Tristan Hughes

So Diocletian, he's now the man ruling.

He's defeated all these potential threats to his rule.

What sort of empire does he inherit?

Has he got at his disposal in 284?

And so what does he decide to do straight away to kind of consolidate his new rule?

This idea of trying to find, if at all possible, someone who is just unquestionably loyal no matter what.

Maximian, right.

And does Maximian, does it feel almost like he will be Diocletian's best buddy?

Almost Robin to his Batman kind of thing.

So they're quite far apart.

I mean, but how effective does this diarchy prove?

Or does Diocletian, well, we already know the answer to this of what will ultimately happen.

How long before he decides, actually, I need to divide it even further?

Or father and son as well with Valerian and Gallienus.

We've covered that previously, haven't we?

A rule of four.

That's the thing, isn't it?

So who, if he decides he now needs to find two more, I mean, finding that person who's clever but loyal, finding one of those as a Balkan soldier, another Balkan soldier, initially it sounds like it's quite a challenging task.

He's now got to find two more of those.

So how does he go about doing that?