The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - PREVIEW： Epochs #272 ｜ Diocletian - Part 1

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome back to Epochs. If you watch Epochs every week you'll know that I recently

00:00:25.380 I've been doing the series continuing my series all about the English monarchy and we got through

00:00:31.280 to the end of Henry VIII so before I go on to his son Edward VI and then Lady Jane Grey and then

00:00:38.360 Bloody Mary and then Elizabeth Good Queen Bess and on and on and on I thought I'd take a little

00:00:42.660 bit of a break do something else for a few episodes a little bit of a palate cleanser one could have

00:00:47.780 perhaps too much of the English monarchy if it's for months and months and months and then so

00:00:51.300 going to do something a little bit different for a few episodes. Now what I've decided I want to do

00:00:55.980 is I want to talk all about Constantine, Constantine the Great. So we're going back to the Roman era,

00:01:01.440 the ancient world or late antiquity, the third century AD. Now Constantine the Great, Constantine

00:01:09.660 the First, is such a giant figure, one of those titans of history, someone that dominates history

00:01:17.760 in all sorts of ways. It's a huge figure that I want to be able to set up the story. I don't just

00:01:23.720 want to start with Constantine's early life. I want to set up the whole story. And it's one of

00:01:30.260 those things when you're trying to do a narrative to tell a story. Epoch's history is really

00:01:35.720 storytelling, isn't it? Where to begin? You know, can you really tell the story of World War II

00:01:40.940 without telling the story of the interwar years? Can you really tell that story without talking

00:01:44.980 about world war one can you really tell that story without talking about bismarck without going back

00:01:48.660 to the era and so on and so on where to begin really where to begin so for this i've decided

00:01:54.960 i've made the executive decision the creative decision that i least want to talk all about

00:02:00.380 the main reign that came directly before constantine which is that of diocletian

00:02:06.440 so what i'm going to do is spend an episode or two maybe three who knows we'll see where it goes

00:02:11.000 talking all about Diocletian so we lead the whole generation before Constantine so that it really

00:02:18.560 really sets up that whole world why Constantine did what he did what was the world like when he

00:02:24.360 was a child his formative years what was rolling around in his experience in his memory banks

00:02:30.960 by the time he entered the stage of history so and and Diocletian is absolutely fascinating and

00:02:36.980 a brilliant story all in and of himself. So I'm going to talk all about Diocletian here for an

00:02:41.940 episode or two, but where to even begin that? So I've decided what I'll do is spend 5, 10, maybe 15

00:02:48.520 minutes talking to you all about the period running up to Diocletian. That's where I'm going to start

00:02:53.900 it. I'm going to do a brief overview of what led to the reign of Diocletian, ultimately all setting

00:03:01.460 up the stage for the story of Constantine all right so Diocletian and the world he lived in

00:03:07.980 that story is really the story of the so-called crisis of the third century the third century

00:03:14.460 being the 200s AD so a little bit of an overview could do episodes multiple multiple episodes all

00:03:21.720 about this but the creative decision I've made is to do that in a bit of an overview broad

00:03:28.520 sweeps of the brush before we get start getting into all sorts of detail by the way i'm going to

00:03:32.640 be reading from edward gibbon the decline and fall of the roman empire by edward gibbon written at

00:03:38.540 the end of the 18th century so no woke to have to worry about revisionism and wokeness i'm a big fan

00:03:44.580 i think i've mentioned it more than once in fact i know i have uh how good i think the decline and

00:03:49.360 fall of the roman empire by edward gibbon is many consider it the gold standard of roman history

00:03:55.560 Some people don't particularly like Gibbon, but I think they're wrong

00:03:58.480 I think they're wrong, I think it's brilliant

00:04:00.760 Superbly well written, impeccably researched

00:04:04.540 And all that sort of thing, in my opinion

00:04:06.800 So, the crisis of the 3rd century, what was that?

00:04:10.080 Well, it was where the Roman Empire began to fracture and fall apart

00:04:15.220 Ever since the reign of Augustus 0.85

00:04:18.400 And that is around the year zero, around the age of Christ

00:04:23.320 so it begins his reign in 31 BC or arguably 27 BC in the decades before 0 AD and he doesn't die

00:04:35.620 until sort of 14 AD that's Augustus now ever since then really the republic was dead historians

00:04:44.520 scholars argue exactly when the republic died most agree it was probably under Julius Caesar

00:04:50.680 Almost certainly under Augustus

00:04:53.980 And certainly Augustus' immediate successors

00:04:57.160 People like Tiberius and Caligula

00:04:59.020 The Republic was really dead

00:05:01.080 The Senate did not control policy anymore

00:05:03.820 It was in the hands of the emperors

00:05:06.500 Nonetheless, the pretense of the Republic was still continued

00:05:10.940 There still was a Senate

00:05:12.820 And all the emperors pretended, paid lip service to

00:05:18.340 all the institutions and norms of the republic but really the cockpit of power you know who gets

00:05:25.400 to really set policy was with the emperors and their inner entourages you know like so Tiberius

00:05:32.300 and Caligula really didn't particularly Caligula or by the age of Nero we're talking like the 60s

00:05:38.920 AD then a generation or two after Augustus really the uh the senate was for rubber stamping only

00:05:47.400 I mean Nero butchered most of the Senate

00:05:50.800 And then there's centuries after that

00:05:52.640 Again we're going to talk about the crisis of the 3rd century for a bit here

00:05:56.060 So a couple of centuries after all of that has gone down

00:05:59.140 By the beginning, the middle of the 3rd century, the 200s AD

00:06:05.600 Rome in all sorts of ways has passed its glory days

00:06:09.360 The glory days of perhaps the Antonians

00:06:12.200 Again historians and scholars argue about really this

00:06:15.480 uh antonius pious trajan hadrian all those the the second century right rome has declined by the

00:06:23.820 third century rome has declined from its higher watermark a lot of people say the highest water

00:06:28.660 mark is trajan or hadrian where hadrian decides to put definite limits on the empire no longer

00:06:36.280 are they sort of the roman the roman world endlessly looking to expand hadrian says no look

00:06:42.160 it's already too big in all sorts of ways we're going to try and hold on to what we've got and

00:06:47.420 the empire stretches from northern england or modern-day scotland britannia they called it

00:06:52.460 the roman province of britannia all the way from the hadrian's wall or the wall of the antonians

00:06:58.380 up in scotland all the way out to modern-day iraq like the city of tessafor which is basically sort

00:07:06.100 of modern-day Baghdad. So the Roman Empire, all of North Africa, all of Europe, not really much

00:07:12.180 of Germany or Poland or Northern Europe, but all of modern-day France and Spain, Italy, the Balkans,

00:07:19.340 Turkey, and the Levant, the Holy Land, and all the way out to Mesopotamia. So it's a giant,

00:07:27.000 giant empire. And Hadrian decides to put limits on that. Okay, in the next century or so, Rome

00:07:32.900 struggles to keep hold of that and it goes through all sorts of turmoil both military and economic 1.00

00:07:39.900 the empire keeps getting invaded endlessly really by all the quote-unquote barbaric peoples that 0.82

00:07:46.840 surround it kind of endlessly it goes through political turmoil as well as military turmoil

00:07:52.340 lots and lots and lots of different emperors they keep usurping each other the empire breaks up a

00:07:58.580 bit and then is reunited under Aurelian. I could have considered starting this story with Aurelian,

00:08:05.780 a great, one of the great, great emperors in the crisis of the third century where it looked like

00:08:10.280 the Roman Empire was truly fracturing and for good. Aurelian unites it again under the control

00:08:17.140 of one man, him. Aurelian could be, could have been a Constantine type figure, dominated history,

00:08:25.140 A titan of history

00:08:26.100 Everyone would know his name

00:08:27.460 Millennia later

00:08:28.540 But relatively soon after

00:08:31.020 He united the empire

00:08:32.880 He dies

00:08:34.320 He's killed

00:08:34.800 And so it fractures again

00:08:36.920 We just get another cycle

00:08:38.640 Of classic stuff

00:08:40.200 Of the crisis of the 3rd century

00:08:41.380 Also I must say

00:08:42.640 Economically

00:08:43.940 All sorts of problems 1.00

00:08:45.400 The Romans increased

00:08:46.900 Their army 0.88

00:08:48.180 They doubled the size of their army

00:08:50.400 During the crisis of the 3rd century

00:08:51.660 Because of the endless

00:08:52.780 Basically endless 0.93

00:08:53.740 invasions from all the different tribes around them and they had to increase the pay of the

00:09:01.060 soldiers something in the order of 50 percent and the roman economy just wasn't up to that

00:09:07.620 essentially so they had to devalue their money they had to make their gold and more importantly

00:09:13.900 silver pieces they had to water down the amount of actual silver that's in it okay so it's a crisis

00:09:22.280 Military, political and economic crisis

00:09:25.020 Over and over and over again

00:09:26.460 Until we get to the age of Diocletian 0.79

00:09:30.780 Now one of the main things to say 0.98

00:09:33.680 Spoiler alert

00:09:34.540 But we'll go into all this in tons of detail

00:09:36.680 But to give you the overview

00:09:37.680 So you know what you're listening to

00:09:39.600 What's coming 0.99

00:09:40.140 Diocletian brings in a whole new system of government

00:09:44.620 From Augustus to Diocletian

00:09:47.420 Historians have called it the Principate

00:09:49.520 That is that the Emperor

00:09:51.600 is supposed to be, just on paper,

00:09:56.080 it's supposed to be the princeps, the first citizen.

00:10:00.840 Some historians and scholars say that all of those emperors,

00:10:04.680 I don't agree with this, a lot of people don't agree with it,

00:10:06.960 but the argument has been made,

00:10:08.460 that all of those emperors from Augustus to Diocletian

00:10:10.880 aren't true, true emperors in the way,

00:10:15.920 let's say perhaps Napoleon was an emperor.

00:10:18.060 That at least on paper

00:10:20.020 The senate still exists

00:10:21.940 Lots of the institutions of the republic

00:10:24.160 Still exist

00:10:25.340 Whether it's a sham or not

00:10:27.220 Those emperors are supposed to be

00:10:30.020 Of course they weren't really in practice

00:10:32.080 But they were supposed to be

00:10:33.260 Just the first among equals 0.87

00:10:35.160 They were supposed to be merely the first citizen

00:10:37.860 That was what the government was supposed to be

00:10:40.500 A principate 0.91

00:10:41.820 Well when Diocletian comes in 0.99

00:10:43.320 He changes that 0.60

00:10:44.360 He brings in what historians call

00:10:47.220 The dominate 0.98

00:10:47.820 I.e. a true emperor 0.80

00:10:51.060 The empire is embodied in the person of the emperor now

00:10:56.280 He dominates it, right?

00:10:59.060 His word is law

00:11:00.340 But now formally, legally

00:11:02.180 He doesn't have to have any recourse to a senate

00:11:05.340 Or anything like that

00:11:06.240 He is a true, true emperor in the classic sense of the word

00:11:10.440 Literally whatever he says is now law

00:11:13.960 And so, although that had been the case in practice

00:11:17.680 For nearly all of the principate

00:11:20.840 Now what Diocletian does

00:11:22.860 Is he sort of formalises it

00:11:24.460 And he's a true military emperor

00:11:27.100 It's his way or the highway

00:11:29.640 And there's no ifs or buts about it

00:11:33.320 Even nominally, even on paper

00:11:35.280 Okay, the other big thing he does

00:11:38.480 Is he unifies the empire

00:11:41.440 As Aurelian had done

00:11:42.960 Only a generation or so before

00:11:45.280 But then he decides

00:11:47.060 he makes a decision, a big, big decision, like that of Hadrian, to put limits on the empire.

00:11:54.940 He decides he's going to change the game a bit, and he's going to make four emperors, him being

00:12:00.940 one of them. The empire is just too big to be ruled by one person. He's going to break it up

00:12:07.540 into four segments. The tetrarchy, it's called, the rule of four, the tetrarchy. And what you,

00:12:13.540 What in his idea was that you would have two senior emperors

00:12:17.700 Again, him being one

00:12:19.360 What in his idea was that you would have two senior emperors

00:12:23.300 Again, him being one of those

00:12:25.420 And they will be called Augustuses, or Augusti

00:12:28.700 And they will name, formally, legally, name their successor

00:12:32.440 Each one of them will name their successor

00:12:34.940 And they will be called Caesar

00:12:36.240 Okay, so you can already see a couple of centuries out

00:12:39.480 From the original Julius Caesar and Octavian, Augustus

00:12:43.020 the Augustus a couple of centuries out the Roman world is already looking back on that

00:12:48.140 with rose tinted glasses already it's already something that's completely in the past

00:12:53.020 just just a part of their history they're now playing a different game an entirely different

00:12:57.960 game and this tetrarchy you'll have two senior emperors the Augusti and two junior ones and as

00:13:05.280 soon as one of those Augustuses Augusti as soon as they die or if they might like to retire

00:13:11.180 then the idea is that there'll be no succession crisis because you've already got another guy

00:13:18.000 your Caesar will take over and become be promoted effectively to an Augustus and he at that point

00:13:26.380 will then name a new Caesar so there'll be no succession crisis that's the idea and that with

00:13:33.860 the empire broken up into four bits each one of these Augusti or Caesars they will be able to rule

00:13:40.220 their portion of the empire much more effectively efficiently and it will prevent again in theory it

00:13:48.580 will prevent something like the crisis of the third century just playing out endlessly i.e

00:13:55.000 just succession crisis after succession crisis after succession crisis that's the idea of it

00:14:00.920 of course you might already be asking yourself well what if these four emperors don't necessarily

00:14:06.880 all agree perfectly with each other and are all on the same page with each other in terms of policy

00:14:12.400 100% of the time what if they start fighting among themselves I mean it's a good question

00:14:18.200 so all right with all of that said give you a bit of an overview of what's going to go down

00:14:22.820 let's start talking about and reading about Diocletian himself so as I said going to be

00:14:28.860 reading from Edward Gibbon, and in chapter 13 of his seminal work, he says this, quote,

00:14:38.420 As the reign of Diocletian was more illustrious than that of any of his predecessors,

00:14:43.680 so was his birth more abject and obscure. The strong claims of merit and of violence

00:14:49.540 had frequently superseded the ideal prerogatives of nobility. What he's talking about there is

00:14:55.760 usurpations, the idea that you're of a noble family like the Julio-Claudian dynasty, that that

00:15:02.300 protects you in some way, that you won't be usurped because the name, your very name and your family

00:15:08.680 means that no one could really take your position because they won't be illustrious enough, they

00:15:13.240 won't be noble enough. Well all of that's out of the window a long time ago. But a distinct line

00:15:18.840 of separation was hitherto preserved between the free and the servile part of mankind. The parents

00:15:25.360 of Diocletian had been slaves in the house of Annulinius, a Roman senator, nor was he himself

00:15:32.200 distinguished by any other name than that which he derived from a small town in Dalmatia, from

00:15:39.300 whence his mother deduced her origin. It is, however, probable that his father obtained the

00:15:45.460 freedom of the family and that he soon acquired an office of scribe, which was commonly exercised

00:15:52.120 by persons of his condition. Favorable oracles, or rather the consciousness of superior merit,

00:15:58.360 prompted his aspiring son to pursue the profession of arms and the hopes of fortune, i.e. joining the

00:16:05.780 army. And it would be extremely curious to observe the graduation of arts and accidents which enabled

00:16:12.520 him in the end to fulfill these oracles and to display that merit to the world. Diocletian was

00:16:19.440 Successfully promoted to the government of Maesia

00:16:22.260 The honours of the consulship

00:16:24.400 And the important command of the guards of the palace

00:16:27.660 End quote

00:16:28.500 So right there, we're told

00:16:30.180 The Diocletian comes from kind of nothing

00:16:32.560 Not absolutely nothing at all 1.00

00:16:34.380 Not sort of a true peasant living in filth and penury

00:16:37.440 But still, not a noble family whatsoever

00:16:41.080 But he joined the army and through his own merits

00:16:43.520 Ended up becoming consul

00:16:45.440 Now you remember me telling you just a few moments ago

00:16:47.320 about how many of the institutions of the Republic had still survived, like consuls,

00:16:52.280 creators, pro-consuls, creators, all that sort of thing, tribunes. They still all existed. Of course,

00:16:58.740 they didn't have anywhere near the power or the prestige that they had once done during the age

00:17:02.500 of the Republic, but they all still existed. So to become a consul was still massively important.

00:17:08.900 He was still one of the most powerful people in the empire, and he was able to do that through

00:17:13.840 his own merits and became and this is the key the command of the guards of the palace and that's a

00:17:20.840 classic thing all down through history isn't it whoever gets put in charge of the actual personal

00:17:24.980 safety of the emperor that's extremely powerful isn't it extremely extremely powerful or if you're

00:17:31.800 the one who gate keeps the emperor this is all through Chinese history medieval history all down

00:17:37.840 through history if you can if you're in charge of gatekeeping the emperor and you're in charge of

00:17:41.680 his personal safety. You're very, very close to being as powerful as him. It's in your hands

00:17:47.540 to have him murdered if you wanted to. You're in charge of whether his enemies get access to him

00:17:53.600 and murder him and conduct a coup d'etat. Well, in a de facto sense, you're almost as powerful as

00:17:59.420 him. If not more, you could argue. If you look at the Carolingian Empire, the people that controlled

00:18:05.640 the palace, the security of the palace, eventually became the kings. Story as old as time. Okay, so

00:18:12.480 that's where Diocletian finds himself. Gibbon goes on saying, he distinguished his abilities in the

00:18:17.560 Persian war, and after the death of Numerian, the emperor, the slave, by the confession and

00:18:23.840 judgment of his rivals, was declared the most worthy of the imperial throne. So one of the

00:18:29.200 Emperor's Numerian did in fact get himself killed and usurped and it's none other than the commander

00:18:36.980 of the palace and an ex-consul Diocletian who takes the throne next or is given the throne next

00:18:44.180 the imperial diadem. The malice of religious zeal whilst it arraigns the savage fierceness of his

00:18:51.520 colleague Maximian has affected to cast suspicion on the personal courage of the Emperor Diocletian

00:18:58.980 end quote so something to say there diocletian had a right-hand man this chap called maximian

00:19:05.500 now maximian plays a massive role in our story here the story of diocletian is also the story

00:19:11.360 of maximian okay we talked about the the rule of four which doesn't happen yet it's not for a few

00:19:17.320 years good couple of years yet before this happens but this maximian is one of the augustus

00:19:24.660 the augusti diocletian makes himself and maximian the two senior emperors his colleague

00:19:32.820 as edward gibbon describes it and this maximian is supposed to be very very short he's a true

00:19:39.260 military man a true just uh soldier soldier for anyone or anything ever gets in his way he just

00:19:45.540 destroys them kills them diocletian isn't necessarily like that sometimes he's a bit but

00:19:50.260 he tries to rule as something other than a completely naked military despot, whereas Maximian 0.98

00:19:57.520 doesn't. Maximian doesn't care. Okay, so that's a name to remember. And Edward Gibbon mentions there

00:20:03.200 that Diocletian himself might not necessarily have been, you know, a true soldier in that sense of

00:20:10.480 getting involved in swordplay whenever he can, being the first over a wall, being the first

00:20:16.660 To lead a charge in battle

00:20:18.960 That's the sort of person, kind of 0.94

00:20:21.120 That Maximian was

00:20:22.680 But that's not the type of guy that Diocletian was

00:20:25.240 Historians and scholars have argued about

00:20:28.180 That exactly

00:20:29.760 Because we have some warrior kings

00:20:31.840 And some warrior emperors throughout time, don't we?

00:20:34.260 Like Alexander

00:20:35.200 Julius Caesar himself would get involved in battles

00:20:38.080 Personally get involved in battles

00:20:39.360 Fighting on the front line with his men

00:20:41.160 Diocletian wasn't like that 0.83

00:20:43.560 But probably, or well wasn't

00:20:46.060 And a coward in any way

00:20:48.140 Far from it

00:20:49.180 Politically fearless

00:20:51.020 Okay, Gibbon goes on saying

00:20:52.640 Quote

00:21:16.060 but he appears not to have possessed the daring and generous spirit of a hero who courts danger

00:21:21.880 and fame, disdains artifice and boldly challenges the allegiance of his equals. His abilities were

00:21:28.320 useful rather than splendid, a vigorous mind improved by the experience and study of mankind,

00:21:34.900 i.e. he wasn't a mindless soldier, a mindless butcher, but he sort of studied people and

00:21:39.900 understood human psychology and politics. Gibbon says he had dexterity and application in business,

00:21:47.180 a judicious mixture of liberality and economy, of mildness and rigor, profound dissimulation

00:21:53.740 under the disguise of military frankness, steadiness to pursue his ends, flexibility to

00:22:00.440 vary his means and above all the great art of submitting his own passions as well as those of

00:22:06.320 others to the interests of his ambition and of colouring his ambition with the most specious

00:22:12.100 pretenses of justice and public utility, end quote. It's a way of saying, a very roundabout

00:22:17.820 late 19th century way of saying that he was prudent. He would do what was ever in his best

00:22:24.760 interests or the empire's best interests at any given moment. He wasn't ruled by his passions,

00:22:30.020 that he wasn't massively headstrong or an ideologue he was prudent a politician you might say

00:22:37.800 we hope you enjoyed that video and if you did please head over to

00:22:42.880 lotusseaters.com for the full unabridged video

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - July 19, 2026

PREVIEW： Epochs #272 ｜ Diocletian - Part 1

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript