Martyrdom of Anthimus, Bishop of Nicomedia et al., The Menologion of Basil II, ca 1000
Vatican City, The Vatican Apostolic Library, Vaticanus graecus 1613
Image here via: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anthimus,_Bishop_of_Nicomedia,_and_those_with_him_(Menologion_of_Basil_II).jpg
After a bloody battle fought in what is now Serbia in AD285, Gaius Valerius Diocles emerged victorious. Soon after, both the Eastern and Western armies proclaimed him Emperor. We know him as Diocletian.
His origins remain obscure. All we know is that he was born in Salona, in the province of Dalmatia, and had risen through the ranks of the Roman army. This in itself was already a far from unusual career path. The days of “blue-blooded” rule were already a thing of the distant past.
What made Diocletian remarkable was his passionate belief that the Empire needed to be saved, and that to be saved, it first needed to be re-ordered. A near-century of military anarchy had resulted in chaos and decline. The frontiers were frequently overrun by barbarians. Some came simply to pillage; others to settle; many ended up serving in the Roman army. Urban life, especially in the West, was now increasingly unstable. Those who could migrated to the relative safety of the countryside. The economy was a mess, the coinage a joke.
And as in every age of anxiety, people sought solace in new religions and cults, many of which flatly rejected the old certainties of Rome’s traditional gods and rituals.
This all had to stop! From his accession in 285 to his retirement twenty years later, in 305, Diocletian sought to reform every aspect of life, work, worship, and rule within the Roman Empire. Everything changed. And yet the challenges and threats remained just the same.
And this makes Diocletian and his legacy all the more difficult to assess. This unsparingly moral man dressed as a living god, and tried to persecute the Christian religion out of existence. And that’s nothing compared to his attempts at universal price control!
Prepare to be challenged and conflicted!
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