Item: i67623


Authentic Ancient Coin of:

Diocletian – Roman Emperor: 284-305 A.D.
As Senior Augustus, AD 305-311/2
ABDICATION ISSUE
 Bronze Follis 27mm (8.76 grams) London mint. Struck circa 305-307 A.D.
Reference: RIC VI 77a | Pedigree: Ex CNG Auction 260 Lot 526 (20 July 2011) Sold for $360
Certification: NGC Ancients AU  4281369-015
D N DIOCLETIANO FELICISSIMO SEN AVG, Laureate bust right, wearing imperial mantle, holding olive branch and mappa.
PROVIDENTIA DEORVM QVIES AVGG, Providentia standing right, receiving olive branch from Quies standing left, holding scepter.

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Diocletian – Roman Emperor: 284-305 A.D.

| Augustus: 284-285 A.D. (in opposition to Numerian) | 285-286 A.D. (sole reign; Maximian as Caesar) | 286-305 A.D. (with Maximian) |

| Father of Galeria Valeria | Father-in-law of Galerius |

Diocletian (Latin: Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus Augustus; c. 22 December 244  – 3 December 311), was a Roman Emperor from 284 to 305. Born to a family of low status in the Roman province of Dalmatia, Diocletian rose through the ranks of the military to become cavalry commander to the Emperor Carus. After the deaths of Carus and his son Numerian on campaign in Persia, Diocletian was proclaimed Emperor. The title was also claimed by Carus’ other surviving son, Carinus, but Diocletian defeated him in the Battle of the Margus. Diocletian’s reign stabilized the Empire and marks the end of the Crisis of the Third Century. He appointed fellow officer Maximian Augustus his senior co-emperor in 285.

Diocletian delegated further on 1 March 293, appointing Galerius and Constantius as Caesars, junior co-emperors. Under this “Tetrarchy”, or “rule of four”, each emperor would rule over a quarter-division of the Empire. Diocletian secured the Empire’s borders and purged it of all threats to his power. He defeated the Sarmatians and Carpi during several campaigns between 285 and 299, the Alamanni in 288, and usurpers in Egypt between 297 and 298. Galerius, aided by Diocletian, campaigned successfully against Sassanid Persia, the Empire’s traditional enemy. In 299 he sacked their capital, Ctesiphon. Diocletian led the subsequent negotiations and achieved a lasting and favorable peace. Diocletian separated and enlarged the Empire’s civil and military services and reorganized the Empire’s provincial divisions, establishing the largest and most bureaucratic government in the history of the Empire. He established new administrative centers in Nicomedia, Mediolanum, Antioch, and Trier, closer to the Empire’s frontiers than the traditional capital at Rome had been. Building on third-century trends towards absolutism, he styled himself an autocrat, elevating himself above the Empire’s masses with imposing forms of court ceremonies and architecture. Bureaucratic and military growth, constant campaigning, and construction projects increased the state’s expenditures and necessitated a comprehensive tax reform. From at least 297 on, imperial taxation was standardized, made more equitable, and levied at generally higher rates.

Not all of Diocletian’s plans were successful: the Edict on Maximum Prices (301), his attempt to curb inflation via price controls, was counterproductive and quickly ignored. Although effective while he ruled, Diocletian’s Tetrarchic system collapsed after his abdication under the competing dynastic claims of Maxentius and Constantine, sons of Maximian and Constantius respectively. The Diocletianic Persecution (303-11), the Empire’s last, largest, and bloodiest official persecution of Christianity, did not destroy the Empire’s Christian community; indeed, after 324 Christianity became the empire’s preferred religion under its first Christian emperor, Constantine.

In spite of his failures, Diocletian’s reforms fundamentally changed the structure of Roman imperial government and helped stabilize the Empire economically and militarily, enabling the Empire to remain essentially intact for another hundred years despite being near the brink of collapse in Diocletian’s youth. Weakened by illness, Diocletian left the imperial office on 1 May 305, and became the only Roman emperor to voluntarily abdicate the position. He lived out his retirement in his palace on the Dalmatian coast, tending to his vegetable gardens. His palace eventually became the core of the modern-day city of Split.

After his accession, Diocletian and Lucius Caesonius Bassus were named as consuls and assumed the fasces in place of Carinus and Numerianus. Bassus was a member of a senatorial family from Campania, a former consul and proconsul of Africa, chosen by Probus for signal distinction. He was skilled in areas of government where Diocletian presumably had no experience. Diocletian’s elevation of Bassus as consul symbolized his rejection of Carinus’ government in Rome, his refusal to accept second-tier status to any other emperor, and his willingness to continue the long-standing collaboration between the Empire’s senatorial and military aristocracies. It also tied his success to that of the Senate, whose support he would need in his advance on Rome.

Diocletian was not the only challenger to Carinus’ rule: the usurper M. Aurelius Julianus, Carinus’ corrector Venetiae, took control of northern Italy and Pannonia after Diocletian’s accession. Julianus minted coins from the mint at Siscia (Sisak, Croatia) declaring himself as Emperor and promising freedom. It was all good publicity for Diocletian, and it aided in his portrayal of Carinus as a cruel and oppressive tyrant. Julianus’ forces were weak, however, and were handily dispersed when Carinus’ armies moved from Britain to northern Italy. As leader of the united East, Diocletian was clearly the greater threat. Over the winter of 284-85, Diocletian advanced west across the Balkans. In the spring, some time before the end of May, his armies met Carinus’ across the river Margus (Great Morava) in Moesia. In modern accounts, the site has been located between the Mons Aureus (Seone, west of Smederevo) and Viminacium, near modern Belgrade, Serbia.

Despite having the stronger army, Carinus held the weaker position. His rule was unpopular, and it was later alleged that he had mistreated the Senate and seduced his officers’ wives. It is possible that Flavius Constantius, the governor of Dalmatia and Diocletian’s associate in the household guard, had already defected to Diocletian in the early spring. When the Battle of the Margus began, Carinus’ prefect Aristobulus also defected. In the course of the battle, Carinus was killed by his own men. Following Diocletian’s victory, both the western and the eastern armies acclaimed him Augustus. Diocletian exacted an oath of allegiance from the defeated army and departed for Italy.

The assassinations of Aurelian and Probus demonstrated that sole rulership was dangerous to the stability of the Empire. Conflict boiled in every province, from Gaul to Syria, Egypt to the lower Danube. It was too much for one person to control, and Diocletian needed a lieutenant. At some time in 285 at Mediolanum (Milan), Diocletian raised his fellow-officer Maximian to the office of Caesar, making him co-emperor.

The concept of dual rulership was nothing new to the Roman Empire. Augustus, the first Emperor, had nominally shared power with his colleagues, and more formal offices of co-Emperor had existed from Marcus Aurelius on. Most recently, the emperor Carus and his sons had ruled together, albeit unsuccessfully. Diocletian was in a less comfortable position than most of his predecessors, as he had a daughter, Valeria, but no sons. His co-ruler had to be from outside his family, raising the question of trust. Some historians state that Diocletian adopted Maximian as his filius Augusti, his “Augustan son”, upon his appointment to the throne, following the precedent of some previous emperors. This argument has not been universally accepted.

The relationship between Diocletian and Maximian was quickly couched in religious terms. Around 287 Diocletian assumed the title Iovius, and Maximian assumed the title Herculius. The titles were probably meant to convey certain characteristics of their associated leaders. Diocletian, in Jovian style, would take on the dominating roles of planning and commanding; Maximian, in Herculian mode, would act as Jupiter’s heroic subordinate. For all their religious connotations, the emperors were not “gods” in the tradition of the Imperial cult-although they may have been hailed as such in Imperial panegyrics. Instead, they were seen as the gods’ representatives, effecting their will on earth. The shift from military acclamation to divine sanctification took the power to appoint emperors away from the army. Religious legitimization elevated Diocletian and Maximian above potential rivals in a way military power and dynastic claims could not.

At the conclusion of the Peace of Nisibis, Diocletian and Galerius returned to Syrian Antioch. At some time in 299, the Emperors took part in a ceremony of sacrifice and divination in an attempt to predict the future. The haruspices were unable to read the entrails of the sacrificed animals and blamed Christians in the Imperial household. The Emperors ordered all members of the court to perform a sacrifice to purify the palace. The Emperors sent letters to the military command, demanding the entire army perform the required sacrifices or face discharge. Diocletian was conservative in matters of religion, a man faithful to the traditional Roman pantheon and understanding of demands for religious purification, but Eusebius, Lactantius and Constantine state that it was Galerius, not Diocletian, who was the prime supporter of the purge, and its greatest beneficiary. Galerius, even more devoted and passionate than Diocletian, saw political advantage in the politics of persecution. He was willing to break with a government policy of inaction on the issue.

Antioch was Diocletian’s primary residence from 299 to 302, while Galerius swapped places with his Augustus on the Middle and Lower Danube. He visited Egypt once, over the winter of 301-2, and issued a grain dole in Alexandria. Following some public disputes with Manicheans, Diocletian ordered that the leading followers of Mani be burnt alive along with their scriptures. In a 31 March 302 rescript from Alexandria, he declared that low-status Manicheans must be executed by the blade, and high-status Manicheans must be sent to work in the quarries of Proconnesus (Marmara Island, Turkey) or the mines of Phaeno in southern Palestine. All Manichean property was to be seized and deposited in the imperial treasury. Diocletian found much to be offended by in Manichean religion: its novelty, its alien origins, the way it corrupted the morals of the Roman race, and its inherent opposition to long-standing religious traditions. Manichaeanism was also supported by Persia at the time, compounding religious dissent with international politics. Excepting Persian support, the reasons he disliked Manichaenism were equally applicable, if not more so, to Christianity, his next target.

Great Persecution

Diocletian returned to Antioch in the autumn of 302. He ordered that the deacon Romanus of Caesarea have his tongue removed for defying the order of the courts and interrupting official sacrifices. Romanus was then sent to prison, where he was executed on 17 November 303. Diocletian believed that Romanus of Caesarea was arrogant, and he left the city for Nicomedia in the winter, accompanied by Galerius. According to Lactantius, Diocletian and Galerius entered into an argument over imperial policy towards Christians while wintering at Nicomedia in 302. Diocletian argued that forbidding Christians from the bureaucracy and military would be sufficient to appease the gods, but Galerius pushed for extermination. The two men sought the advice of the oracle of Apollo at Didyma. The oracle responded that the impious on Earth hindered Apollo’s ability to provide advice. Rhetorically Eusebius records the Oracle as saying “The just on Earth…” These impious, Diocletian was informed by members of the court, could only refer to the Christians of the Empire. At the behest of his court, Diocletian acceded to demands for universal persecution.

On 23 February 303, Diocletian ordered that the newly built church at Nicomedia be razed. He demanded that its scriptures be burned, and seized its precious stores for the treasury. The next day, Diocletian’s first “Edict against the Christians” was published. The edict ordered the destruction of Christian scriptures and places of worship across the Empire, and prohibited Christians from assembling for worship. Before the end of February, a fire destroyed part of the Imperial palace. Galerius convinced Diocletian that the culprits were Christians, conspirators who had plotted with the eunuchs of the palace. An investigation was commissioned, but no responsible party was found. Executions followed anyway, and the palace eunuchs Dorotheus and Gorgonius were executed. One individual, Peter Cubicularius, was stripped, raised high, and scourged. Salt and vinegar were poured in his wounds, and he was slowly boiled over an open flame. The executions continued until at least 24 April 303, when six individuals, including the bishop Anthimus, were decapitated. A second fire occurred sixteen days after the first. Galerius left the city for Rome, declaring Nicomedia unsafe. Diocletian would soon follow.

Although further persecutionary edicts followed, compelling the arrest of the Christian clergy and universal acts of sacrifice, the persecutionary edicts were ultimately unsuccessful; most Christians escaped punishment, and pagans too were generally unsympathetic to the persecution. The martyrs’ sufferings strengthened the resolve of their fellow Christians. Constantius and Maximian did not apply the later persecutionary edicts, and left the Christians of the West unharmed. Galerius rescinded the edict in 311, announcing that the persecution had failed to bring Christians back to traditional religion. The temporary apostasy of some Christians, and the surrendering of scriptures, during the persecution played a major role in the subsequent Donatist controversy. Within twenty-five years of the persecution’s inauguration, the Christian Emperor Constantine would rule the empire alone. He would reverse the consequences of the edicts, and return all confiscated property to Christians. Under Constantine’s rule, Christianity would become the Empire’s preferred religion. Diocletian was demonized by his Christian successors: Lactantius intimated that Diocletian’s ascendancy heralded the apocalypse, and in Serbian mythology, Diocletian is remembered as Dukljan, the adversary of God.

The historian A.H.M. Jones observed that “It is perhaps Diocletian’s greatest achievement that he reigned twenty-one years and then abdicated voluntarily, and spent the remaining years of his life in peaceful retirement.” Diocletian was one of the few Emperors of the third and fourth centuries to die naturally, and the first in the history of the Empire to retire voluntarily. Once he retired, however, his Tetrarchic system collapsed. Without the guiding hand of Diocletian, the Empire fell into civil wars. Stability emerged after the defeat of Licinius by Constantine in 324. Under the Christian Constantine, Diocletian was maligned. Constantine’s rule, however, validated Diocletian’s achievements and the autocratic principle he represented: the borders remained secure, in spite of Constantine’s large expenditure of forces during his civil wars; the bureaucratic transformation of Roman government was completed; and Constantine took Diocletian’s court ceremonies and made them even more extravagant.

Constantine ignored those parts of Diocletian’s rule that did not suit him. Diocletian’s policy of preserving a stable silver coinage was abandoned, and the gold solidus became the Empire’s primary currency instead. Diocletian’s persecution of Christians was repudiated and changed to a policy of toleration and then favoritism. Christianity eventually became the official religion in 381. Constantine would claim to have the same close relationship with the Christian God as Diocletian claimed to have with Jupiter. Most importantly, Diocletian’s tax system and administrative reforms lasted, with some modifications, until the advent of the Muslims in the 630s. The combination of state autocracy and state religion was instilled in much of Europe, particularly in the lands which adopted Orthodox Christianity.

In addition to his administrative and legal impact on history, the Emperor Diocletian is considered to be the founder of the city of Split in modern-day Croatia. The city itself grew around the heavily fortified Diocletian’s Palace the Emperor had built in anticipation of his retirement.