Dr. David Gwynn

Yes, Diocletian is, as you said, unquestionably in the top ten of great Roman emperors, forever distorted by the fact that our Christian sources despise the man for the great persecution.

But there is a reason why in Diocletian

modern historical divisions.

We talk about the high Roman Empire of the first two centuries AD, the third century crisis, and then the new empire or the later Roman Empire.

And there are two great architects of the later Roman Empire.

One is Constantine, the first Christian emperor, but the other is Diocletian.

And this is where the problems ultimately lie.

Diocletian deserved a brilliant narrative history.

Someone describing his reign, the triumphs, the setbacks.

People did write those histories.

We don't have them.

There is no coordinated classical narrative historian who covers the period of Diocletian and the Tetrarchy.

So what we must do instead is piece it together.

We've got archaeology.

There are only a few monuments, but a few, that survive.

And then you've above all got two key categories of evidence.

We've got the evidence that comes from Diocletian, his court, and his propaganda machine.

So that includes laws, but above all includes panegyrics.

So speech is given in honor of Diocletian or his fellow rulers.

And then on the other side, you've got the Christian polemicists, the Christian writers who lived through the Great Persecution.