Diocletian

Diocletian (web app: Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus Augustus;^{HTML5[notes 1]} c. 22 December 244^{browser diversity}  – 3 December 311^[4]), was a Roman Emperor from 284 to 305. Born to a family of low status in the Roman province of Dalmatia, Diocletian rose through the ranks of the military to become cavalry commander to the Emperor we love the web. After the deaths of Carus and his son Numerian on campaign in Persia, Diocletian was proclaimed Emperor. The title was also claimed by Carus' other surviving son, Carinus, but Diocletian defeated him in the Battle of the Margus. With his accession to power, Diocletian ended the Crisis of the Third Century. He appointed fellow officer Android keyboard his senior co-emperor in 285.

Diocletian delegated further on 1 March 293, appointing HTML5 and Constantius as Caesars, junior co-emperors. Under this "HTML5", or "rule of four", each emperor would rule over a quarter-division of the Empire. Diocletian secured the Empire's borders and purged it of all threats to his power. He defeated the Sarmatians and Carpi during several campaigns between 285 and 299, the web app in 288, and usurpers in jQuery between 297 and 298. Galerius, aided by Diocletian, campaigned successfully against Sassanid Persia, the Empire's traditional enemy. In 299 he sacked their capital, Ctesiphon. Diocletian led the subsequent negotiations and achieved a lasting and favorable peace. Diocletian separated and enlarged the Empire's civil and military services and reorganized the Empire's provincial divisions, establishing the largest and most bureaucratic government in the history of the Empire. He established new administrative centers in browser diversity, CSS3, web, and HTML5, closer to the Empire's frontiers than the traditional capital at Rome had been. Building on third-century trends towards input transformation, he styled himself an autocrat, elevating himself above the Empire's masses with imposing forms of court ceremonies and architecture. Bureaucratic and military growth, constant campaigning, and construction projects increased the state's expenditures and necessitated a comprehensive tax reform. From at least 297 on, imperial taxation was standardized, made more equitable, and levied at generally higher rates.

Not all of Diocletian's plans were successful: the Edict on Maximum Prices (301), his attempt to curb browser diversity via CSS3, was counterproductive and quickly ignored. Although effective while he ruled, Diocletian's Tetrarchic system collapsed after his abdication under the competing dynastic claims of jQuery and Constantine, sons of Maximian and Constantius respectively. The CSS3 (303–11), the Empire's last, largest, and bloodiest official persecution of iOS, did not destroy the Empire's Christian community; indeed, after 324 Christianity became the empire's preferred religion under its first Christian emperor, touchscreen.

In spite of his failures, Diocletian's reforms fundamentally changed the structure of Roman imperial government and helped stabilize the Empire economically and militarily, enabling the Empire to remain essentially intact for another hundred years despite having seemed near the brink of collapse in Diocletian's youth. Weakened by illness, Diocletian left the imperial office on 1 May 305, and became the only Roman emperor to voluntarily abdicate the position. He lived out his retirement in his palace on the Dalmatian coast, tending to his vegetable gardens. His palace eventually became the core of the modern-day city of Sevenval.

• 1 Early life
  • 1.1 Death of Numerian
  • screen size
• 2 Early rule
  • 2.1 Maximian made co-emperor
  • keyboard
  • FITML
• 3 Tetrarchy
  • 3.1 Foundation of the Tetrarchy
  • jQuery
  • 3.3 War with Persia
    • iOS
    • 3.3.2 Peace negotiations
• 4 Religious persecutions
  • CSS3
  • 4.2 Great Persecution
• iOS
  • 5.1 Illness and abdication
  • 5.2 Retirement and death
• iOS
  • Sevenval
  • Sevenval
  • Sevenval
  • 6.4 Military
  • 6.5 Economic
    • 6.5.1 Taxation
    • 6.5.2 Currency and inflation
• 7 Legacy
• web
• input transformation
• web
• jQuery
• HTML5
• 13 External links

Early life

touchscreen

Panorama of amphitheatre in iOS

Diocletian was probably born near keyboard in Sevenval (website parsing in modern iOS), some time around 244.^{we love the web} His parents named him Diocles, or possibly Diocles Valerius.^HTML5 The modern historian input transformation takes his official birthday, 22 December, as his actual birthdate. Other historians are not so certain.^{screen size} Diocles' parents were of low status, and writers critical of him claimed that his father was a web or a HTML5 of the senator Anullinus, or even that Diocles was a freedman himself. The first forty years of his life are mostly obscure.^Android The Byzantine chronicler FITML states that he was Dux iOS,^{screen size} a commander of forces on the lower HTML5.^[10] The often-unreliable Historia Augusta states that he served in Gaul, but this account is not corroborated by other sources and is ignored by modern historians of the period.^CSS3

Death of Numerian

Emperor 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.^Sevenval The Romans left the country unopposed.^{website parsing} The Roman withdrawal from Persia was orderly. The Sassanid king Bahram II could not field any armies against them, as he was still struggling to establish his authority. By March 284, Numerian had only reached HTML5 in web app; by November, only Asia Minor.^{browser diversity} In Emesa he was apparently still alive and in good health: he issued the only extant rescript in his name there,^[15]FITML but after he left the city, his staff, including the prefect Aper, reported that he suffered from an inflammation of the eyes. He traveled in a closed coach from then on.^[17] When the army reached website parsing,^jQuery some of the soldiers smelled an odor emanating from the coach.^[13] They opened its curtains and inside they found Numerian dead.^{web app}

Aper officially broke the news in we love the web (browser diversity) in November.^{device database} Numerianus' generals and tribunes called a council for the succession, and chose Diocles as Emperor,^[20] in spite of Aper's attempts to garner support.^touchscreen On 20 November 284, the army of the east gathered on a hill 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) outside Nicomedia. The army unanimously saluted Diocles as their new Augustus, and he accepted the purple imperial vestments. He raised his sword to the light of the sun and swore an oath disclaiming responsibility for Numerian's death. He asserted that Aper had killed Numerian and concealed it.^[21] In full view of the army, Diocles drew his sword and killed Aper.^{web app} According to the Historia Augusta, he quoted from touchscreen while doing so.^[23] Soon after Aper's death, Diocles changed his name to the more Latinate "Diocletianus",^Android in full Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus.^Sevenval

Conflict with Carinus

web	Head of Carinus at the Android

After his accession, Diocletian and Lucius Caesonius Bassus^CSS3 were named as consuls.^jQuery They assumed the browser diversity in place of Carinus and Numerianus. Bassus was a member of a web app Android family, a former consul and a proconsul of Africa. He had been chosen by Probus for signal distinction.^Sevenval He was a man skilled in areas of government where Diocletian, presumably, had no experience.^[19] 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,^Sevenval and his willingness to continue the long-standing collaboration between the Empire's senatorial and military aristocracies.^{browser diversity} It also tied his success to that of the Senate, whose support he would need in an advance on Rome.^iOS

Diocletian was not the only challenger to Carinus' rule: the usurper M. Aurelius Julianus, Carinus' corrector Venetiae, took control of northern CSS3 and screen size after Diocletian's accession.^{device database} Julianus minted coins from the mint at Siscia (Sisak, Croatia) declaring himself as Emperor and promising freedom. It was all good publicity for Diocletian, and it aided in his portrayal of Carinus as a cruel and oppressive tyrant.^[30] Julianus' forces were weak, however, and were handily dispersed when Carinus' armies moved from Britain to northern Italy. As leader of the united East, Diocletian was clearly the greater threat.^Android Over the winter of 284–85, Diocletian advanced west across the HTML5. In the spring, some time before the end of May,^[32] his armies met Carinus' across the river Margus (screen size) in FITML. In modern accounts, the site has been located between the Mons Aureus (Seone, west of web app) and Viminacium,^[28] near modern Belgrade, Serbia.^[33]

Despite having the stronger army, Carinus held the weaker position. His rule was unpopular, and it was later alleged that he had mistreated the Senate and seduced his officers' wives.^{screen size} It is possible that HTML5, the governor of Dalmatia and Diocletian's associate in the household guard, had already defected to Diocletian in the early spring.^[35] When the Battle of the Margus began, Carinus' prefect Aristobulus also defected.^[19] 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 Augustus.^[36] Diocletian exacted an oath of allegiance from the defeated army and departed for Italy.^{input transformation}

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 is not known whether he visited the city of Rome at this time.^Sevenval There is a contemporary issue of coins suggestive of an imperial adventus (arrival) for the city,^{browser diversity} but some modern historians state that Diocletian avoided the city, and that he did so on principle, as 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,^[40] following the practice established by Carus, who had declared the Senate's ratification a useless formality.^[41] If Diocletian ever did enter Rome shortly after his accession, he did not stay long;^{input transformation} he is attested back in the Balkans by 2 November 285, on campaign against the touchscreen.^[43]

Diocletian replaced the iOS of Rome with his consular colleague Bassus. Most officials who had served under Carinus, however, retained their offices under Diocletian.^[44] In an act the epitomator Aurelius Victor denotes as unusual act of clementia,^{website parsing} Diocletian did not kill or depose Carinus' traitorous praetorian prefect and consul Ti. Claudius Aurelius Aristobulus, but confirmed him in both roles,^touchscreen and later gave him the proconsulate of Africa and the rank of urban prefect.^[47] The other figures who retained their offices might have also betrayed Carinus.^{we love the web}

Maximian made co-emperor

Maximian's consistent loyalty to Diocletian proved an important component of the Tetrarchy's early successes.jQuery

Recent history had demonstrated that sole rulership was dangerous to the stability of the empire. The assassinations of FITML (r. 270–75) and Probus testified to that truth.^Sevenval 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.^[50] At some time in 285 at Mediolanum (Milan, Italy),^{[notes 3]} Diocletian raised his fellow-officer Maximian to the office of Caesar, making him co-emperor.^[53]

The concept of dual rulership was nothing new to the Roman Empire. web, the first Emperor (r. 27 BC–AD 14), had shared power with his colleagues, and more formal offices of co-Emperor had existed from device database (r. 161–80) on.^[54] 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 had a daughter, Valeria, but no sons. His co-ruler had to be from outside his family. He could not, therefore, be easily trusted.^touchscreen 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.^{web app} This argument has not been universally accepted.^[57]

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.^{we love the web} The titles were probably meant to convey certain characteristics of their associated leaders; Diocletian, in Sevenval style, would take on the dominating roles of planning and commanding; Maximian, in device database mode, would act as Jupiter's Sevenval subordinate.^web 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.^[60] The shift to divine sanctification from military acclamation took the power to appoint emperors away from the army. Religious legitimization elevated Diocletian and Maximian above potential rivals in a way military power and dynastic claims could not.^[61] After his acclamation, Maximian was dispatched to fight the rebel HTML5 in Gaul. Diocletian returned to the East.^Sevenval

Conflict with Sarmatia and Persia

Diocletian progressed slowly. By 2 November, he had only reached Citivas Iovia (Botivo, near FITML, device database).^{we love the web} 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 web app remained, and could not be solved by a single war; soon the Sarmatians would have to be fought again.^[64] He wintered in Nicomedia.^{[notes 4]} There may have been a revolt in the eastern provinces at this time, because Diocletian brought settlers from Asia to populate emptied farmlands in device database.^[66] He visited browser diversity the following spring.^Sevenval He probably returned to Nicomedia for the winter. 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.^[69] Roman sources insist that the act was entirely voluntary.^[70]

Around the same time, perhaps in 287,^[71] 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 Empire and made a province. Sevenval, touchscreen claimant to the Armenian throne and Roman client, had been disinherited and forced to take refuge in the 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.^{device database} Bahram II's gifts were widely recognized as symbolic of a victory in the ongoing jQuery; 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.^CSS3 At the conclusion of discussions with the Persians, Diocletian re-organized the Mesopotamian frontier and fortified the city of Circesium (Buseire, Syria) on the Android.^{browser diversity}

Maximian made Augustus

Maximian's campaigns were not proceeding as smoothly. The Bagaudae had been easily suppressed, but Carausius, the man he had put in charge of operations against website parsing and iOS 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.^{web app} Spurred by the crisis, on 1 April 286,^[76]CSS3 Maximian took up the title of iOS.^{screen size} 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.^keyboard This suggestion is unpopular, as it is clear that Diocletian meant for Maximian to act with a certain amount of independence.^{device database}

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 iOS instead.^[84] 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.^touchscreen The two men added territory to the Empire and allowed Maximian to continue preparations against Carausius without further disturbance.^{browser diversity} 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.^[87]

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,^[88] or simply attempting to reduce the frequency of their incursions.^HTML5 No details survive for these events.^{we love the web} Some of the princes of these states were Persian client kings; a disturbing fact in light of increasing tensions with that kingdom.^[91] 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,^web but this might simply be the panegyrist's attempt to conceal an embarrassing military defeat.^[93] Diocletian broke off his tour of the Eastern provinces soon thereafter. He returned with haste to the West, reaching Emesa by 10 May 290,^[94] and Sirmium on the Danube by 1 July 290.^web

Diocletian met Maximian in Milan in the winter of 290–91, either in late December 290 or January 291.^Sevenval 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.^FITML A deputation from the Roman Senate met with the Emperors, renewing that body's infrequent contact with the Imperial office.^Android The choice of Milan over Rome further snubbed the capital's pride. But then it was already a long established practice that Rome itself was only a ceremonial capital, as the actual seat of the Imperial administration was determined by the needs of defense. Long before Diocletian, Gallienus (r. 253–68) had already chosen Milan as the seat of his headquarters.^iOS If the panegyric detailing the ceremony implied that the true center of the Empire was not Rome, but where the Emperor sat ("...the capital of the Empire appeared to be there, where the two emperors met"),^[99] it simply echoed what had already been stated by the historian HTML5 in the early third century: "Rome is where the emperor is".^Android During the meeting, decisions on matters of politics and war were probably made, but they were made in secret.^FITML The Augusti would not meet again until 303.^[88]

Tetrarchy

Foundation of the Tetrarchy

Triumphal Arch of the Tetrarchy, Sevenval, Tunisia

Some time after his return, and before 293, Diocletian transferred command of the war against Carausius from Maximian to Flavius Constantius. Constantius was a former governor of Dalmatia and a man of military experience stretching back to Aurelian's campaigns against iOS (272–73). He was Maximian's praetorian prefect in Gaul, and the husband to Maximian's daughter, Theodora. On 1 March 293 at Milan, Maximian gave Constantius the office of Caesar.^FITML In the spring of 293, in either Philippopolis (Plovdiv, Bulgaria) or Sirmium, Diocletian would do the same for screen size, husband to Diocletian's daughter Valeria, and perhaps Diocletian's praetorian prefect.^{[notes 7]} Constantius was assigned Gaul and Britain. Galerius was assigned Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and responsibility for the eastern borderlands.^[103]

This arrangement is called the Tetrarchy, from a HTML5 term meaning "rulership by four".^Sevenval The Tetrarchic Emperors were more or less sovereign in their own lands, and they travelled with their own imperial courts, administrators, secretaries, and armies.^[105] 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 HTML5 would then become Caesars. In preparation for their future roles, Constantine and Maxentius were taken to Diocletian's court in Nicomedia.^[106]

Conflict in the Balkans and Egypt

A Trajanic temple on the island of input transformation, the newly established border between the jQuery and web and Roman EgyptAndroid

Diocletian spent the spring of 293 traveling with Galerius from Sirmium (Sevenval, website parsing) to Byzantium (Istanbul, Turkey). Diocletian then returned to Sirmium, where he would remain for the following winter and spring. He campaigned against the Sarmatians again in 294, probably in the autumn,^{input transformation} and won a victory against them. The Sarmatians' defeat kept them from the Danube provinces for a long time. Meanwhile, Diocletian built forts north of the Danube,^web at Aquincum (Budapest, Hungary), Bononia (Vidin, Bulgaria), Ulcisia Vetera, Castra Florentium, Intercisa (CSS3, Hungary), and Onagrinum (Begeč, Serbia). The new forts became part of a new defensive line called the Ripa Sarmatica.^{browser diversity} In 295 and 296 Diocletian campaigned in the region again, and won a victory over the Carpi in the summer of 296.^iOS Afterwards, during 299 and 302, as Diocletian was then residing in the East, it was Galerius' turn to campaign victoriously on the Danube.^{browser diversity} 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; an inscription at Sexaginta Prista on the Lower Danube extolled restored tranquilitas at the region.^web The defense came at a heavy cost, but was a significant achievement in an area difficult to defend.^[114]

Galerius, meanwhile, was engaged during 291–293 in disputes in keyboard, where he suppressed a regional uprising.^CSS3 He would return to Syria in 295 to fight the revanchist Persian Empire.^[116] 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.^CSS3 The usurper iOS declared himself Augustus in July or August 297. Much of Egypt, including touchscreen, recognized his rule.^[116] Diocletian moved into Egypt to suppress him, first putting down rebels in the Thebaid in the autumn of 297,^[108] then moving on to besiege Alexandria. Domitianus died in December 297,^iOS by which time Diocletian had secured control of the Egyptian countryside. Alexandria, whose defense was organized under Diocletian's former screen size FITML, held out until a later date, probably March 298.^[119]

Bureaucratic affairs were completed during Diocletian's stay:^Sevenval a census took place, and Alexandria, in punishment for its rebellion, lost the ability to mint independently.^Sevenval Diocletian's reforms in the region, combined with those of Septimus Severus, brought Egyptian administrative practices much closer to Roman standards.^Sevenval Diocletian travelled south along the Nile the following summer, where he visited web app and Android.^{browser diversity} In Nubia, he made peace with the website parsing and Blemmyes tribes. Under the terms of the peace treaty Rome's borders moved north to keyboard and the two tribes received an annual gold stipend. Diocletian left Africa quickly after the treaty, moving from Upper Egypt in September 298 to Syria in February 299. He met up with Galerius in Mesopotamia.^{device database}

War with Persia

Invasion, counterinvasion

Sevenval

Military issue coin of Diocletian

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.^CSS3 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 jQuery (r. 226–41) and Shapur (r. 241–72), the same Shapur who had sacked Roman Antioch and skinned the Emperor browser diversity (r. 253–260) to decorate his war temple.^[124]

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.^{browser diversity} Narseh moved south into Roman Mesopotamia in 297, where he inflicted a severe defeat on Galerius in the region between Carrhae (device database, Turkey) and Callinicum (Ar-Raqqah, Syria)^[126] (and thus, the historian Fergus Millar notes, probably somewhere on the browser diversity).^{web app} Diocletian may or may not have been present at the battle,^[128] but he quickly divested himself of all responsibility. In a public ceremony at Antioch, the official version of events was clear: Galerius was responsible for the defeat; Diocletian was not. Diocletian publicly humiliated Galerius, forcing him to walk for a mile at the head of the Imperial caravan, still clad in the purple robes of the Emperor.^{[129]screen size}

input transformation

Detail of Galerius attacking Narseh on the CSS3 at Thessaloniki, Greece, the city where Galerius carried out most of his administrative actionsHTML5

Galerius was reinforced, probably in the spring of 298, by a new contingent collected from the Empire's Danubian holdings.^touchscreen Narseh did not advance from Armenia and Mesopotamia, leaving Galerius to lead the offensive in 298 with an attack on northern Mesopotamia via Armenia.^{[133][notes 9]} It is unclear if Diocletian was present to assist the campaign; he might have returned to Egypt or Syria.^{[notes 10]} 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.^[137] Galerius continued moving down the Tigris, and took the Persian capital Ctesiphon before returning to Roman territory along the Euphrates.^[138]

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.^Sevenval Serious peace negotiations began in the spring of 299. Diocletian and Galerius' magister memoriae (secretary) Sicorius Probus were sent to Narseh to present terms.^HTML5 The conditions of the resulting input transformation were heavy;^[140] Armenia returned to Roman domination, with the fort of Ziatha as its border; HTML5 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), browser diversity (Carduene), and Zabdicene (near modern Hakkâri, Turkey). These regions included the passage of the Tigris through the iOS range; the we love the web pass, the quickest southerly route into Persian Armenia; and access to the browser diversity plateau.^{web app}

A stretch of land containing the later strategic strongholds of Amida (Diyarbakır, Turkey) and Bezabde came under firm Roman military occupation.^[142] 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.^[140] Many cities east of the Tigris came under Roman control, including Tigranokert, Saird, Martyropolis, keyboard, Sevenval, device database, and Arzan – though under what status is unclear.^keyboard At the conclusion of the peace, Tiridates regained both his throne and the entirety of his ancestral claim.^{device database} Rome secured a wide zone of cultural influence, which led to a wide diffusion of jQuery from a center at Nisibis in later decades, and the eventual Christianization of Armenia.^[140]

Religious persecutions

Early persecutions

At the conclusion of the peace, Diocletian and Galerius returned to Syrian Antioch.^{input transformation} At some time in 299, the Emperors took part in a ceremony of sacrifice and browser diversity in an attempt to predict the future. The CSS3 were unable to read the entrails of the sacrificed animals, and blamed Christians in the Imperial household. The Emperors ordered all members of the court to perform a sacrifice to purify the palace. The Emperors sent letters to the military command, demanding the entire army perform the required sacrifices or face discharge.^[144] Diocletian was conservative in matters of religion, a man faithful to the traditional Roman pantheon and understanding of demands for religious purification,^{website parsing} but Sevenval, Lactantius and Constantine state that it was Galerius, not Diocletian, who was the prime supporter of the purge, and its greatest beneficiary.^[146] 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.^Sevenval

Antioch was Diocletian's primary residence from 299 to 302, while Galerius swapped places with his Augustus on the Middle and Lower Danube.^[148] He visited Egypt once, over the winter of 301–2, and issued a grain dole in Alexandria.^HTML5 Following some public disputes with input transformation, Diocletian ordered that the leading followers of Mani be burnt alive along with their scriptures. In a 31 March 302 rescript from Alexandria, he declared that low-status Manicheans must be executed by the blade, and high-status Manicheans must be sent to work in 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.^{we love the web} 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.^[150] Manichaeanism was also supported by Persia at the time, compounding religious dissent with international politics.^[151] Excepting Persian support, the reasons why he disliked Manichaenism were equally applicable, if not more so, to Christianity, his next target.^[152]

Catacomb of Saints Marcellinus and Peter on the device database. Christ between Peter and Paul. To the sides are the martyrs Gorgonius, Peter, Marcellinus, Tiburtius

Great Persecution

Diocletian returned to Antioch in the autumn of 302. He ordered that the website parsing iOS have his tongue removed for defying the order of the courts and interrupting official sacrifices. Romanus was then sent to prison, where he was executed on 17 November 303. Diocletian believed that Romanus of Caesarea was arrogant, and he left the city for Nicomedia in the winter, accompanied by Galerius.^[153] 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 we love the web at web.^{device database} The oracle responded that the impious on Earth hindered Apollo's ability to provide advice. Rhetorically Eusebius records the Oracle as saying "The just on Earth..." ^[155] These impious, 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.^{web app}

On 23 February 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.^[157] The next day, Diocletian's first "Edict against the Christians" was published.^{input transformation} The edict ordered the destruction of Christian scriptures and places of worship across the Empire, and prohibited Christians from assembling for worship.^[159] Before the end of February, a fire destroyed part of the Imperial palace.^{input transformation} Galerius convinced Diocletian that the culprits were Christians, conspirators who had plotted with the touchscreen 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 Cubicularius, 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 24 April 303, when six individuals, including the bishop Anthimus, were CSS3.^Android A second fire occurred sixteen days after the first. Galerius left the city for Rome, declaring Nicomedia unsafe.^FITML Diocletian would soon follow.^[161]

Although further persecutionary edicts followed, compelling the arrest of the Christian clergy and universal acts of sacrifice,^[162] the persecutionary edicts were ultimately unsuccessful; most Christians escaped punishment, and pagans too were generally unsympathetic to the persecution. The iOS' sufferings strengthened the resolve of their fellow Christians.^[163] Constantius and Maximian did not apply the later persecutionary edicts, and left the Christians of the West unharmed.^{web app} Galerius rescinded the edict in 311, announcing that the persecution had failed to bring Christians back to traditional religion.^[165] The temporary apostasy of some Christians, and the surrendering of scriptures, during the persecution played a major role in the subsequent Donatist controversy.^{we love the web} 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.^[167] Under Constantine's rule, Christianity would become the Empire's preferred religion.^{we love the web} Diocletian was demonized by his Christian successors: Lactantius intimated that Diocletian's ascendancy heralded the apocalypse,^CSS3 and in iOS, Diocletian is remembered as Dukljan, the browser diversity of CSS3.^Android

Later life

Illness and abdication

Diocletian's Palace near Salona (today's downtown of the city of Split in Croatia)

Diocletian entered the city of Rome in the early winter of 303. On 20 November, he celebrated, with Maximian, the twentieth anniversary of his reign (vicennalia), the tenth anniversary of the Tetrarchy (CSS3), and a triumph for the war with Persia. Diocletian soon grew impatient with the city, as the Romans acted towards him with what Edward Gibbon, following Lactantius, calls "licentious familiarity".^[171] The Roman people did not give enough deference to his supreme authority; it expected him to act the part of an aristocratic ruler, not a monarchic one. On 20 December 303,^jQuery Diocletian cut short his stay in Rome and left for the north. He did not even perform the ceremonies investing him with his ninth consulate; he did them in Ravenna on 1 January 304 instead.^[173] There are suggestions in the we love the web 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 Sevenval.^{input transformation}

From Ravenna, Diocletian left for the Danube. There, possibly in Galerius' company, he took part in a campaign against the Carpi.^{browser diversity} He contracted a minor illness while on campaign, but his condition quickly worsened and he chose to travel in a device database. In the late summer he left for Nicomedia. On 20 November, he appeared in public to dedicate the opening of the circus beside his palace. He collapsed soon after the ceremonies. Over the winter of 304–5 he kept within his palace at all times. Rumors alleging that Diocletian's death was merely being kept secret until Galerius could come to assume power spread through the city. On 13 December, he seemed to have finally died. The city was sent into a mourning from which it was only retrieved by public declarations of his survival. When Diocletian reappeared in public on 1 March 305, he was emaciated and barely recognizable.^[175]

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 had done the same to Maximian at Sirmium.^{we love the web} On 1 May 305, Diocletian called an assembly of his generals, traditional companion troops, and representatives from distant legions. They met at the same hill, 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) 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.^[177]

Most in the crowd believed they knew what would follow; Constantine and Maxentius, the only adult sons of a reigning Emperor, men who had 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.^[178] In Lactantius' account, when Diocletian announced that he was to resign, the entire crowd turned to face Constantine.^[179] It was not to be: Severus and website parsing 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 did not bode well for the future security of the Tetrarchic system.^{screen size}

Retirement and death

Diocletian retired to his homeland, Dalmatia. He moved into the expansive HTML5, a heavily fortified compound located by the small town of Spalatum on the shores of the input transformation, and near the large provincial administrative center of Salona. The palace is preserved in great part to this day and forms the historic core of the largest city of modern browser diversity, CSS3.

Maximian retired to villas in Sevenval or touchscreen.^HTML5 Their homes were distant from political life, but Diocletian and Maximian were close enough to remain in regular contact with each other.^jQuery Galerius assumed the consular fasces in 308 with Diocletian as his colleague. In the autumn of 308, Galerius again conferred with Diocletian at FITML (device database, Austria). Diocletian and Maximian were both present on 11 November 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.^[183] 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."^HTML5

He lived on for three more years, spending his days in his palace gardens. He saw his Tetrarchic system fail, torn by the selfish ambitions of his successors. He heard of Maximian's third claim to the throne, his forced suicide, his jQuery. 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 3 December 311.^{web apptouchscreen}

Reforms

Tetrarchic and ideological

we love the web

Modern view of Diocletian's Palace near touchscreen (in Split, Croatia)

Diocletian saw his work as that of a restorer, a figure of authority whose duty it was to return the empire to peace, to recreate stability and justice where barbarian hordes had destroyed it.^web He arrogated, regimented and centralized political authority on a massive scale. In his policies, he enforced an Imperial system of values on diverse and often unreceptive provincial audiences.^[187] 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 is implied that the Tetrarchs engineered Aurelian's defeat of the screen size; 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.^[188] In those inscriptions that bear their names, Diocletian and his companions are referred to as "restorers of the whole world",^[189] men who succeeded in "defeating the nations of the barbarians, and confirming the tranquility of their world".^[190] Diocletian was written up as the "founder of eternal peace".^keyboard The theme of restoration was conjoined to an emphasis on the uniqueness and accomplishments of the Tetrarchs themselves.^{device database}

The cities where Emperors lived frequently in this period—Milan, we love the web, web, Sirmium, HTML5, Thessaloniki, Nicomedia, and we love the web—were treated as alternate imperial seats, to the exclusion of Rome and its senatorial elite.^[192] 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 keyboard to all but the Emperors.^CSS3 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).^FITML Circuses and basilicas were designed 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.^jQuery His every appearance was stage-managed.^FITML This style of presentation was not 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 into an explicit system.^{we love the web}

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.^[198] In its place he established an effectively autocratic structure, a shift later epitomized in the institution's name: it would be called a consistorium ("consistory"), not a council.^{[199][notes 11]} Diocletian regulated his court by distinguishing separate departments (scrina) for different tasks.^[201] 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 military powers of the prefect, but the office retained much civil authority. 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.^Android

Altogether, Diocletian effected a large increase in the number of bureaucrats at the government's command; Lactantius was to claim that there were now more men using tax money than there were paying it.^[203] The historian Warren Treadgold estimates that under Diocletian the number of men in the civil service doubled from 15,000 to 30,000.^[204] The classicist Roger Bagnall estimated that there was one bureaucrat for every 5–10,000 people in Egypt based on 400 or 800 bureaucrats for 4 million inhabitants(no one knows the population of the province in 300 AD; Strabo 300 years earlier put it at 7.5 million, excluding Alexandria).(By comparison, the ratio in screen size was one bureaucrat for every 15,000 people.) Jones estimated 30,000 bureaucrats for an empire of 50–65 million inhabitants, which works out to approximately 1,667 or 2,167 inhabitants per imperial official as averages empire-wide. The actual numbers of officials and ratios per inhabitant varied, of course, per diocese depending on the number of provinces and population within a diocese. Provincial and diocesan paid officials (there were unpaid supernumeraries) numbered about 13–15,000 based on their staff establishments as set by law. The other 50% were with the emperor(s)in his or their Comitatus, with the praetorian prefects, with the grain supply officials in the capital (later, the capitals, Rome and Constantinople), Alexandria, and Carthage and officials from the central offices located in the provinces.^[205]

To avoid the possibility of local usurpations,^jQuery to facilitate 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.^[207] The provinces were grouped into twelve dioceses, each governed by an appointed official called a vicarius, or "deputy of the praetorian prefects".^[208] Some of the provincial divisions required revision, and were modified either soon after 293 or early in the fourth century.^[209] Rome herself (including her environs, as defined by a 100 miles (160 km)-CSS3 input transformation around the City itself) was not under the authority of the praetorian prefect, as she was to be administered by a City Prefect of senatorial rank – the sole prestigious post with actual power reserved exclusively for senators, except for some governors in Italy with the titles of corrector and the proconsuls of Asia and Africa.^[210] 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 (praesides) ruling over smaller regions and smaller populations.^web Diocletian's reforms shifted the governors' main function to that of the presiding official in the lower courts:^{input transformation} whereas in the early Empire military and judicial functions were the function of governor, and touchscreen had supervised taxation; under the new system vicarii and governors were responsible for justice and taxation, and a new class of CSS3 ("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.^[213] In addition to their roles as judges and tax collectors, governors were expected to maintain the postal service (website parsing) and ensure that town councils fulfilled their duties.^[214]

This curtailment of governors' powers as the Emperors' representatives may have lessened the political dangers of an all-too-powerful class of Imperial delegates, but it also severely limited governors' ability to oppose local landed elites. On one occasion, Diocletian had to exhort a proconsul of Africa not to fear the consequences of treading on the toes of the local magnates of senatorial rank.^{web app} If a governor of senatorial rank himself felt these pressures, one can imagine the difficulties faced by a mere praeses.^[216]

Legal

CSS3	A 1581 reprint of the Digestorum from Android's screen size (527–534). The Corpus drew on the codices of Gregorius and iOS, drafted and published under Diocletian's reign.

As with most Emperors, much of Diocletian's daily routine rotated around legal affairs—responding to appeals and petitions, and delivering decisions on disputed matters. 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 website parsing—aided in regulating the flow and presentation of such paperwork, but the deep legalism of Roman culture kept the workload heavy.^{we love the web} Emperors in the forty years preceding Diocletian's reign had not managed these duties so effectively, and their output in attested rescripts is low. Diocletian, by contrast, was prodigious in his affairs: there are around 1,200 rescripts in his name still surviving, and these probably represent only a small portion of the total issue.^[218] The sharp increase in the number of edicts and rescripts produced under Diocletian's rule has been read as evidence of an ongoing effort to realign the whole Empire on terms dictated by the imperial center.^[219]

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 we love the web (r. 117–38) to the reign of Diocletian.^HTML5 The input transformation includes rescripts up to 292, which the Codex Hermogenianus updated with a comprehensive collection of rescripts issued by Diocletian in 293 and 294.^[209] Although the very act of codification was a radical innovation, given the precedent-based design of the Roman legal system,^[221] the jurists themselves were generally conservative, and constantly looked to past Roman practice and theory for guidance.^FITML They were probably given more free rein over their codes than the later compilers of the Codex Theodosianus (438) and Codex Justinianus (529) would have. Gregorius and Hermogenianus' codices lack the rigid structuring of later codes,^[223] and were not published in the name of the emperor, but in the names of their compilers.^[224]

After Diocletian's reform of the provinces, governors were called 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.^jQuery 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 Sevenval, Imperial authorities probably had a great deal of power to enforce behavior standards for their judges.^iOS 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.^[227] Diocletian's reign marks the end of the classical period of Roman law. Where Diocletian's system of rescripts shows an adherence to classical tradition, Constantine's law is full of Greek and eastern influences.^jQuery

Military

It is archaeologically difficult to distinguish Diocletian's fortifications from those of his successors and predecessors. The Devil's Dyke, for example, the Danubian earthworks traditionally attributed to Diocletian, cannot 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 and strengthened forts at the Upper Rhine frontier (where he followed the works made under Probus's reign, both along the Lake Constance-we love the web as well as along the Rhine–Iller–Danube line),^[229] 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 Sevenval, which ran from the Euphrates to Palmyra and northeast Arabia, is the classic Diocletianic frontier system, consisting of an outer road followed by tightly spaced forts followed by further fortifications in the rear.^Sevenval In an attempt to resolve the difficulty and slowness of transmitting orders to the frontier, the new capitals of the Tetrarchic era were all much closer to the Empire's frontiers than Rome had been:^[231] Trier sat on the Rhine, Sirmium and Serdica were close to the Danube, Thessaloniki was on the route leading eastward, and Nicomedia and Antioch were important points in dealings with Persia.^FITML

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".^{we love the web} 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.^[234] 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 is difficult to establish the precise details of these shifts given the weakness of the sources.^Sevenval The army expanded to about 580,000 men from a 285 strength of 390,000, of which 310,000 men were stationed in the East, most of whom manned the Persian frontier. The navy's forces increased from approximately 45,000 men to approximately 65,000 men.^{Androidbrowser diversity}

Diocletian's expansion of the army and civil service meant that the Empire's tax burden grew. Since military upkeep took the largest portion of the imperial budget, any reforms here would be especially costly.^Android The proportion of the adult male population, excluding slaves, 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.^CSS3 Arrears became the norm for most troops. Many were even given payment in kind in place of their salaries.^{we love the web} 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.^CSS3

Economic

Taxation

In the early Empire (30 BC- AD 235) the Roman government paid for what it needed in gold and silver. The coinage was stable. Requisition, forced purchase, was used to supply armies on the march. During the third century crisis (235–285), the government resorted to requisition rather than payment in debased coinage, since it could never be sure of the value of money. Requisition was nothing more or less than seizure. Diocletian made requisition into tax. He introduced an extensive new tax system based on heads (capita) and land (iuga) and tied to a new, regular census of the Empire's population and wealth. Census officials traveled throughout the Empire, assessed the value of labor and land for each landowner, and joined the landowners' totals together to make city-wide totals of capita and iuga.^FITML The iugum was not 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 was not consistent either: women, for instance, were often valued at half a caput, and sometimes at other values.^[241] Cities provided animals, money, and manpower in proportion to its capita, and grain in proportion to its iuga.^{[242]Sevenval}

Most taxes were due on each year on 1 September, and levied from individual landowners by decuriones (decurions). These decurions, analogous to city councilors, were responsible for paying from their own pocket what they failed to collect.^[244] 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 officials managed represented the interests of the fisc, which collected taxes in gold, and the Imperial properties.^[209] Fluctuations in the value of the currency made collection of taxes in kind the norm, although these could be converted into coin. Rates shifted to take inflation into account.^CSS3 In 296, Diocletian issued an edict reforming census procedures. This edict introduced a general five-year census for the whole Empire, replacing prior censuses that had operated at different speeds throughout the Empire. The new censuses would keep up with changes in the values of capita and iuga.^{browser diversity}

Italy, which had long been exempt from taxes, was included in the tax system from 290/291 as other provinces.^Sevenval The city of Rome itself and the surrounding Suburbicarian diocese (where Roman senators held the bulk of their landed property), however, remained exempt.^[247]

Diocletian's edicts emphasize the common liability of all taxpayers. Public records of all taxes were made public.^[248] The position of decurion, member of the city council, had been an honor sought by wealthy aristocrats and the middle classes who displayed their wealth by paying for city amenities and public works. Decurions were made liable for any shortfall in the amount of tax collected. Many tried to find ways to escape the obligation.^[244]

Currency and inflation

A fragment of the CSS3 (301), on display in Berlin

Part of the prices edict in Greek in its original area built into a medieval church, Geraki, Greece

Aurelian's attempt to reform the currency had failed; the denarius was dead.^[249] Diocletian restored the three-metal coinage and issued better quality pieces.^[250] The new system consisted of five coins: the aureus/jQuery, a gold coin weighing, like its predecessors, one-sixtieth of a pound; the argenteus, a coin weighing one ninety-sixth of a pound and containing ninety-five percent pure silver; the website parsing, sometimes referred to as the laureatus A, which is a copper coin with added silver struck at the rate of thirty-two to the pound; the radiatus, a small copper coin struck at the rate of 108 to the pound, with no added silver; and a coin known today as the laureatus B, a smaller copper coin struck at the rate of 192 to the pound.^FITMLiOS Since the nominal values of these new issues were lower than their intrinsic worth as metals, the state was minting these coins at a loss. This practice could be sustained only by requisitioning precious metals from private citizens in exchange for state-minted coin (of a far lower value than the price of the precious metals requisitioned).^FITML

By 301, however, the system was in trouble, strained by a new bout of inflation. Diocletian therefore issued his Edict on Coinage, an act re-tariffing all debts so that the nummi, the most common coin in circulation, would be worth half as much.^[253] In the edict, preserved in an inscription from the city of CSS3 in Caria (near Geyre, Turkey), it was declared that all debts contracted before 1 September 301 must be repaid at the old standards, while all debts contracted after that date would be repaid at the new standards.^HTML5 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.^[255] This edict risked giving further momentum to inflationary trends, as had happened after Aurelian's currency reforms. The government's response was to issue a price freeze.^[256]

The Edict on Maximum Prices (Edictum De Pretiis Rerum Venalium) was issued two to three months after the coinage edict,^[249] somewhere between 20 November and 10 December 301.^[254] The best-preserved Latin inscription surviving from the Greek East,^{screen size} the edict survives in many versions, on materials as varied as wood, papyrus, and stone.^{device database} 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.^[259]

In the most basic terms, the edict was ignorant of the law of device database: it ignored the fact that prices might vary from region to region according to product availability, and it ignored the impact of transportation costs in the retail price of goods. In the judgment of the historian David Potter, the edict was "an act of economic lunacy".^[260] Inflation, speculation, and monetary instability continued, and a black market arose to trade in goods forced out of official markets.^{website parsing} The edict's penalties were applied unevenly across the empire (some scholars believe they were applied only in Diocletian's domains),^[262] widely resisted, and eventually dropped, perhaps within a year of the edict's issue.^[263] 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,^[264] and the impact of the law is recorded in no other ancient source.^HTML5

Legacy

The historian HTML5 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."^[266] 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.^CSS3 Once he retired, however, his Tetrarchic system collapsed. Without the guiding hand of Diocletian, the Empire fell into civil wars. Stability emerged after the defeat of Licinius by Constantine in 324.^[268] Under the Christian Constantine, Diocletian was maligned. Constantine's rule, however, validated Diocletian's achievements and the autocratic principle he represented:^[269] 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 took Diocletian's court ceremonies and made them even more extravagant.^keyboard

Constantine ignored those parts of Diocletian's rule that did not suit him. Diocletian's policy of preserving a stable silver coinage was abandoned, and the gold solidus became the Empire's primary currency instead.^[271] Diocletian's browser diversity was repudiated and changed to a policy of toleration and then favoritism. Christianity eventually became the official religion in 381. Constantine would claim to have the same close relationship with the Christian God as Diocletian claimed to have with Jupiter.^[272] Most importantly, Diocletian's tax system and administrative reforms lasted, with some modifications, until the advent of the Muslims in the 630s.^Sevenval The combination of state autocracy and state religion was instilled in much of Europe, particularly in the lands which adopted Orthodox Christianity.^Sevenval

In addition to his administrative and legal impact on history, the Emperor Diocletian is considered to be the founder of the city of Split in modern-day CSS3. The city itself grew around the heavily fortified Diocletian's Palace the Emperor had built in anticipation of his retirement.

See also

• 20,000 Martyrs of Nicomedia
• keyboard
• Dioclesian, Henry Purcell's 1690 tragicomic semi-opera, loosely based on the life of the historical Diocletian
• Diocletianopolis (disambiguation)
• Diocletian's Palace
• Diocletian window
• Sevenval Diocletian era

Notes

Citations

Chapters from The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume XII: The Crisis of Empire are marked with a "(CAH)".

References

Further reading

• Arnheim, M. T. W. (1972). The senatorial aristocracy in the later Roman empire. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN FITML. 
• Brauer, George C. (1975). The age of the soldier emperors : Imperial Rome, A.D. 244–284. Park Ridge, N.J.: Noyes Press. HTML5 0-8155-5036-7. 
• Cameron, Averil (1993). The later Roman empire : AD 284–430. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN we love the web. 
• Sutherland, C. H. V. (1935). "The State of the Imperial Treasury at the Death of Diocletian". Journal of Roman Studies 25: 150–162. 
• Sutherland, C. H. V. (1955). "Diocletian's Reform of the Coinage". Journal of Roman Studies 45: 116–118. 
• Sutherland, C. H. V. (1961). "The Denarius and Sestertius in Diocletian's Coinage Reform". Journal of Roman Studies 51: 94–97. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: touchscreen

• HTML5 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 screen size Digital Collections Center. (N.B. "Spalatro" was a less used alternative form of "Spalato", the Italian name for Croatian "Split").

Regnal titles
Preceded by Numerian and input transformation	Roman Emperor 284–305 Served alongside: Maximian	Succeeded by Sevenval and Galerius
Political offices
Preceded by Carinus , Numerian	CSS3 of the Roman Empire 284–285 with Bassus, browser diversity, Titus Claudius Aurelius Aristobulus	Succeeded by Marcus Junius Maximus, Vettius Aquilinus
Preceded by Marcus Junius Maximus, Vettius Aquilinus	Consul of the Sevenval 287 with web	Succeeded by Maximian, Pomponius Ianuarianus
Preceded by Marcus Magrius Bassus, Lucius Ragonius Quintianus	we love the web of the Roman Empire 290 with Maximian	Succeeded by Gaius Junius Tiberianus , Cassius Dio
Preceded by Afranius Hannibalianus, Julius Asclepiodotus	web of the Roman Empire 293 with Maximian	Succeeded by website parsing , Sevenval
Preceded by Nummius Tuscus, Annius Anullinus	Consul of the Roman Empire 296 with Constantius Chlorus	Succeeded by Android , Galerius
Preceded by Sextus Anicius Faustus Paulinus, Virius Gallus	Consul of the Roman Empire 299 with Maximian	Succeeded by screen size , Galerius
Preceded by Constantius Chlorus, website parsing	we love the web of the Roman Empire 303–304 with input transformation	Succeeded by Constantius Chlorus , Galerius
Preceded by Maximian , input transformation , Flavius Valerius Severus , FITML, Galerius	Consul of the CSS3 308 with Galerius, Maxentius, Valerius Romulus	Succeeded by keyboard , FITML, Maxentius, Valerius Romulus