Diocletian(originally known as Diocletian, 250-May 24, 312), Emperor of Rome (reigned 284-305)

How often are four or five ministers willing to join forces to deceive their monarchs for their common good! Because of his special exalted position, he cannot know the truth of any one thing; he can only see everything with their eyes and listen to their distorted reports.... Some of the best and wisest emperors will also be betrayed by their courtiers and fall into their corruption - Diocletian

If you could see the cabbage I grew in Salona with my own hands, you would never persuade me to give up enjoying the joy in the present-Diocletian said when he declined Maximian's request to restore his position.

After the end of the Severus dynasty, the Roman Empire finally entered its unprecedented period of chaos, known as the "Crisis of the Third Century". The ruling clique was in constant civil strife and chaos, and slaves and peasants also showed their political strength through repeated uprisings. With the rise of Aurelianus of Illyria (270-275), he adopted the practice of absorbing a large number of barbarians into the Roman army, began the process of eliminating civil strife and restoring unity. The completion of this process, Rome entered a new stage of development, marked by the rise of another important figure, Diocletian.

Diocletian's father was a freed slave in Illyria. Diocletian joined the army as a son of the working people of the lower class and rose in the army. By 284, he had accumulated military merit and was promoted to the position of captain of the SS of the Roman Empire.

In 284, Calus sent one of his sons, Calinus, to Gaul to quell the local rebellion, while he took another son, Numelanus, on an expedition to Persia. On his way back to the army, the shadow of murder hung over the Führer's luxurious line. There are various theories about the mysterious death of Calus, but the most likely death was murder. His son Numelanus succeeded him on the spot, but was assassinated a month later when the army marched to Nicomedia in Asia Minor. The commander of the Guard, Abell, sealed the news of the death, but the stench from the corpse still informed the soldiers of the result. Therefore, Diocletian, the captain of the SS, rose up to expose the crime of Abel's killing of the two Fuehrer and killed him in a fight. Diocletian was therefore promoted as the new Fuehrer.

At the same time, Kalinus in Gaul also announced his successor as head of state, so the two sides launched a decisive battle. Kalinus was killed by his subordinates during the decisive battle, and Diocletian became the only ruler of the empire.

Since Octavian established the Principality System, Rome's governing institutions began to transform from a republic to an absolute monarchy, and Diocletian was the last person who completed this process. Under his rule, the Senate was deprived of its last practical power and became a mere decoration of honor. He changed the title of the head of state to Dominus (meaning master) and became the first emperor in Rome to match the name (because of this, in this book, the highest rulers of the Roman Empire before Diocletian are called heads of state, and Diocletian and his successors are called emperors). He transplanted the etiquette of the Eastern autocracy into his court, fully enjoyed the majesty of the emperor, and used the god Zhu Bi to deify himself.

Diocletian always had an oriental complex. He established his residence in Nicomedia in Asia Minor, and Rome retained only the nominal capital status. This allowed him to break free from the control of the old forces more completely, which was also a major change in Roman history. At that time, although the Roman Empire was generally stable, the situation in some areas remained tense. Diocletian focused on the management of the East, so he entrusted the western part of the empire to his friend Maximian, and in 286 he was promoted to "Augustus" of equal status. The two emperors were still unable to rule together, so they each appointed a deputy, Galeria and Constantia, called "Caesar". The two "Augustus" married their daughters to "Caesar" and established "Caesar" as their heir. The four people demarcated the specific scope of rule, and Diocletian was in charge of Thrace, Asia, and Egypt at the easternmost point of the empire. Of the four, Diocletian still held the highest power. The co-governance of the four emperors was a great innovation of Diocletian, which was conducive to strengthening the effectiveness of governance and paved the way for the division of the Roman Empire in the future.

Diocletian suppressed the Egyptian uprising in the east and fought with the Persians for Armenia and the Two River Basin, eventually gaining part of the Two River Basin. The other three co-governors also achieved success in their own jurisdictions. The stable unity of the empire was consolidated and the territory expanded, and the joint rule of the four emperors showed good results in its early days.

Diocletian reformed the imperial provincial system, re-dividing the original 47 provinces into 100, and setting up administrative regions on top of the provinces, 100 provinces belong to 12 administrative regions. In military terms, the army was divided into frontier troops and inland mobile troops, and a large number of "barbarians" from the frontier were absorbed into the army. While expanding the total force to 600,000, it also further barbarianized the Roman army.

Among Diocletian's reforms, the one that has the most far-reaching impact on future generations is the tax system reform and the various decrees promulgated to adapt to this change. In the early Roman Empire, the main source of tax revenue was indirect taxes, and income tax and commodity transaction tax were the lifeblood of the country's economy. However, during the catastrophe of the third century, Rome's economy declined greatly, and cities that were easy targets suffered even more losses. Commerce and handicrafts shrank greatly, and the economy took a big step back towards agriculture and a natural economy. In response to this change, in order to expand tax revenue, Diekry first implemented a new tax law, changing the original tax system from indirect taxes to direct taxes, collecting poll taxes and land taxes mainly in kind in rural areas, and collecting poll taxes mainly in currency in cities. In order to ensure tax sources, Dioclexian issued various decrees to fix farmers and official farmers on the land and not to migrate, to fix merchants and craftsmen in the industry and not to change careers, and to fix city councillors in the city council. These measures clearly took the Roman Empire a big step forward into the Middle Ages. In order to stabilize the devaluing currency value and curb inflation, Dioclesia first adopted measures such as changing the currency system and issuing a "price limit decree", but to no avail. In the end, he gave up efforts in this regard and relied on goods as a means of taxation and supply. The commodity economy continues to retreat towards the natural economy. It is irreversible.

Diocletian's religious actions are eye-catching. He believed in the God Jupiter and claimed to be the son of the God Jupiter. Faced with the increasingly prosperous Christianity, Diocletian was deeply disturbed. In 303, he issued an imperial decree prohibiting Christians from holding religious services, excluding Christians from the ranks of the army and officials, destroying Christian churches, confiscating the property of the Christian Church, and some stubborn Christians were executed. This was the largest persecution in the history of Christian development in Europe, but it was also the last darkness before its dawn.

In 305, Diocletian reigned for 20 years. According to the original agreement, he and Maximian abdicated together, and the two "Caesars" succeeded them. Diocletian became the first monarch in Roman history to abdicate voluntarily.

On May 24, 312 AD, Diocletian died in his palace at the age of sixty-two.

Although Diocletian, the first official emperor of Rome, established the majesty of the emperor, he did not change his character as a tireless soldier and a practical statesman throughout his life. Perhaps the rise and fall of all things in the world are certain. After the shock of the crisis of the third century, the Roman Empire has completely bid farewell to the stage of prosperity and embarked on the road of decline. Diocletian failed to change this general trend, but after all, under his leadership, the empire has entered a strong stage of nearly a hundred years. Diocletian's various reforms cover a wide range of areas. In fact, they are active or passive adaptations to various changes in the Roman world since the 3rd century. Some of them have far-reaching significance, such as the co-governance of the four emperors and the reform of taxation and economy. His reign, which laid the groundwork for even greater changes under Constantine soon after, puts him at number 62 on this list.

Comment: Compared with many reforms in history, Diocletian's reforms were mainly an adaptation to the reality of the decline of the empire. The unprecedented "Four Emperors" adapted to the situation of the border crisis at that time, and the tax reform adapted to the situation of the expansion of the proportion of the natural economy. Diocletian's reforms, although establishing a relatively stable new social and political system, were ineffective in the long-term trend of Rome's decline.