Diocletian

244 – 311 · Generation I · Emperor (r. 286–305)

Diocletian (AD 244 – 311). Emperor (r. 286–305). Married Prisca. Senior Augustus of the East; founded the Tetrarchy. Born Diocles to a family of modest standing in Roman Dalmatia, he rose through the army under Aurelian and Probus and was proclaimed emperor by the troops after the deaths of Carus and Numerian. His rule ended the Crisis of the Third Century: he redrew the provinces, built the empire’s largest bureaucracy, standardized taxation, and wrapped the throne in elaborate court ceremony. His campaigns secured the frontiers, and the peace he negotiated after Galerius’s Persian victory held for decades. Not everything worked – his price edict failed, and the great persecution of Christians he launched could not break the faith. Weakened by illness, he became the first emperor to abdicate voluntarily, retiring to a Dalmatian palace to tend his gardens; that palace grew into the city of Split.

Partners

Married Prisca (244 – ?) — one child together

Children

Galeria Valeria (250 – 315)