Dr. David Gwynn

And in a sense, what's the classical pagan equivalent to Batman and Robin?

Jupiter and Hercules.

And this is actually the symbolism they use.

So Diocletian becomes Jovius, Maximian is Hercules.

So they're both claiming divine strength, but there's a hierarchy there.

Jupiter, the father, the oldest, the king of the gods, Hercules, the great hero.

And when it is just the two of them, where do they base themselves?

So where are you going to prioritize?

Well, the greatest single threat is the Persian Sasanian Empire.

So Diocletian stays in the east.

Increasingly, although he does move around, using the city of Nicomedia, not that far from modern Istanbul, but on the Turkish side in Asia Minor.

Maximian gets sent westward, because the most immediate single concern is the person that Diocletian had hoped would help stabilize the Rhine, and in particular Britain, has decided to set up his own miniature empire instead.

This is Carusius.

And so Carusius has seized power in Britain,

Maximian's job is going to be to stabilize those regions.

So where does Maximian go?

He goes to Trier on the modern French-German border.

dividing power between two rulers had been quite common in Roman history.

Marcus Aurelius had done it back in the second century.

It happened quite often in the third century crisis.