In the history of the world, a person's reputation often changes.
For example, Stalin of the Soviet Union is considered only by the West as a tyrant of horror, but in Russia it is regarded as a hero who created an era of glory. The same is true for Mao Zedong, and it can be said that the position where you are now determines the evaluation.
In that sense, successive Roman emperors have a section that has been unfairly deprecated for a long time.
The reason is that Christianity conquered the world and the view of Christian history became dominant.
Successive Roman emperors were the ones who executed Christ and continued to persecute Christianity, so they were truly evil empires.
Even Dante, who had such a respect for Vergilius, dropped Vergilius into hell just because he was not a Christian.
And it can be said that Diocletian was the one who received the most.
After all, he was the one who put the last crackdown on Christianity.
The man who ended the military emperor era
The detailed birth of Emperor Diocletian is unknown.
History is a mystery. Emperor Diocletian was not keen on leaving history in his lifetime. Therefore, Julius Caesar, who was more than 300 years old, is often known.
He is known to have been born in Croatia on the Balkan Peninsula, but surprisingly unknown about his birth. He is a man who can become an emperor, but he doesn't even know the names of his father and mother. All he knows is that he has risen to the rank of Guards Commander and became Emperor after the death of Emperor Numerian.
Emperor Numerian was the son of Emperor Karus, who had won the battle against the Sassanid Empire but died unfortunately in a lightning strike, and his death was clearly an assassination.
Diocletian, the captain of the guards, was executed with another captain, Lucius Tiberius, as the culprit, and he was crowned as Emperor Diocletian.
It is not known if Diocletian was involved in the assassination of the late emperor.
Diocletian was a person who suddenly appeared in world history like thunder light, and although he should have participated in the camp of military emperors such as Aurelian, Probus, and Kars, there was no evidence that he was active in that area, and suddenly Konoe If you think that you came out as a secretary, you are an emperor.
It's as if the times chose him.
It is unclear whether Diocletian itself is strong in combat. Unknown, he had a friend named Maximian, who was good at fighting. And he was a terrifyingly faithful Jesusman. Maximian has never defied Diocletian in his lifetime.
Diocletian made Maximian the emperor.
In the past, for example, Aurelius had made Commodus a co-emperor, but in the sense that he would be his successor, Diocletian was a complete divide and rule.
Diarchy (Dual Kia)
Maximian governs the west of the empire, and Diocletian conducts the so-called diarchy, with the capital in what is now Nikomedia in Turkey and governing the east.
Diocletian may have had this idea from the beginning, as he did this soon after he became emperor.
1 No Roman history scholar has clarified why Secretary Konoe came up with such a thing.
Reasonably, he had been thinking since the days of the late emperor. And he probably knew he would be the emperor.
He is said to be two emperors, but of course the positions are not equal. Diocletian is "Jovis Augustus" and Maximian is "Heracles Augustus". Jovis is a word for the god and can be said to agree with the supreme god Jupiter.
Hercules is the son of Yupiteru, so it means that he is superior.
In fact, Maximian was as good as Heracles.
The territory of Rome at that time was rough, with pirates in the sea, bandits in the mountains, and bandits everywhere, but Maximian, who became the emperor, messed up these things. ..
In addition, he advances his army to the Rhine basin, which is the line of defense of the empire, and defeats the Franks, who are known to be strong among the Germanic people.
On the other hand, Emperor Diocletian also ousted the Germanic people near the Donau River and succeeded in establishing pro-Roman King Tiridates III in Armenia in the eastern question, following the successive Roman emperors, thereby against the Sasan dynasty. A line of defense has also been established.
Satisfied with this result, the Roman Senate gave Diocletian the title of "Persius Maximus".
After that, he headed for the Donau River again and defeated the Saxons, suppressed the opposition in Egypt, moved to the Donau River again, and defeated the Sarmatians.
Four-headed politics (Tetrarchy)
Perhaps he thought that Rome was too wide for two emperors, and this time he started Tetrarchy with four emperors.
This is a policy to set up two new vice-emperors Caesar in addition to the regular emperor Augustus, and from around this time the scheme of Caesar =vice-emperor was completed.
Until now, he had given the name Caesar to his successor, so it had a strong meaning of being the next emperor, but around this time he was officially named the vice emperor.
A young Galerius was placed in the vice emperor to the east of the empire, and Constantius of the same age was placed in the west, and the empire was divided into four parts to begin rule. The historically famous Tetrarchy.
Dominates (despot)
The series of reforms of Diocletian and its regime are called dominates to distinguish them from the original imperial Principate.
Under Dominates, military personnel and civilians were completely separated.
In the past, Rome was also the commander-in-chief of the army, led by Consul, the highest peak of literary figures, and also served as Bunbu, which can be said to have produced diverse human resources.
In fact, Julius Caesar showed outstanding talent as a politician in the Senate and as a military man on a successful Gallic expedition.
It was completely separated, and the Senate humans could no longer serve in the military.
Not only that, all professions will be hereditary, with soldiers becoming soldiers and craftsmen becoming craftsmen.
Some say that this is the beginning of the medieval feudal system.
In the current Constitution of Japan, it seems that the freedom to choose a profession has been abolished.
In addition, we will carry out reforms that can be said to be big Nata, but I would appreciate it if you could see the following article for details.
In a sense, it can be said that "good old Rome" ended at this time.
The republic, which existed only in form, has no shadow or form, and the regime dominated by the monopoly monarch covers the human world, and it is necessary to wait for Britain in the 17th century for democracy to reappear.
Emperor worship and repression of Christianity
It was the great crackdown on Christianity that left its mark on posterity, rather than the reforms that Diocletian undertook.
Diocletian, as mentioned above, calls himself a god (Livis), and equates himself with the main god Jupiter and thoroughly worships the emperor. On top of that, he decides to crack down on Christianity and Manichaeism, which do not obey the emperor's orders.
Diocletian is a man who does it thoroughly with a determined will when it comes to doing it.
The repression of Christianity he carried out was as follows.
・ Destroy the church
・ Prohibit the gathering of believers
・ Burn all rituals such as bibles and crosses
・ Do not apply protection by Roman law
・ From public office Expulsion
・ Property is confiscated
It is a highly unconstitutional crackdown in the light of modern times. Rights originally derived from Roman law, such as freedom of association, freedom of religion, and protection of private property, are denied.
Diocletian is often criticized for not complying with Roman law, even without Christian history, but he did not slaughter just because he was a Christian. It seems.
Although there are a number of Christians who have been executed, the truth is that they have not been arsonized, refused military service, or slaughtered as Nero did.
It seems that Diocletian itself had a policy of allowing freedom of religion at the beginning, but he went with a personal grudge just because the power of Christians became so large that there was a need for repression. not.
Rather, Christians are collusion and attempt to set fire to the emperor's residence, and as mentioned earlier, executions are carried out only by such arsonists.
Nevertheless, in the later view of Christian history, these were exaggerated, and it seems that the image of Diocletian =tyrant was attached.
Retirement
Emperor Diocletian is the first retired emperor in history.
None of the emperors retired on their own initiative. I wouldn't even have that idea. This may be similar to how difficult it was for His Majesty the Emperor to retire in Japan.
Diocletian himself is 60 years old and may have had physical problems.
He built a palace on the banks of the Adriatic Sea, and he seems to have spent the rest of his life there.
There is no material to tell how Diocletian spent the rest of his life after retiring from his throne.
On December 3, 311 AD, the emperor, who undertook the Great Reform of Rome, quietly died. He is 67 years old, one of the longest-lived Roman emperors.
Personal evaluation of Diocletian
In the history of the world, few people are so difficult to evaluate.
First of all he is neither a tyrant nor an incompetent.
Aside from the crackdown on Christianity, the reform of Diocletian has certainly failed in many parts.
Monetary reforms have failed, the controlled economy has failed, and Tetrarchy has collapsed shortly after Diocletian's retirement.
However, Rome, which had no choice but to be destroyed, ended the military emperor era when 25 emperors had changed in just 50 years, spent 20 years as emperors, restored security, and regained security from foreign enemies. It is commendable for his achievements in protecting the government and his ability to carry out reforms with a determined will.
Without Diocletian, the Roman Empire would most likely have been destroyed in the 4th century, and the Byzantine Empire, which lasted until 1453, would not even have been born.
If we evaluate such things comprehensively, it can be said that it is the ancestor of the Roman Empire, and the evaluation of the emperor who revived Rome is appropriate.