On paper Galerius was the senior augustus within the Tetrarchy. We do not know his exact age, but at the beginning of 311 he was well into his fifties. The old emperor had become a shadow of a man, perhaps as a result of colon cancer. That is at least…
On paper, the Tetrarchy had been an excellent idea: two senior emperors (augusti) and two junior emperors (caesares) would rule over the vast Roman Empire in perfect harmony. When Diocletianus, who had designed the system, and his co-emperor Maximianus abdicated in 305, the system of succession seemed to be working…
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 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…
A trip to Venice can never be complete without a visit to what is arguably the Serenissima’s most important and most famous religious edifice: the Basilica di San Marco. What is most surprising about the basilica is that, although it is almost a millennium old and has been dedicated to…