Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, 284 - 305

The truly giant figure amongst the later Roman emperors, Diocletian was probably responsible for the death of the emperor Numerian. He faced Numerian's brother, Carinus in battle and lost. However, through the treachery of Carinus' senior officers, who murdered their emperor, Diocletian was left as the undisputed master of the entire Roman empire. In 286, he appointed the general Maximianus to be his co-emperor. He placed Maximianus over the western empire whilst he ruled the east. In 293 Both he and Maximianus appointed junior emperors (Caesars) to be their deputies and heirs. Diocletian and Maximianus appointed Constantius as western Caesar and Galerius as eastern Caesar. The tetrarchy proved a workable and efficient innovation, and could have done much for the stability of the empire but for the unopposable power of the armies, who had their own ideas about who should rule. Diocletian made many innovative changes, including a change to the coinage, introducing a new coin, probably called the follis. He began the fiercest persecution of the Christians in 303 and is reviled by the Christian churches because of this. He abdicated after a twenty year reign in 305, and lived in peace in his palace in Illyricum (Yugoslavia). His palace walls still survive today as the town walls of Split. In his retirement, he grew cabbages and fished for trout. He died (probably of natural causes) in 313. Unfortunately, the system of regularly abdicating Augusti did not survive without his powerful presence at the helm.