The Tetrarchy

Dr Jamie Wood
Lecture 3; 12th October 2012

 To provide an overview of the
main historical actors and events
of the Tetrarchy
 To focus on the figure and role of
Diocletian
 To pick out key themes of the
Tetrarchic period
 To assess the extent to which the
Tetrarchy was a key turning point
in history of later Roman Empire

 End of 3rd C crisis, rise of Diocletian and the Tetrarchy
 Themes (1)
 Administration/ bureaucracy
 Military
--------------------------------------------------
 Groupwork: 3rd century historians
 Themes (2)
 Economy
 Religion
 Visual sources
 Breakdown of the Tetrarchy
 Conclusion

 Military
 Diocletian defeats his rivals
 Military reforms
 Invasions cease (or are defeated)
 Government
 Development of new system: the Tetrarchy
 Sharing of power
 Reorganisation of bureaucracy and administration
 Economic reforms

 Ends ‘crisis’ of 3rd
century
 End of the principate
(princeps) and beginning
of the dominate
(dominus)
 Last great ‘persecution’
of Christians
 A new era: the start of
‘modern’ history?

 Originally Diocles
 From low-status family in
Dalmatia (modern Croatia)
 Rose from ranks
 Cavalry commander under
Carus (282-3) and his son
Numerian (282-4)
 Succeeds on Numerian’s
death and kills Aper
(praetorian prefect and his
rival) in full view of army at
Nicomedia

 This man [= Diocletian] then, having ascended the
tribunal was hailed as Augustus, and when someone
asked how Numerian had been slain, he drew his sword
and pointing to Aper, the prefect of the guard, he drove
it through him, saying as he did so, “It is he who
contrived Numerian's death”. So Aper, a man who lived
an evil life and in accordance with vicious counsels, met
with the end that his ways deserved. My grandfather
used to relate that he was present at this assembly
when Aper was slain by the hand of Diocletian; and he
used to say that Diocletian, after slaying him, shouted,
“Well may you boast, Aper, ‘Tis by the hand of the
mighty Aeneas you perish.’ (Aeneid, x.830)”

 284: death of Numerian;
D acclaimed Augustus
 285: defeat of Carinus
(N’s brother); Maximian,
fellow army officer
appointed Caesar
 286: Maximian appointed
Augustus
 293: Tetrarchy begins

 Established by Diocletian and Maximian in 293:
 Galerius and Constantius I Chlorus appointed
Caesares
 Rule of four
 from Greek: four (tetra) and rule (arch)
 Division of empire into east and west, with sub-
division in each
 Lasted (with changes of personnel) until ca. 313
when civil war left Constantine I in west and
Licinius in east

Diocletian Maximian

Galerius Constantius I Chlorus

 Small imperial administrative system of early
empire

 Change in the cities
 Civic system in earlier empire
 Tax raising and tax farming
 Euergetism

 Keith Hopkins (‘Conquest By
Book’, in Beard et al. (eds.),
Literacy in the Roman World, JRA
Supplement 3; Ann Arbor, 1991)
argued that writing, like money,
was a medium of exchange – in
information and knowledge –
which helped to unify Empire
 Emergence of legal and
documentary culture as the
Roman Empire expanded
 Resultant process of
professionalization and
bureaucratization (as we have
already seen)

 Chain of command linked civil administrators
directly to emperor (via councils/ departments)
 Professionalised hierarchy with elaborate
system of honours
 Each province has separate civil and military
administration (secret service developed)
 Increases number of provinces (50 -> 100)
 Number of officials increased (15k -> 30k)
 System of taxation developed to meet costs of
increased administration

‘In his greed and anxiety he [Diocletian] turned the whole world
upside down. He appointed three men to share his rule, dividing the
world into four parts and multiplying the armies, since each of the
four strove to have a far larger number of troops than previous
emperors had had when they were governing the state alone. The
number of recipients began to exceed the number of contributors by
so much that, with farmers’ resources exhausted by the enormous
requisitions , fields became deserted and cultivated land was turned
into forest. To ensure terror was universal, provinces too were cut
into fragments; many governors and even more officials were
imposed on individual regions, almost on individual cities, and to
these were added numerous accountants, controllers, and prefects’
deputies. The activities of all these people were very rarely civil; they
engaged only in repeated condemnations and confiscations, and in
exacting endless resources – and the exactions were not just
frequent, they were incessant, and involved insupportable injustices.
And how could the arrangements for raising soldiers be endured?’

 Increased size of army
 Renewed border defences
 Developed mobile field army
(comitatenses)
 Military commands made smaller
 Military and administrative
offices separated
 Clear chain of command
developed (focussed on emperor)
 Taxes raised to pay for increased
military

 “By the forethought of Diocletian, the
frontiers of the empire everywhere were
covered, as I have stated, with cities,
garrisons and fortifications which housed the
whole army. Consequently, it was impossible
for the barbarians to cross the frontier
because they were confronted at every point
by forces capable of resisting their attacks.”
 Z goes on to criticise Constantine for abandoning
this system

 Mid 280s: Carausius appointed
to clear pirates from English
Channel; successful but then
leads breakaway in Britain and
northern Gaul with support of
legions there Carausius
 293: Constantius I Chlorus
appointed Caesar to take back
N. Gaul and Britain
 293-296: gradual success;
Carausius replaced by Allectus,
who is restricted to Britain
 296: reconquest of Britain Allectus

1. Cassius Dio’s Roman History
2. Historia Augusta
3. Herodian
In your group prepare a short presentation that provides the
following information about your source
 Date of composition (esp. in relation to events described)
 Author(s) (who they are, where they are from)
 What it’s about (e.g. recurrent themes/ topics)
 Issues (e.g. viewpoint or biases of the author/ history of the
source’s transmission or survival)
One member of the group needs to write this up into a
short (readable) summary which I will type up and add to
the PowerPoint slides on VITAL.

 ca. 164-229 AD (at least that is when he stops writing)
 Wrote 80 volumes of his Roman History covering 1400
years from Aeneas and the foundation of Rome to 229
AD. It is written in Attic Greek.
 It survives mainly as extracts in later works by other
people (i.e. is fragmentary)
 Dio served as a senator under Commodus and was consul
under Severus Alexander: so he has an elite viewpoint
 Religion is a strong theme. He places a lot of importance
on the supernatural. His first work, written before the
History, was about dreams and portents. However there
is no mention of Christianity. Did it not matter to him?
 Dio spent 10 years researching and 12 years writing – he
had a lot of sources to draw on

 New weights and
denominations
 Maintenance of bi-
metallic system
 Differential effect in
east (more
economically
developed) and west
 Seems to have
provoked rise in cost
of living; but rise in
benefactions

‘If the excesses perpetrated by persons of unlimited and frenzied
avarice could be checked by some self-restraint – this avarice which
rushes for gain and profit with no thought for mankind … the
situation could perhaps be faced with dissembling and silence, with
the hope that human forbearance might alleviate the cruel and
pitiable situation. But the only desire of these uncontrolled madmen
is to have no thought for the common need.’
‘ We hasten, therefore, to apply the remedies long demanded by the
situation, satisfied that no-one can complain that our intervention
with regulations is untimely or unnecessary, trivial or unimportant.’
‘It is our pleasure, therefore, that the prices listed in the subjoined
schedule be held in observance in the whole of our Empire …’
‘It is our pleasure that anyone who resists the measures in this
statute shall be subject to a capital penalty for daring to do so. And
let no-one consider the statute harsh, since there is at hand a ready
protection from danger in the observance of moderation…’

 Diocletian a
religious
conservative
 Traditional
pantheon persisted
and imperial cult
reinforced
 Part of increased
stress on centrality of
emperor Diocletian and Jupiter, holding sceptres, sacrificing
 Link between divine over altar
favour and military
victory especially
important

 Actions against:
 Manichees (eastern dualist sect)
▪ D = in charge of the East; conflict with Persia
▪ Laws against Manichees in late 290s and 300s
 Christians
▪ 303-304: Great Persecution
▪ Initial attempt to root out Christians from army, bureaucracy and
imperial household seems to have grown into general attempt to
exterminate Christians
 Objections to these religions:
 Novelty
 Alien origins (esp. Manichees)
 Exclusivist opposition to traditional Roman religions/ morals
 But is it ‘persecution’ or ‘prosecution’?

 princeps => dominus
 Greater emphasis on ceremony,
which is stage-managed:
 E.g. adventus – entry into a city
 Emperors wore diadems and Audience hall, Diocletian’s palace, Split
clothes embroidered with
precious stones
 Only emperors allowed to wear
purple cloth
 Emperors separated from
people by a curtain before
audiences
 Emperors lived in palaces
 Basilicas keep emperor as centre
of attention / authority
Constantine’s basilica, Trier

 304: D suffers serious illness
 304-5: Galerius persuades/ forces D and M to
abdicate (in 305); both retire
 Galerius becomes Augustusi in east and
Constantius I in west
 Severus and Maximin (both closely associated with
Galerius) declared Caesars
 Constantine (son of Constantius I Chlorus) and
Maxentius (son of Maximian) are ignored
= TROUBLE

 D and M remain in touch and
are consulted by Galerius
 M tries to return to power
twice; suffers damnatio
memoriae
 D urged to do the same:
 ‘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’ (Aurelius
Victor, Liber de Caesaribus 39.6)

 Specially-built for
D’s retirement in
Dalmatia (modern
Croatia)
 A fortified site:
compare to plans of
Roman forts
 A luxury residence:
compare to villas

 To what extent is the Tetrarchic system (solely)
the work of Diocletian (and Maximian)?
 It barely outlasted D’s abdication...
 Is the Tetrarchy something radically new or
simply an intensification of trends we have
already witnessed, like the 3rd century crisis?
 Bureaucratisation
 Militarisation
 Exaltation of emperor
 Policing of deviance (move towards monotheism?)

 Read: Christopher Kelly (1994), ‘Late Roman
Bureaucracy: Going through the files’, in A.
Bowman and G. Woolf, eds., Literacy and power
in the ancient world (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press), pp. 161-176. [uploaded to
VITAL]

 In two week’s time we will look at the breakdown of
the Tetrarchy, the short-lived ‘Second Tetrarchy’ and
the success of Constantine and his Dynasty

The Tetrarchy

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