Dr. David Gwynn

and therefore describe Diocletian's reign in, at times, fairly apocalyptic terms, while also aware of the man's importance.

Most famously, Lactantius, North African, and Eusebius of Caesarea, the first great Christian historian.

Exactly.

So Diocletian comes to power in 284 AD.

He will...

voluntarily abdicate, making him almost unique in Roman history in 305.

Not a great deal.

The third century was, after all, a period of considerable instability.

His name is Diocles, originally.

He's a Balkan peasant farmer who, like many other of those farmers looking for a chance for a better life, more opportunities, served in the Roman army.

Probably born perhaps around 240, but we don't know how old he actually was when he took power.

But he's clearly a mature adult because he'd risen through extensive military experience in a period of major turmoil.

He's got a good time period.

to do that, to rise through the ranks, doesn't he?

Exactly.

And he ends up in command of the imperial bodyguard when two emperors in rapid succession seem to die under very unusual circumstances.

One of our sources claims they were hit by lightning, both of them.

This seems slightly unlikely.

Unfortunately, our source for that is perhaps the worst source in all of Rome's history, which is the text known as the Historia Augusta, a basically fake set of imperial biographies that stops just before Diocletian.

So he appears, but only as someone near the emperors Carus, Carinus and Numerian, all of whom die between 282 and 284.