Diocletian

Diocletian was born about 245 in the vicinity of Skodra in the town of Diocletia (now the territory of Montenegro ) ^[1] , and came from the lower social strata (his father was a freedman ). Thus, the Roman emperor Diocletian was the grandson of a slave . Timothy Barnes considers the date of birth of Diocletian December 22 ^[2] . His name was Diocles (or Valery Diocles) ^[3] , which, becoming emperor, he changed to a more sonorous - Diocletian. Having entered the military service under Gallien , he quickly climbed the career ladder, and making campaigns from one end of the Roman Empire to the other, he got acquainted with the state of affairs in the state. Staying in Gaul with his legion, he, according to legend, received a prediction from one druid that he would become emperor if he killed a boar ( lat. Aper ). During the trial, he was already governor in Moesia . When the emperor Kar went to war with the Persians , Diocletian accompanied him as commander of the domestics ( lat. comes domesticorum ). When Kar on the other side of the Tigris suddenly died, and his son Numerian was treacherously killed by his father-in-law, Praetorian prefect Arri Aprom , on the banks of the Bosphorus , in Chalcedon , the soldiers shackled Apra, and their commanders proclaimed Emperor Diocletian. ( September 17, 284 ).

Period Characteristics

Diocletian began a new era in the Roman Empire, making the imperial power not only de facto , but also de jure unlimited - absolute monarchical power ( dominate ). The emperor no longer shares her with the senate ; he himself is the source of all power, he is above all laws, all inhabitants of the empire, whatever rank they may be.

Strengthening the Empire

The first act of the new emperor was his own, in the face of the army, the killing of Apra. He did not touch any of his enemies, confirmed them in office, and, having defeated Karina , the other son of Emperor Kara, in Moesia, he even surprised contemporaries with his meekness, which was not at all usual in Rome with the victors in internecine wars. Victory over Karin restored the unity of the empire; but since the circumstances were difficult, Diocletian took Maximian as his assistant to his old friend, first giving him the title of Caesar , and after suppressing the peasant uprising of the Bagauds in Gaul ( 285 ), and the title of Augustus ( 286 ). While Maximian defended Gaul from the Germans, Diocletian was occupied in the east; ensuring the security of the borders of the empire in Asia and Europe. First, from Nicomedia , where he was at the end of 285 and at the beginning of 286, Diocletian moved to Syria to arrange affairs with Persia ; when the circumstances in the East received a turn favorable for Rome, he turned from Asia to Europe to protect the Danube line from attacks by the Sarmatians . He managed to defend the former border along the Danube - ( Dacia ) and secure the province of Rethia beyond Rome. The emperors postponed the triumphal arrival in Rome, but each adopted a new epithet: Diocletian began to add Jovius ( Jupiters ) to his name, and Maximian - Herculius ( Hercules ). Defeating the Saracens (Arabian Bedouins ) that devastated the borders of Syria , Diocletian returned to Europe again (at the end of 290 ).

Provincial Governance

The division of the empire into four parts led to the transformation of the entire provincial government. The empire was fragmented into a large number of administrative districts, but so that their known amount was subordinated to a larger government center. The whole empire was divided into 12 dioceses , each of which was divided into a certain number of provinces: the smallest, Britain - into four provinces, and the largest, Oriens - by 16. This control system required an increase in the number of officials, which accordingly led to increase the taxes of the population. Nevertheless, this reform was in line with the needs of the time and was preserved after Diocletian.

A change in the diocletian system of provincial governance occurred only during the reign of Justinian I.

Tetrarchy

At the beginning of 291 , at a meeting in Milan with Maximian who arrived there from Gaul, it was decided to elect two Caesars , and the choice fell on Constantius Chlorus and Galerius Maximian . The attraction to the imperial power of two new persons was caused by the fact that, with constant wars and disturbances in different parts of the state, the two emperors did not have the opportunity to manage their affairs. To fasten the mutual relationship with the new emperors, Diocletian and Maximian enter into close kinship with them: Constantius, divorcing Elena , the mother of Constantine , marries his stepdaughter Maximian Theodore and gets control of Gaul and Britain ; Galerius, also divorcing his former wife, takes the daughter of Diocletian to Galeria Valeria as his wife and takes control of all of Illyria . Specifically, Maximian, in addition to general oversight of the entire West, was granted knowledge of Italy, Africa and Spain. Regions east of Italy remained under the care of Diocletian. At the same time, he attracted to him 18-year-old Konstantin, Konstantsiev son from Elena, who followed him everywhere in his campaigns in the East. The ceremonial introduction of the two Caesars to the imperial power took place on March 1, 293. The separation of areas for administration was not so much a division of the empire itself as a relief of labor in administration, at the head of which, at least morally, stood Diocletian.

State Border Protection

One of the new emperors immediately had the difficult task of taking the usurper Carausius , who until then had to put up with Diocletian and Maximian, Britain, which Constance was able to achieve, as well as the reassurance of Gaul. Maximian had to defend the Rhine borders from invasions of the Germans (296), and the following year to pacify the Moors in Africa. The gallery had the lot to defend, under the main leadership of Diocletian himself, the border on the lower Danube, where the tongues , carps , bastar and youtungs gave the Roman troops a lot of work. Having kept calm in the European East, Diocletian was supposed to go to Egypt , which was at that time in the hands of the usurper Achilles .

After an eight-month siege, Diocletian captured Alexandria and severely punished the Alexandrians and the Egyptians in general for treason ( 298 ). At the same time, Diocletian took measures to more conveniently govern Egypt, dividing it into three provinces (Thebaid, Aegyptus Jovia and Aegyptus Herculia), and to persuade the masses to the side of the Roman government by distributing bread to the poor at public expense. A strange edict dates back to that time, which was commanded to collect all the ancient books that taught how to make gold and silver and burn them. This was explained by the desire of Diocletian to destroy the source of wealth, and at the same time, the arrogance of the Egyptians. Finally, through an agreement with the blemmas and nobats, he secured the southern border of Egypt from attacks by these barbarian tribes, promising to pay them an annual tribute. During the Egyptian campaign, he instructed Gallery to come to Mesopotamia against the Persians, who at that time fought with the Roman-sponsored contender for the independent Armenian throne, Tiridate . Galerius failed and fled to Diocletian, who was going from Antioch to help, who, in punishment, made him go a mile in purple on foot for his crew. The second campaign of Gallery was more successful. He defeated the Persians in Armenia and forced them to cede to the Romans the five provinces on the other side of the Tigris ( 297 ).

Persecution of Christianity

In 303, Diocletian began the persecution of Christians, as a result of which many martyrs appeared. The emperor ordered the churches to be closed and books destroyed. ^[4]

Least of all was he fortunate in his concern for maintaining paganism as a state religious system and in a fierce struggle with Christianity . In the very year of his death, the edict of Constantine the Great granted everyone the right to freely convert to Christianity. Assessment of the personality and activities of Diocletian is different among pagan and Christian writers. But pagan writers reproach him for introducing oriental splendor into court etiquette and for the arrogant halo with which he surrounded the person of the Roman emperor, demanding that prostrate fell before him, and speaking to his subjects as a deity. The colossal ruins of the Diocletian term , built, according to legend, Christians condemned to death, remained a material monument of his activity in Rome.

Board results. Private Care

Thus, peace was gradually restored both within and on the borders of the state, something that had not been in the empire for a long time. The time of Diocletian was therefore proclaimed by modern rhetoricians as the return of the Golden Age . After twenty intense years, the emperor finally arrived in Rome, but the stinginess of the amusements given to the people caused general ridicule. Diocletian soon left Rome and went to his beloved residence Nicomedia . On the way, he fell ill and, on the urgent advice of Galerius, solemnly renounced power in Nicomedia, on May 1, 305 Galerius and Constantius received the title of Augustus, and Severus and Maximin were built in Caesar.

Death

Diocletian spent the rest of his life in his homeland in Illyria, on his estate in the Salon , where he lived in solitude for 6 years. To the attempt of Maximian and Galerius to convince him to return to power, the former emperor refused, noting, among other things, that if they saw what the cabbage he had grown, they would not bother him with their proposals. The last years of Diocletian were overshadowed not only by physical suffering, but also by the rudeness of new rulers (especially Constantine ) towards him. Diocletian died under unknown circumstances (according to Aurelius Victor - from poison, according to Lactantius - from hunger and twisted, according to Eusebius - after a long illness and decrepitude) in 311