Diocletian - Roman Emperor: 284-305 A.D. -
Bronze Antoninianus 20mm (2.8 grams) Struck at the mint of Cyzicus 295-296 A.D.
Reference: RIC 15f (VI, Cyzicus)
IMP C C VAL DIOCLETIANVS P F AVG - Radiate, cuirassed bust right.
CONCORDIA MILITVM - Diocletian standing right on left, receiving globe from
Jupiter to right, holding scepter, HΓ in exergue.
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Gaius
Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus (c. 22 December 244[3] – 3
December 311[5]),
born Diocles (Greek:
Διοκλῆς) and commonly known as
Diocletian, was
Roman
Emperor from 20 November 284 to 1 May 305. Born to a
Dalmatian
family of low status, he rose through the ranks of the military to become
cavalry commander to the emperor
Carus. After the
deaths of Carus and his son
Numerian on
campaign in Persia, Diocletian was acclaimed emperor by the army. A brief
confrontation with Carus' other surviving son
Carinus at
the
Battle of the Margus removed the only other claimant to the title. With his
ascension to power, he ended the
Crisis of the Third Century. Diocletian appointed fellow-officer
Maximian
his
Augustus, his senior co-emperor, in 285. He delegated further on 1 March
293, appointing
Galerius and
Constantius as
Caesars, junior co-emperors. Under this "Tetrarchy",
or "rule of four", each emperor would rule over a quarter-division of the
empire. In campaigns against
Sarmatian
and Danubian
tribes (285–90), the
Alamanni
(288), and usurpers in
Egypt (297–98), Diocletian secured the empire's borders and purged it of
threats to his power. In 299, Diocletian led negotiations with
Sassanid Persia, the empire's traditional enemy, and achieved a lasting and
favorable peace.
Diocletian separated and enlarged the empire's civil and
military services and re-organized the empire's provincial divisions,
establishing the largest and most
bureaucratic government in the history of the empire. He established new
administrative centers in
Nicomedia,
Mediolanum,
Antioch, and
Trier, closer to
the empire's frontiers than the traditional capital at Rome had been. Building
on third-century trends towards absolutism, Diocletian styled himself an
autocrat, elevating himself above the empire's masses with imposing forms of
court ceremonial 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 Diocletian's plans were successful; the
Edict on Maximum Prices (301), Diocletian's attempt to curb
inflation
via
price controls, was unsuccessful, counterproductive, and quickly ignored.
Although effective while he ruled, Diocletian's Tetrarchic system collapsed
after his abdication under the competing dynastic claims of
Maxentius
and
Constantine, sons of Maximian and Constantius respectively. The
Diocletianic Persecution (303–11), the empire's last, largest, and bloodiest
official persecution of
Christianity, did not destroy the empire's Christian community; indeed,
after 324 Christianity became the empire's preferred religion under its first
Christian emperor,
Constantine. 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 an empire that had seemed near the
brink of collapse in Diocletian's youth to remain essentially intact for another
hundred years. Weakened by illness, Diocletian left the imperial office on May
1, 305, and became the first 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 went on to become the core of the modern day city of
Split
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