Dr. David Gwynn

And best guess, because that's all it is, he died in 311 or 312.

So he's actually lived for five or six years, completely untroubled by absolutely everybody, except that apparently Galerius occasionally dropped by for some advice, now that Galerius was the new senior.

No, and whether actually on some sneaking level he possibly even took pride in that, in that the Tetrarchic system is utterly flawed by almost any measure of human nature and likelihood of civil wars.

It hasn't worked for the previous decade because it's a great system.

It's worked because the man who built it controlled it.

And as long as Diocletian was in power, the Tetrarchy does actually work remarkably well.

It delivered 10 years of stability as a Tetrarchy, another 10 years before that with Diocletian and Maximian.

It's a phenomenal achievement.

But as a structure, the Tetrarchy only works when there is actually someone who's controlling it properly.

What really did the damage was that, firstly, the Tetrarchy is not dynastic at all.

So when they had to appoint two new juniors, they bypassed the children of the existing Tetrarchs, in particular Maxentius, the son of Maximian, and Constantine, the son of Constantius Chlorus.

That's going to leave those two inevitably somewhat unhappy.

My father held this high power, why can't I?

It seems to have been a conscious choice, but it ignores that threat.

But what actually simply destroyed it is the fact that one of the two new seniors, Constantius Chlorus, dies a year later.

And that immediately puts pressure on Galerius, who's the only surviving senior.

It broke the system because rather than wait for a new senior to arrive, which should be the new junior being promoted, and a new junior being promoted in turn in the West, Constantius' army hail Constantine.

My great pleasure.

The fall of the Roman Empire in the West shaped subsequent medieval history. It destroyed the last great unity of the Mediterranean world, replaced it in the West with a mosaic that shaped medieval Europe and medieval Christendom. A change that great simply cannot happen fast. It's long, it is indeed complex.

The fall of the Roman Empire in the West shaped subsequent medieval history. It destroyed the last great unity of the Mediterranean world, replaced it in the West with a mosaic that shaped medieval Europe and medieval Christendom. A change that great simply cannot happen fast. It's long, it is indeed complex.