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Diocletian ((ラテン語:Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus Augustus)), born Diocles, (245–311)〔Barnes, "Lactantius and Constantine", 32–35; Barnes, ''New Empire'', 31–32.〕〔''New Empire'', 30, 46; Bowman, "Diocletian and the First Tetrarchy" (CAH), 68.〕 was a Roman emperor from 284 to 305. Born to a family of low status in the Roman province of Dalmatia, Diocletian rose through the ranks of the military to become cavalry commander to the Emperor Carus. After the deaths of Carus and his son Numerian on campaign in Persia, Diocletian was proclaimed emperor. The title was also claimed by Carus' other surviving son, Carinus, but Diocletian defeated him in the Battle of the Margus. Diocletian's reign stabilized the empire and marks the end of the Crisis of the Third Century. He appointed fellow officer Maximian as Augustus, co-emperor, in 286. Diocletian delegated further on 1 March 293, appointing Galerius and Constantius as Caesars, junior co-emperors. Under this 'tetrarchy', or "rule of four", each emperor would rule over a quarter-division of the empire. Diocletian secured the empire's borders and purged it of all threats to his power. He defeated the Sarmatians and Carpi during several campaigns between 285 and 299, the Alamanni in 288, and usurpers in Egypt between 297 and 298. Galerius, aided by Diocletian, campaigned successfully against Sassanid Persia, the empire's traditional enemy. In 299 he sacked their capital, Ctesiphon. Diocletian led the subsequent negotiations and achieved a lasting and favorable peace. Diocletian separated and enlarged the empire's civil and military services and reorganized the empire's provincial divisions, establishing the largest and most bureaucratic government in the history of the empire. He established new administrative centers in Nicomedia, Mediolanum, Antioch, and Trier, closer to the empire's frontiers than the traditional capital at Rome had been. Building on third-century trends towards absolutism, he styled himself an autocrat, elevating himself above the empire's masses with imposing forms of court ceremonies and architecture. Bureaucratic and military growth, constant campaigning, and construction projects increased the state's expenditures and necessitated a comprehensive tax reform. From at least 297 on, imperial taxation was standardized, made more equitable, and levied at generally higher rates. Not all of Diocletian's plans were successful: the Edict on Maximum Prices (301), his attempt to curb inflation via price controls, was counterproductive and quickly ignored. Although effective while he ruled, Diocletian's tetrarchic system collapsed after his abdication under the competing dynastic claims of Maxentius and Constantine, sons of Maximian and Constantius respectively. The Diocletianic Persecution (303–11), the empire's last, largest, and bloodiest official persecution of Christianity, did not destroy the empire's Christian community; indeed, after 324 Christianity became the empire's preferred religion under its first Christian emperor, Constantine. In spite of his failures, Diocletian's reforms fundamentally changed the structure of Roman imperial government and helped stabilize the empire economically and militarily, enabling the empire to remain essentially intact for another hundred years despite being near the brink of collapse in Diocletian's youth. Weakened by illness, Diocletian left the imperial office on 1 May 305, and became the first Roman emperor to abdicate the position voluntarily. He lived out his retirement in his palace on the Dalmatian coast, tending to his vegetable gardens. His palace eventually became the core of the modern-day city of Split. ==Early life== Diocletian was born near Salona in Dalmatia (Solin in modern Croatia), some time around 244.〔 His parents named him Diocles, or possibly Diocles Valerius.〔Aurelius Victor 39.1; Potter, 648.〕 The modern historian Timothy Barnes takes his official birthday, 22 December, as his actual birthdate. Other historians are not so certain.〔Barnes, ''New Empire'', 30; Williams, 237–38; cf. Rees, ''Diocletian and the Tetrarchy'', 86: "We do not even know when he was born ..."〕 Diocles' parents were of low status, and writers critical of him claimed that his father was a scribe or a freedman of the senator Anullinus, or even that Diocles was a freedman himself. The first forty years of his life are mostly obscure.〔Barnes, ''Constantine and Eusebius'', 4; Bowman, "Diocletian and the First Tetrarchy" (CAH), 68; Potter, 280; Williams, 22–23.〕 The Byzantine chronicler John Zonaras states that he was ''Dux Moesiae'',〔Zonaras, 12.31; Southern, 331; Williams, 26.〕 a commander of forces on the lower Danube.〔Mathisen, "Diocletian"; Williams, 26.〕 The often-unreliable ''Historia Augusta'' states that he served in Gaul, but this account is not corroborated by other sources and is ignored by modern historians of the period.〔''SHA'', ''Vita Carini'' 14–15; Williams, 26.〕 The first time Diocletian's whereabouts are accurately established, in 282, he was made by the newly Emperor Carus commander of the ''Protectores domestici'', the élite cavalry force directly attached to the Imperial household – a post that earned him the honor of a consulship in 283.〔Williams,33〕 As such, he took part in Carus' subsequent Persian campaign. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Diocletian」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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