After the celebration of his Vicennalia, Diocletianus had left for Ravenna. The emperor was now in his sixties and his health was not good. At the start of the year 304 he nevertheless became consul for the ninth time, together with Maximianus, who was now consul for the eighth time.…
Diocletianus styled himself dominus et deus, but towards the end of his reign as emperor it was crystal clear that he was not omnipotent. There was one enemy that proved to be invincible: inflation. Although the emperor tried to blame greedy and depraved individuals, the inflation had in fact been…
In the period discussed here, the Crisis of the Third Century seemed like a thing of the distant past. The Tetrarchy functioned well and the four emperors of the Roman Empire won important victories on all fronts. Rebellions were crushed, rebel leaders were eliminated, and after a few initial setbacks…
In the third century the vast Roman Empire had at least 50 million inhabitants. Since Caracalla’s Constitutio Antoniniana of 212 almost all of these possessed Roman citizenship, provided that they were freeborn. The large majority of the people lived in the country or in one of the many hundreds of…
In the year 284 the Roman Empire had two augusti, who were not on speaking terms. Of the two, Carinus was the legitimate emperor. Immediately after the death of his father Carus in the summer of 283 he had travelled to Rome to claim the purple. For about a year…