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DIOCLETIAN (GAIUs AURELIUS VALERIUS D...

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 280 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DIOCLETIAN (See also:GAIUs AURELIUS See also:VALERIUS DIOCLETIANUS) (A.D. 245–313) , See also:Roman See also:emperor 284–305, is said to have been See also:born at Dioclea, near Salona, in See also:Dalmatia. His See also:original name was Diocles. Of humble origin, he served with high distinction and held important military commands under the emperors See also:Probus and See also:Aurelian, and accompanied See also:Carus to the See also:Persian See also:War. After the See also:death of See also:Numerianus he was chosen emperor by the troops at See also:Chalcedon, on the 17th of See also:September 284, and slew with his own hands Arrius Aper, the See also:praefect of the See also:praetorians. He thus fulfilled the prediction of a druidess of See also:Gaul, that he would See also:mount a See also:throne as soon as he had slain a See also:wild See also:boar (aper). Having been installed at See also:Nicomedia, he received See also:general See also:acknowledgment after the See also:murder of See also:Carinus. In consequence of the rising of the Bagaudae in Gaul, and the threatening attitude of the See also:German peoples on the See also:Rhine, he appointed Maximian See also:Augustus in 286; and, in view of further dangers and disturbances in the See also:empire, proclaimed See also:Constantius Chlorus and See also:Galerius Caesars in 293. Each of the four rulers was placed at a See also:separate capital—Nicomedia, See also:Mediolanum (See also:Milan), See also:Augusta Trevirorum (See also:Trier), Sirmium. This amounted to an entirely new organization of the empire, on a See also:plan commensurate with the See also:work of See also:government which it now had to carry on. At the See also:age of fifty-nine, exhausted with labour, Diocletian abdicated his See also:sovereignty on the 1st of May 305, and retired to Salona, where he died eight years afterwards (others give 316 as the See also:year of his death). The end of his reign was memorable for the persecution of the Christians.

In See also:

defence of this it may be urged that he hoped to strengthen the empire by reviving the old See also:religion, and that the See also:church as an See also:independent See also:state over whose inner See also:life at least he possessed no See also:influence, appeared to be a See also:standing menace to his authority. Under Diocletian the See also:senate became a See also:political nonentity, the last traces of republican institutions disappeared, and were replaced by an See also:absolute See also:monarchy approaching to despotism. He wore the royal diadem, assumed the See also:title of See also:lord, and introduced a complicated See also:system of ceremonial and See also:etiquette, borrowed from the See also:East, in See also:order to surround the monarchy and its representative with mysterious sanctity. But at the same See also:time he devoted his energies to the improvement of the See also:administration of theempire; he reformed the See also:standard of coinage, fixed the See also:price of provisions and other necessaries of daily life, remitted the tax upon inheritances and manumissions, abolished various monopolies, repressed corruption and encouraged See also:trade. In addition, he adorned the See also:city with numerous buildings, such as the thermae, of which extensive remains are still standing (Aurelius See also:Victor, De Caesaribus, 39; See also:Eutropius ix. 13; See also:Zonaras xii. 31). See A. See also:Vogel, Der Kaiser Diocletian (See also:Gotha, 1857), a See also:short See also:sketch, with notes on the authorities; T. Preuss, Kaiser Diocletian and See also:seine Zeit (See also:Leipzig, 1869) ; V. Casagrandi, Diocleziano (See also:Faenza, 1876) ; H. See also:Schiller, Gesch. der romischen Kaiserzeit, ii.

(1887) ; T. See also:

Bernhardt, Geschichte Roms von See also:Valerian bis zu Diocletians See also:Tod (1867); A. J. See also:Mason, The Persecution of Diocletian (1876) ; P. Allard, La Persecution de Diocletien (1890) ; V. See also:Schultze in See also:Herzog-Hauck's Realencyklopadie fiir protestantische Theologie, iv. (1898); See also:Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chaps. 13 and 16; A. W. Hunzinger, See also:Die Diocletianische Staatsreform (1899) ; O. Seeck, " Die Schatzungsordnung Diocletians" in Zeitschrift See also:fur Social- and Wirthschaftsgeschichte (1896), a valuable See also:paper with notes containing references to See also:sources; and O. Seeck, Geschichte See also:des Untergangs der antiken Welt, vol. i. cap. i.

On his military reforms see T. See also:

Mommsen in See also:Hermes, See also:xxiv., and on his See also:tariff system, DIOCLETIAN, See also:EDICT OF.

End of Article: DIOCLETIAN (GAIUs AURELIUS VALERIUS DIOCLETIANUS) (A.D. 245–313)

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