Dynastic Politics in the Age of Diocletian, AD 284-311

Description

In AD 293 the Roman world was plunged into a bold new experiment in government. Four soldiers shared the empire between them: two senior emperors, Diocletian and Maximian, and two junior emperors, Constantius and Galerius. This regime, now known as the Tetrarchy, engaged with dynastic power in thoroughly unconventional ways: Diocletian and Maximian presented themselves as brothers despite being unrelated; Diocletian and Galerius repeatedly thwarted the dynastic ambitions of individual Tetrarchs and their sons; the sons themselves were variously hostages, symbols of imperial unity and possibly targets of assassination; and the importance of women to imperial self-representation was much reduced. This is the first book to focus on the Tetrarchy as an imperial dynasty. Examining the dynasty through the lens of Rome’s armies, it presents the Tetrarchic dynasty as a military experiment, created by a network of provincial career soldiers and tailored to the needs of the different regional armies. Mustering a diverse array of evidence, including archaeology, coins, statuary, inscriptions, panegyrics and invective, the author provides bold new interpretations of Tetrarchic dynastic politics, looking at brotherhood, empresses, imperial collegiality, military politics, hereditary succession and the roles of sons within Roman dynasties. List of Figures Preface and Acknowledgements Dramatis Personae Chronology Stemma: The Tetrarchic Dynasty, 284–311 Abbreviations Introduction: A Military Regime in the Third Century ad a. The Ancient Sources b. Emperors, Armies and Political Power c. The Tetrarchs as Military Emperors 1. Band of Brothers: Diocletian and Maximian, Virtutibus Fratres 1.1. The Augustan Fraternity in the Panegyrics 1.2. The Augustan Fraternity in Other Media 1.3. A Fraternity between Commilitones 2. Gang of Four: The Tetrarchy Begins 2.1. Dating the Appointments 2.2. Wars, Generals and Carausius 2.3. Imperial Presence and Regional Military Rebellion 2.4. The Tetrarchic Solution 3. Diocletian vs Heredity: Succession Events and the Soldiery 3.1. The Sons 3.2. Lactantius and the Succession of 305 3.3. Christianity, Supremacy and Meritocracy 3.4. Problems with Lactantius’ Account 3.5. The Will of Diocletian 3.6. The Failure of Dynasty 3.7. A Failed Succession 4. A Tale of Two Princes: Constantine and Maxentius before 306 4.1. Constantine 4.2. Maxentius 4.3. Filial Concerns in the West 4.4. A Complicated Picture 5. Invisible Feminae and Galerian Empresses: The Representation of Imperial Women 5.1. Augustae and Diuae in the Later Third Century 5.2. The Representation of Women, 284–306 5.3. A Case of Deliberate Exclusion? 5.4. Tetrarchic Empresses, 307–11 Conclusions: Domus Militaris Appendix: Prosopography of the Imperial Women Bibliography Index