Dr. David Gwynn

So the coins we have draw on a traditional set of images.

They don't add massive new titles.

They are using traditional

Language, so after Galerius wins against the Persia, the Persians, all the Tetrarchs can take the title victory over Persia.

Likewise, when Constantius settles Britain, they all, even Diocletian, who never came near Britain, take that title.

In some of our later sources, particularly the ones written around the 360s, so two generations later, you get an emphasis that Diocletian particularly loved imperial splendor, that he particularly wanted an ornate diadem, the right gems, purple robes, that he gave himself titles like Dominus.

It's not actually clear from the contemporary evidence that there's a particular emphasis.

There's certainly a stress on we are the true legitimate emperors, we have divine support, and religion is a key part of this ideology.

But is it dramatically more marked than, say, Aurelian in the third century crisis?

Actually, Aurelian portrayed himself in almost exactly the same language and with the same religious emphasis that there is a divine support.

Like so many things Diocletian does, almost none of it is radical revolutionary.

The Tetrarchy itself as a structure perhaps comes closest.

What he's doing is taking things that already existed, but giving them new uses, new interpretations.

After all, the problem with taking military affairs in isolation is always an army only functions because its supply lines work, the tax revenue is paying for them, equipment's being produced.

The structure has to be in place.

The actual successes of the Tetrarchic armies, perhaps more than anything else, demonstrate how well the administration has managed to stabilize.

Always with limits, but overall the Diocletianic model functions.

And once again, he's looked at what happened during the third century, at some changes that are unavoidable, but also at parts that must work better, both to support the army, but also, of course, to prevent local unrest and prevent a usurper rising up against him.

So the single most famous of Diocletian's reforms, and one that will work extremely well and indeed for centuries to come, was he looked at the map of the Roman provinces.

So right across the empire, all the regions are divided up into provincial blocks and each province has a governor.