Division of the Roman empire; Diocletian and the Tetrarchy

Historical Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.2: Ancient Roman Writing and Culture (Republic and Empire), -750-476.
Vol. editors: William John Dominik (University of Otago), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Thomas Habinek (University of Southern California), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Sophia Papaioannou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), Jula Wildberger (The American University of Paris)

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Politics

Dates

Date of occurrence 293

Places

Ancient Rome (Republic & Empire) (Location)

Although previous emperors had divided the Empire into eastern and western halves, Diocletian Antonianus split the administration of the Empire into four separate sections, a system known as the Tetrarchy.

Diocletian ruled the eastern Empire and installed Maximian as his co-emperor in the west. Subordinate to these two “Augusti”, or senior emperors, were two “Caesars”, Galerius Maximianus in the east and Julius Constantius in the west. The Caesars were officially adopted by their emperors, in order to establish them as the legitimate heirs to power and thus discourage conspiracies by outsiders to usurp the Augusti.

The Tetrarchy worked well for as long as Diocletian remained in power. In 305 he decided it was time f…

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184 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Division of the Roman empire; Diocletian and the Tetrarchy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 November 2005 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1626, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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Division of the Roman empire; Diocletian and the Tetrarchy

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