Diocletian Facts & Worksheets

The Roman Emperor Diocletian, whose full Latin name is Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus—known initially as Diocles—was born in Salonae, Dalmatia, now Solin, Croatia, in 245 BCE and died there in 316 BCE. He stabilized the Roman Empire after the third-century turmoil, reorganizing its governance and finances, laying the foundation for the Byzantine Empire in the East, and briefly shoring up the declining Western kingdom. Additionally, his rule marked the occurrence of the final major Christian persecution.

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Key Facts & Information

LIFE

• Legends, hyperbole, the dubiousness of sources, and the hostility of his opponents have shrouded Diocletian’s biography. His ancestors are unknown. His father was either a scribe or a liberated enslaved person of Senator Anullinus. 
• In official inscriptions, Diocletian’s full name is Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus. 
• He was given the name Diocles initially, then Valerius, after his daughter Valeria, who married Galerius in 293. 
• The gens name Aurelius did not emerge until after his accession on March 1, 286.
• Nothing is known of his wife, Prisca, other than what Lactantius Firmianus, a contemporary Latin Christian writer, claims in his De multibus Persecutor, which is questionable in its accuracy. 
• Diocles, who took the name Diocletianus, entered history like so many other emperors who rose from the shadows through military might, brought to power by the army. 
• What we know about his appearance comes from coin puppets and sculptures. According to reports, he was tall and skinny, with a broad forehead, a short, powerful nose, a hard mouth, and a determined chin.

ASCEND TO POWER

• Diocletian had spent most of his life in military barracks before his ascension. These could have occurred in Gaul or Moesia, as recounted in the Historia Augusta. 
• He could perhaps have been a member of Emperor Carinus’ bodyguard. 
• The only specific knowledge regarding Diocletian during this time is that he was one of the army chiefs recruited by Carinus and the Illyrians to fight the Persians. 
• Numerian, Carinus’s brother and co-emperor, was found dead in his litter in 284, and his adoptive father, the praetorian prefect Aper, was suspected of murdering him to gain power. 
• When Diocletian appeared in public for the first time as Emperor, clad in imperial purple, he declared himself innocent of Numerian’s murder.
• He identified Aper as the perpetrator and personally murdered him. Once again, hyperbole has clouded the truth.
• While Aper was guilty, it was also established that Diocletian had been warned earlier that he would become Emperor on the day he killed a boar (thus the Latin name Aper). And it was confirmed that he didn’t want to wait any longer for the boar to arrive. 
• In truth, Numerian died either naturally or due to a lightning strike. However, with Aper’s death, Diocletian was freed of an eventual rival, and his conduct was given sacred value retroactively.
• Diocletian, proclaimed Emperor on November 17, 284, had accurate control only in the areas dominated by his troops (i.e., Asia Minor and probably Syria). The rest of the empire followed Numerian’s brother Carinus’ orders. 
• Carinus assaulted Diocletian after putting down an uprising by Julianus, a troop leader in Pannonia whom he attacked and murdered near Verona. 
• Diocletian would have been defeated if Carinus had not been slain by a party of troops near the Margus (modern Morava) and Danube rivers, not far from present-day Belgrade. As a result, Diocletian became Emperor in midsummer 285.

DIOCLETIAN’S EMPIRE REORGANIZED

• Diocletian was in Nicomedia at the start of 286. In the meantime, he and his lieutenants had quenched revolts among Roman troops stationed on the borderlands. 
• He dedicated himself from then on to restoring civil order to the empire by withdrawing the army from politics.
• Despite his military background, Diocletian was not a soldier in the traditional sense. He had only recently ascended to power when he made an unexpected decision: to share the throne with a colleague of his choosing. 
• He had to put down a rebellion or stop an invasion almost every single week, whether it was in Africa or along the frontier running from Britain to the Persian Gulf, along the Rhine, the Pontus Euxinus (Black Sea), the Danube, and the Euphrates. 
• Diocletian, who preferred administration, required a man who was both a soldier and a faithful partner to be in charge of military defense. 
• In 286, he chose Maximian, an Illyrian and the son of a peasant from the Sirmium region. Later, he picked two other houses while maintaining Rome as the official capital. 
• Maximian, who was in charge of the West, was put in Milan, northern Italy, to prevent German invasions. 
• Diocletian positioned himself at Nicomedia, in western near the Persian border, to keep an eye on the East. 
• Six years later, in 293, after assuming the title of “Augustus” and after giving it to Maximian, he enlisted the help of two more men: Galerius, a former herdsman, and Constantius I Chlorus, a Dardanian nobleman who was also a bit of a tough countryman, according to family lore. 
• These newcomers were granted the title “Caesar” and assigned to Augustus, Constantius to Maximian (with a house in Trier), and Galerius to Diocletian himself (with a home in Sirmium).
• Thus, while the empire remained a patrimonium individual, it was never divided administratively: Diocletian, residing in Nicomedia, watched over Egypt, Thrace, and Asia; Galerius, living in Sirmium, managed over the Danubian provinces, Illyria, and Achaea; Maximian, residing in Milan, over Sicily, Italy, and Africa; and Constantius I Chlorus, living in Trier, over Gaul, Spain, and Britain. 
• Each Augustus adopted his Caesar to deepen the colleagues’ togetherness. 
• Galerius married Valeria, Diocletian’s daughter, while Constantius I Chlorus divorced his wife (or concubine) Helena, mother of the future Emperor Constantine I, to marry Theodora, Maximian’s stepdaughter.
• The Historia Augusta, a 17th-century compilation of histories of Roman emperors and caesars, referred to the four new emperors of the empire as the quattuor principes mundi, meaning “four princes of the world.” 
• Diocletian consecrated this human unity by forging a religious bond. He and Maximian believed themselves to be “sons of gods and creators of gods,” as evidenced by the “fateful” boar and claimed that their ascent to power was the result of divine design.
• After 287, he was known as Jovius (Jove), and Maximian was known as Herculius (Hercules), indicating that they were selected by the gods and predestined to be partners in the divine nature. 
• Thus, Diocletian was tasked with disseminating the blessings of Providence, while Maximian was tasked with heroic energy. 
• Diocletian, afterward known as Dominus et deus on coins and inscriptions, surrounded himself with pomp and ceremony and often demonstrated his dictatorial authority. The empire assumed the characteristics of a theocracy under Diocletian.
• Diocletian’s reforms were successful; they ended domestic chaos and enabled Maximian to suppress the Bagaudae insurrection in Gaul, a band of peasants who found the tribute onerous. 
• After battling for the empire in Britain against Saxon and Frankish pirates, Carausius later rebelled and proclaimed himself Emperor in Britain in 287, just as peace was barely returning following a campaign against the Germans.  
• Carausius reigned in Britain for over ten years until Constantius I Chlorus succeeded in reuniting the empire with Britain in 296. 
• Only recently had the problems in Mauretania and the Danubian regions been resolved when Egypt declared independence under the usurper Achilleus. In 296, Diocletian reconquered the country. 
• He was finally compelled to face Narses, King of Persia, who had invaded Syria in 297.
• Because he was still in Egypt, he delegated this operation to Galerius, who secured victory for the Romans after a long war. 
• Tiridates, king of Armenia and a Roman protégé, was able to reclaim his throne; the Tigris became the empire’s eastern border, and peace ruled in that portion of the world until the reign of Constantine I (306-337).

DIOCLETIAN’S DOMESTIC REFORMS

• Perhaps more vital for the empire’s survival was Diocletian’s domestic reform program. His predecessors had made some initial attempts in a similar direction; for example, Emperor Gallienus had banned senators from the army and separated military and civil professions. 
• The Senate’s privileges had been gradually eroded. On the other hand, Diocletian systematized these arrangements so that all of his reforms resulted in a centralized and absolute monarchy that gave him effective means of action. 
• As a result, Diocletian appointed consuls; senators ceased working together to draft laws; imperial counselors (Consilia sacra) were divided among specialized offices; their roles were clearly defined; this limited the authority of the praetorian prefects (the Emperor’s personal bodyguards); administrative specialization grew; and the number of bureaucrats increased. 
• This started the bureaucracy and technocracy that would eventually consume modern societies.
• Such an organization allowed the administration to rely less on individual people and more on applying legal texts. During Diocletian’s rule, the Gregorian and Hermogenian codes were rewritten, of which only parts survive. 
• However, 1,200 surviving rescripts reveal another part of the Emperor’s personality. 
• Diocletian, a conservative, was concerned with the preservation of the ancient virtues:
  • The duty of children was to provide for their elderly parents’ needs.
  • Parents have to treat their children justly.
  • The responsibility of spouses was to respect the laws of marriage.
• The obligation of sons not to bear witness against their fathers or enslaved people against their masters.
• The protection of private property, creditor’s rights, and contract clauses.
• He prohibited torture if the truth could be learned in another way and encouraged governors to be as independent as possible.
• The army was likewise restructured and returned to its former discipline. Sedentary forces (local troops) were moved to the borders, while the ready army (major moveable army) was brought in-house.
• Troop strength was augmented by a fourth (rather than four times as Lactantius reports). 
• Diocletian’s reforms were also infused with a sense of human realities; he released soldiers from duty after 20 years of service, and while he reduced commodity prices to cut the expense of living, it was primarily to make life easier for the warriors. 
• According to Lactantius, Diocletian divided the provinces “to make himself more feared.” 
• Still, in reality, it was to put the governors closer to the people they governed and, by fragmenting their power, to weaken their territorial might. He committed to promoting economic development through agricultural recovery and a construction program.
• Such initiatives were costly, as were wars and the ramifications of an unstable financial position. Diocletian’s budgetary remedies are still contested; they represent a challenging dilemma.
• The jugum and capitation were introduced as new taxes, the former being a charge on a unit of cultivable land and the latter an individual tax. 
• Taxation was levied proportionally, with the amount of contribution determined by productivity and type of farming. 
• It was often a type of socioeconomic taxation based on the link between humans and land in terms of either ownership or productivity. 
• Assessments were done every five years until the system was consolidated into a 15-year cycle known as an indication.
• This census of taxable adults drew harsh condemnation, although it had the theoretical advantage of replacing the previous era’s arbitrary levies. 
• A more fair statement would be that the financial system was prone to excesses, but Diocletian’s objective was to increase money. Thus, he spared no one, including Italy, which had previously been exempt from land charges.
• This reform was accompanied by monetary reform, which saw the decentralization of minting, an increase in the number of mints from eight to fifteen, the reintroduction of fixed-design, sound gold and silver coinage, the production of a new bronze coin, the circulation of small bills to facilitate daily financial exchange, and the introduction of small coins.
• All of these steps tended to keep financial crises at bay. 
• In 301 BCE, the famed Edictum de Maximis Pretiis was established, setting wages and maximum prices to prevent inflation, abusive profits, and buyer exploitation. 
• Around 1,000 goods were listed, and violations were punishable by death; black marketeers faced harsh penalties. Nonetheless, this price and wage control proved unenforceable, and the directive was later repealed.

CHRISTIANS BEING PERSECUTED

• The concluding phase of the ruler’s reign was marked by a harsh persecution of Christians. 
• The motivations behind this persecution remain unclear, but theories include the possible impact of Galerius, a staunch supporter of traditional Roman beliefs; the aim to restore absolute unity by suppressing a perceived separatist foreign religion and a group that seemed to establish an alternative power structure; and the influence of anti-Christian philosophers and rulers on both scholars and the general public.
• In any case, some or all of these causes prompted Diocletian to issue the four edicts of 303-304 while vowing not to pour blood. 
• His word went unheeded, and the persecutions expanded throughout the empire with such ferocity that they failed to eradicate Christianity but instead prompted the martyrs’ faith to burn out.

LEGACY

• Diocletian had aged prematurely as a result of the disease. Perhaps he thought abdicating after 20 years of power was likewise “fateful.” He chose to abandon the empire’s affairs to younger men. 
• He returned to Nicomedia, then to the Salonae neighborhood on the Adriatic coast, where he had a beautiful palace erected (the present town of Split, Croatia, occupies the location of its ruins).
• He surrendered on May 1, 305, and died in 311.
• Diocletian reorganized the empire without resorting to political romanticism. His reforms were not the result of a deliberate strategy but rather of historical necessity.
• He may face accusations such as harshness and frugality, yet these traits were not rooted in inherent cruelty or miserliness. His harshness aimed at effective governance, and his frugality sought to ensure state resources. 
• Despite seeming chaotic and visionary, these qualities prompted him to innovate governance for a vast territory. He laid the groundwork for bureaucracy and technocracy, doing so efficiently. While lacking exceptional purity, he held a consistent belief in the power of the emperors’ gods to govern the world.
• He led with absolute “divine right” monarchy and surrounded himself with magnificence.
• He partially failed in his duty, and it is correct to argue that the state he built was not “the new house he intended to build, but rather an emergency shelter,” offering storm protection with the help of the gods. He was vir rei publicae necessarius, “the man whom the State required” in his acts, religion, and time.

Diocletian Worksheets

This fantastic bundle includes everything you need to know about Diocletian across 34 in-depth pages. These ready-to-use worksheets are perfect for teaching kids about Diocletian. He stabilized the Roman Empire after the third-century turmoil, reorganizing its governance and finances, laying the foundation for the Byzantine Empire in the East, and briefly shoring up the declining Western kingdom. Additionally, his rule marked the occurrence of the final major Christian persecution.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

1. Diocletian Facts
2. A Biographical Sketch
3. Timeline of Triumphs and Trials
4. Who He Really Is
5. Factors and Perspectives
6. Artistic Representation
7. Diocletian’s Legacy
8. Exploring His Controversy
9. Video Analysis
10. An Era Costume
11. Chronicles of Power

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Diocletian?

Diocletian, whose full name was Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, was a Roman emperor who ruled from 284 to 305 AD. He is known for his significant administrative and military reforms, which helped stabilize the Roman Empire during a period of crisis.

What were Diocletian’s major reforms?

Diocletian is best known for the Diocletianic Reforms, a series of measures aimed at strengthening the Roman Empire. His most notable reforms included the division of the empire into the Eastern and Western Roman Empires, the creation of the Tetrarchy (a system of four co-emperors), and the establishment of the “Dominate” system of government. He also implemented price controls, introduced a new taxation system, and initiated religious persecutions against Christians.

Why did Diocletian divide the Roman Empire?

Diocletian divided the Roman Empire to make it easier to govern. The empire had become too large and unwieldy for a single emperor to effectively rule, especially considering the constant threats from external invasions and internal strife. By splitting it into two administrative regions, with an Augustus and a Caesar (co-emperor) in each, he hoped to improve governance and defend against external threats more efficiently.

How did Diocletian’s persecution of Christians impact the Roman Empire?

Diocletian’s persecution of Christians was part of a broader effort to unify and strengthen the Roman Empire under a single religious and moral framework. Christians were seen as a threat to the traditional Roman religious order and were subjected to various forms of persecution, including imprisonment and execution. However, these persecutions did not ultimately suppress the spread of Christianity, and the religion continued to grow in spite of the hardships faced by its adherents.

What was the outcome of Diocletian’s reign?

Diocletian’s reign had a mixed legacy. On the one hand, his administrative reforms helped stabilize the Roman Empire temporarily, and the division into the Eastern and Western Empires set the stage for the Byzantine Empire in the East. On the other hand, his religious persecutions and economic policies were controversial and did not achieve their intended goals. After Diocletian’s abdication in 305 AD, the empire experienced further turmoil and eventually declined, leading to its eventual collapse in the West in 476 AD.

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