and private cases, were a common duty of second- and third-century emperors. Diocletian was awash in paperwork, and was nearly incapable of delegating his duties. It would have been seen as a dereliction of duty to ignore them. Diocletian's praetorian prefects—Afranius Hannibalianus, Julius Asclepiodotus, and Flavius Constantius—aided in regulating the flow and presentation of such paperwork, but the deep legalism of Roman culture kept the workload heavy. Emperors in the forty years preceding Diocletian's reign hadn't managed these duties so effectively, and their output in attested rescripts is low. Diocletian, by contrast, was prodigious in his affairs: there are over 1,000 rescripts in his name still surviving, and these represent only a small portion of the total issue.
Under the governance of the jurists Gregorius, Aurelius Arcadius Charisius, and Hermogenianus, the imperial government began issuing official books of precedent, collecting and listing all the rescripts that had been issued from the reign of Hadrian (r. 117–138) to the reign of Diocletian. The Codex Gregorianus includes rescripts up to 292, which the Codex Hermogenianus updated with a comprehensive collection of rescripts issued by Diocletian in 293 and 294. They were probably given a looser administrative structure than that imposed on the later compilers of the Codex Theodosianus (438) and Codex Justinianus (529). Their work lacked the rigid structuring of those later codes, and wasn't published in the name of the emperor, but in the names of its compilers. The compilers' codifications were radical in the decentralized Roman legal system. There is a sharp increase in the number of edicts and rescripts produced under Diocletian's rule, a fact that has been read as evidence of the Diocletian's thoroughgoing effort to realign society on terms established by the imperial center.
After Diocletian's reform of the provinces, governors were often referred to by the name iudex, or judge. The governor became responsible for his decisions first to his immediate superiors, as well as to the more distant office of the emperor. It was most likely at this time that judicial records became verbatim accounts of what was said in trial, making it easier to determine bias or improper conduct on the part of the governor. With these records and the empire's universal right of appeal, imperial authorities probably had a great deal of power to enforce behavior standards for their judges. In spite of Diocletian's attempts at reform, the provincial restructuring was far from clear, especially when citizens appealed the decisions of their governors. Proconsuls, for example, were often both judges of first instance and appeal, and the governors of some provinces took appellant cases from their neighbors. It soon became impossible to avoid taking some cases to the emperor for arbitration and judgment.

Military

It is archaeologically difficult to distinguish Diocletian's fortifications from those of his successors and predecessors. The Devil's Dyke, for example, Danubian earthworks traditionally attributed to Diocletian, can't even be securely dated to a particular century. 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 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.
   Lactantius criticized Diocletian for an excessive increase in troop sizes, declaring that "each of the four [Tetrarchs] strove to have a far larger number of troops than previous emperors had when they were governing the state alone". The fifth-century pagan Zosimus, by contrast, praised Diocletian for keeping troops on the borders, rather than keeping them in the cities, as Constantine was held to have done. Both these views had some truth to them, despite the biases of their authors: Diocletian and the Tetrarchs did greatly expand the army, and the growth was mostly in frontier regions, although it's difficult to establish the precise details of these shifts given the weakness of the sources. The army expanded to about 581,000 from a 285 strength of 390,000. The growth was smaller in the East, which only expanded from 253,000 men to 311,000, most of whom manned the Persian frontier. The navy's forces increased from approximately 46,000 to approximately 64,000.
   Diocletian's increases in the size of the civil service and the military forces of his empire meant that the empire's tax burden would also increase, especially given how the military was the largest burden on the imperial budget. The proportion of the adult male population serving in the army increased from roughly 1 in 25 to 1 in 15, an increase judged excessive by some modern commentators. Official troop allowances were kept to low levels, and the mass of troops often resorted to extortion or the taking of civilian jobs. Arrears became the norm for most troops. Many were even given payment in kind in place of their salaries. Were he unable to pay for his enlarged army, there would likely be civil conflict, potentially open revolt. Diocletian was led to devise a new system of taxation. The iugum wasn't a consistent measure of land, but varied according to the type of land and crop, and the amount of labor necessary for sustenance. The caput wasn't consistent either: women, for instance, were often valued at half a caput, and sometimes at other values. Diocletian's reforms also increased the number of financial officials in the provinces: more rationales and magistri privatae are attested under Diocletian's reign than before. These offices were to manage imperial properties and to supervise the collection of revenue. In the interests of securing a generally egalitarian tax system, Italy, which had long been exempt from taxes, was exempt no longer. Save for the city of Rome and a region extending one hundred miles in every direction from the city center (the Suburbicarian dioceses), Italy would now be taxed on the same level as any other province.
   Diocletian's edicts emphasize the common liability of all taxpayers. Public records of all taxes were established to enhance the transparency of the operation, so that taxpayers would know exactly how much their neighbors paid. The position of decurion had long been an honor sought by wealthy aristocrats, but under Diocletian its tax-collecting requirements became much more rigorous. Decurions and the city treasury could be bankrupted if production figures fell. The Roman populace, long accustomed to irregular and ineffective tax collection, went through an uncomfortable period of adjustment to Diocletian's reforms. But even the lower classes were able to pay this burden. The common benefits of the new system were clear: taxes were predictable, regular, and fair, and the population was now free from fear. Citizens of the fourth century, safe behind the frontiers established and paid for by their taxes, no longer had to fear foreign occupation.

Currency and inflation

By the early 280s, market forces had created a stable exchange rate between gold and the copper antoninianus, more or less stablizing commodity prices. The antoninianus, which had become the standard medium of exchange, was valued at one sixty-thousandth the value of a pound of gold. But inflation remained a serious issue. In the wake of a brief period of re-inflation, Diocletian began a more comprehensive reform of the currency in 293. The denarius was dropped from the imperial mints, In the edict, preserved in an inscription from the city of Aphrodisias in Caria (near Geyre, Turkey), it was declared that all debts contracted before September 1 301 would be repaid at the old standards, while all debts contracted after September 1 would be repaid at the new standards. It appears that the edict was made in an attempt to preserve the current price of gold and to keep the empire's coinage on silver, Rome's traditional metal currency.
The Edict on Maximum Prices (Edictum De Pretiis Rerum Venalium in Latin) was issued two to three months after the coinage edict, It is the best-preserved Latin inscription surviving from the Greek East. In the edict, Diocletian declared that the current pricing crisis resulted from the unchecked greed of merchants, and had resulted in turmoil for the mass of common citizens. The language of the edict calls on the people's memory of their benevolent leaders, and exhorts them to enforce the provisions of the edict, and thereby restore perfection to the world. The edict goes on to list in detail over one thousand goods and accompanying retail prices not to be exceeded. Penalties are laid out for various pricing transgressions.
In the most basic terms, the edict was ignorant of the law of supply and demand; it ignored the fact that prices might vary from region to region, or according to product availability, and it ignored the impact of transportation costs in the retail pricing of goods. In the judgment of the historian David Potter, the edict was "an act of economic lunacy". The edict's penalties were applied unevenly across the empire, widely resisted, and eventually dropped, perhaps within a year of the edict's issue. Lactantius has written of the perverse accompaniments to the edict; of goods withdrawn from the market, of brawls over minute variations in price, of the deaths that came when its provisions were enforced. His account may be true, but it seems to modern historians exaggerated and hyperbolic, and the impact of the law is recorded in no other ancient source.

Legacy

The historian A.H.M. Jones observed 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." Diocletian was one of the few emperors of the third and fourth centuries to die naturally, and the first in the history of the empire to retire voluntarily. Once he retired, however, his Tetrarchic system collapsed. Without the guiding hand of Diocletian, the empire frequently broke into civil war. Only in 324, when Constantine alone emerged triumphant, did stability return. Under the Christian Constantine, all of Diocletian's achievements were repudiated. Constantine's rule, however, validated Diocletian's achievements and the autocratic principle he represented: the borders remained secure, in spite of Constantine's large expenditure of forces during his civil wars; the bureaucratic transformation of Roman government was completed; and Constantine made Diocletian's court ceremonies even more extravagant.
Constantine abandoned Diocletian's aim of preserving a stable silver coinage, and minted instead a new gold solidus. Diocletian's paganism was repudiated in favor of an imperially sponsored Christianity; his attempts at controlling prices ignored. But even Christianity became tied to the state structure of the Roman Empire in an autocratic way; Constantine claimed for himself the same close relationship with the Christian God as Diocletian had claimed with Jupiter. Most importantly, Diocletian's tax system was preserved and tightened. Aided by the new state machinery introduced by Diocletian, the Byzantine Empire would last for over one thousand years after his death.

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