CAESAR GAIUS AURELIVS VALERIVS DIOCLETIANVS AUGUSTVS PATER PATRIAE IOVIVS PONTIFEX MAXIMUS
ADIABENICUS, ARMENICUS MAXIMUS, BRITANNICUS MAXIMUS II, GERMANICUS MAXIMUS V, GOTHICUS MAXIMUS, MEDICUS MAXIMUS, PARTHICUS MAXIMUS, PERSICUS MAXIMUS II, RESTITUTOR ORBIS II, CONSERVATOR ORBIS II, SARMATICUS MAXIMUS IV
TRIBUNICIAE POTESTATES XX, CONSUL X, SALUTATIONES IMPERATORIAE XXI
- Imperator from 20 November of the year 284 AD, to 1 May of the year 305 AD.
- Diocles was born ('probably' is a very important word when we look at the biography of Diocletianus) on December 22 of the year 244, in the city of Salona, his father was a libertus of the Senator Anullinus.
- Before 270 he entered in the army. Served in Gaul, in the times of Aurelianus and Probus. In 280 was Dux Moesiae. In 282 under Marcus Aurelius Carus was Domesticos Regens or Commander of the Protectores Domestici.
- In 283 took part in the successful expedition of the Emperor Carus aginst the Persians. In August 283 Carus died, and the army was led, on the slow way back home, by his son Numerianus, who in turn died near Nicomedia.
- On November 20 of the year 284 Diocles was acclaimed Imperator, by his fellows Officers and Tribunes, on a hill near Nicomedia.
- The Emperor Diocletianus defeated the brother of Numerianus, in the battle of the river Margus (284/'85). Then reached Italy, now his power was undisputed.
- In the year 285 in Mediolanum, Diocletianus raised his colleague Maximianus to the rank of Augustus thus creating the Diarchy, the Imperial power was divided between two Augusti, Diocletianus in the East which capital was fixed in Nicomedia, Maximianus in the West with capital Mediolanum, in this way the turbolent sitution in the empire could be controlled better.
- In Mediolanum in the year 287, the two Augusti, trought a religious cerimony, took the two divine dedications: Diocletianus to Jupiter and Maximianus to Hercules. In this way, their sanctified power, became stronger.
- The Diarchic system became the Tetrarchy, in 293. Diocletianus appointed Galerius his heir and Caesar for the East. Maximianus did the same with Constantius Clorus for the West. Now the Empire was divided in four parts each consistuted of three new formed Diocesis, which replaced the old division of Augustus. In the new system the military administration was separated from the civil administration.
- During his reign, Diocletianus promoted several reforms: Reform of the Army, Economic and Fiscal Reforms, Political and Administrative Reforms, he started great construction programs, and tried to restore the moral and religious values of the Ancient Roman Tradition. The Empire was restored also in its military role, Diocletianus fight during his reign the internal and external enemies: Defeated the Sarmatians and the Carpi in several campaigns (285/299), the Alemans in 288, defeated two rebellions in Egypt, sustained his Caesar Galerius, in his wars against the Sassanids, Galerius conquered in 299 Cthesifon, and obtained a peace treaty that lasted a long time.
-In 301 trying to stop the inflaction, promulgated the Edict about Prices, in which were fixed the prices of the most common goods.
-From the year 303 started the great Persecution against the Christians, who in his opinion undermined the basis of the Roman society and moral system.
- In the year 305, Diocletianus volunatary (the only Roman emperor who voluntary left the power), left the power to his Caesar Galerius and retired himself to private life, in his wonderful palace in Spalato; he never returned to the political life. Maximianus did the same thing in Mediolanum in the same day!
- In the year 311 Diocletianus peacefully died in his palace at Spalato (Dalmatia).
This tread was not intended to tell the history of Gaius Valerius Diocletianus, it would be beyond my abilities and interests, but only to recall the figure of one of the greatest Roman Imperatores, he wasn't an aristocratic or an intellectual noble Roman, he was a soldier coming from a low class family and from the periphry of the Empire, he served Rome for something like forty years, and this is the true important value of his life: the word 'Service', he intended the political power like a service to the State, and let me say: this is not a small thing when we speak about politic, which is commonly seen only as a form of self-affirmation.
Diocles, the Illirian soldier son of a libertus, saved the Roman Empire from the annihilation, restored the Roman State from the ruins of a century of civil wars, reformed like a great politician the administrative, military and political structure of the Empire, gave Rome twenty years of peace and growth, then, like a soldier reaching retirement age, he, the great Caesar Gaius Valerius Aurelius Diocletianus Augustus, retired to private life!
So I want to greet his memory using our ancestors Language:
SET QVIA SVNT MANES
VALE ATQVE VALE DIOCLETIANVS
HABEBIS MEMORIAM AETERNAM
SIT TIBI TERRA LEVIS
.