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Diocletian

Latin nameDiocletian

The reformer who ended the chaos with the Tetrarchy, then abdicated to grow vegetables

Born to the Purple · Kings & Emperors
The TetrarchyCrisis of the Third CenturyThe price edict

Who they are

In the Crisis of the Third Century, over fifty years more than twenty emperors nearly all died violent deaths, and the empire teetered on the edge of dissolution. Diocletian, a commoner from Dalmatia risen from the ranks, pulled the empire back from the cliff with a set of radical institutional reforms: he split the territory among four rulers (two Augusti, two Caesars — the "Tetrarchy"), each holding one part and each meeting incursions in his own zone; he expanded the bureaucracy and army, imposed the Edict on Maximum Prices to fight inflation by force, and reset the tax system. He also launched the largest persecution of Christians in Roman history. Most astonishing was the ending: in 305 he abdicated of his own accord — the only such case in Roman history — and retired to his palace in Dalmatia to grow vegetables. When someone begged him to return and set the ruins right, he answered, "If you could see the cabbages I have planted with my own hands, you would not tempt me with power."

Key stories

Splitting the empire in four

Diocletian saw the root of the crisis: one man could not hold the Rhine, the Danube, and the East all at once, and every frontier emergency gave the army another chance to raise a new emperor. His solution was to divide power: an Augustus (senior emperor) each in East and West, each with a Caesar (junior emperor and heir), the four ruling by zone and fighting in concert. This halted for a time the chain reaction of usurpation, at the cost of doubling the administration and the army and sharply raising taxes. The Tetrarchy fell apart quickly after his abdication, but it proved one thing: an empire too vast to be ruled by one man would sooner or later split — the permanent division of East and West a century later was already in embryo here.

The temptation of cabbages

In 305 Diocletian abdicated on the same day as his co-ruler Maximian and retired to the palace he had built for himself at Split (in modern Croatia). The Tetrarchy soon fell into civil war over the succession, and someone begged him to come out of retirement to take charge. His answer became the classic Western footnote to "contentment with power": "If you could see the cabbages I have grown with my own hands at Salona, you would never again urge me to trade this peace for that seat." The palace at Split later grew into a whole city, and people live within Diocletian’s walls to this day.

Relationships

Disciple
✝️Constantine　The next generation who grew up within the Tetrarchic system

Appears in

Crisis, Reform & ChristianityDiocletian’s Tetrarchy
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