Transcript Diocletian - TeacherWeb

240-311 AD
 Comes from a poor family
 Has a wife and kid who are Christian
 Builds his power through the military
 Military commander in Moesia
 When he comes to power the Roman empire is in
turmoil
 Remember the roman empire was going through
emperors pretty quick
 Too feel safe they would invest money into the army
too feel less vulnerable
 Its also key to remember that at this time the generals
of any army were being pushed to become the next
emperors by their troops
 Civil wars due to this
 He is first appointed as “count of domestics”
 And also was the imperial bodyguard
 Awkward…what do we learn that bodyguards do in the
past lecture?
 When the emperor Carus dies his successor was
Numerian (son)
 But wait…Numerian mysteriously dies and who comes
into power…?
 But remember the empire was split in half
 Carinus (the other son of Carus) rules the other half of
the roman empire
 But fear not he dies in a battle
 This leaves the entire empire under the rule of
Diocletian
 First Diocletian needs to do is…
 GET THE ARMY UNDER CONTROL
 DEFEND DEFEND DEFEND
 How was he going to bring the empire under control?
 By all means necessary, doesn’t matter what it takes he
will bring the empire under his control for the sake of
the Roman Empire
 divided the roughly fifty existing provinces into
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approximately one hundred.
The provinces also were apportioned among twelve
"dioceses," each under a "vicar," and later also among four
"prefectures," each under a "praetorian prefect.“
As a result, the imperial bureaucracy became increasingly
bloated.
He institutionalized the policy of separating civil and
military careers
He divided the army itself into so-called "border troops,"
actually an ineffective citizen militia, and "palace troops,"
the real field army, which often was led by the emperor in
person.
 Access to him became restricted
 he now was addressed not as First Citizen (Princeps) or
the soldierly general (Imperator)
 He wanted the people to call him…
 Lord and Master (Dominus Noster)
 Those in audience were required to prostrate themselves
on the ground before him
 Why is this a bad thing?
 Think about the rising religious faith
 Instead of ruling the entire himself which was getting
very hard to do…sound familiar?
 He introduces a new way
 Divide the land into four and assign each area to a
military leader
 He hand picks
 Named his lieutenant Maximianus “Caesar” (identified
with Hercules)
 He is assigned the western half of the empire
 Maximianus gets promoted to the rank of “Augusts”
known as the senior emperor in 286
 He appoints two new rulers
 Constantius – Faul and Britain in the west
 Galerius- Balkans in the east
 Diocletian did retire around 305
 He had ruled for over twenty years
Emperor 306-337 AD
 He is well known for being the first emperor to convert to
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Christianity
Dream tells him to draw a sign that would protect his
people
While praying he sees a sign in the sky which was a cross
with the words “in this sign thou shalt conquer”
So he converts to Christianity and wins the battle against
the Western Roman Empire under the control of
Maxientius
He now rules both east and west
The fourth ruler Licinius signs a treaty that allowed the
people to openly practice Christianity as a religion