sehepunkte 25 (2025), Nr. 2

Umberto Roberto: Diocleziano

In the half century or so from 284, there were two lead actors on the Roman political stage, Diocletian (Emperor 284 to 305) and Constantine (306 to 337). As their dates in imperial office confirm, they did not serve together in any collegiate government and, in fact, it seems clear that Diocletian did not want Constantine to be among his successors. In enduring popular perception, what differentiates them is religion - where Diocletian launched the 'Great' Persecution of Christians in 303, Constantine is recognised as the first Christian Emperor. However, despite that, in other policy and operations, the two Emperors had much in common, such as fiscal and legal administration, foreign affairs and provincial reorganisation.

Religion aside, another striking difference between the two men concerns the writing of their biographies. Within a couple of years of Constantine's death in May 337, the Vita Constantini was published by Eusebius, a multi-volume, panegyrical, even reverential account, in Greek. Some decades later, it seems, a Latin text now known as the Origo Constantini Imperatoris was written, a biography of sorts of Constantine, again broadly favourable to him. But Diocletian seems to have received no equivalent attention after his death, probably in the Spring of 313. Although some of the Lives of the Historia Augusta are addressed to him, that series of imperial biographies closes with Carus, Carinus and Numerianus - that is, just before Diocletian took imperial office - and in a grisly inversion of the traditions of the life story of imperial subjects, the De Mortibus Persecutorum by Lactantius, written in 314-5, includes melodramatic detail of Diocletian's death. But antiquity left us no life of Diocletian.

This imbalance was largely mirrored in modern publications of imperial biographies. Constantine has been the subject of many biographical studies in the modern era. [1] But in the same time period, Diocletian was neglected. Neither William Seston's [2] nor Stephen Williams' [3] books were really biographies, although both address aspects of Diocletian's life; but Seston's project was never completed, and Williams' account of Tetrarchic policy and achievements generally subordinated individual characters to bigger political collectives and considerations. Diocletian tended to have as raw a deal in modern biography as he had had in antiquity.

This changed in 2014 with the first edition of Umberto Roberto's Diocleziano, it turns out, at the vanguard of new interest in the life of the Roman Emperor, to be followed by Bernard Rémy [4], Filippo Carlà-Uhink [5] and Alexander Demandt. [6] In language and other respects, these biographies target different typical readers. In the preface to this, the 2nd edition of his work, Roberto thanks his publishing house, Salerno Editrice, for their commitment to the humanities at a time when there is broader cultural tendency to 'banal simplification' (7). Just as it is good of Roberto to record his thanks, so too it is good of the publishers to make this excellent biography available for only €25.00.

As one would expect of a biography, organisation of the book is essentially chronological. Across five parts, 268 pages are divided into twelve chapters. Subheadings abound. The pace is brisk, the writing clear. References to primary evidence are close and frequent; Roberto acknowledges where issues such as the date, reliability or appropriate interpretation of the evidence is problematic, but he tends to avoid overcommitting himself. Instead, annotation numbers, usually at paragraph ends, take the curious reader to over fifty sides of endnotes where detailed references to other primary material and their scholarship feature. This arrangement accommodates quick reading or slow, as the reader chooses. Unusually, for a book about this subject, there are no plates showing coins or sculpture, for example, but a tabulated chronology, two maps and a family tree feature in the end-matter, alongside the notes, bibliography and index of names (ancient and modern).

There are some corrections to the first edition, and there is a very useful discussion of major publications since 2014 (365-6), to which might now be added Byron Waldron [7] and Filippo Carlà-Uhink and Christian Rollinger. [8] I would also encourage those interested in Diocletian's legal measures to read Serena Connolly. [9]

In structure, style, content and price, this book is a tour de force of accessibility, without any sacrifice of intellectual rigour. It is innovative and clear-headed - qualities often identified in Diocletian himself.

Notes:

[1] e.g. Ramsay MacMullen: Constantine, New York 1969; John H. Smith: Constantine the Great, New York 1971; Charles M. Odahl: Constantine and the Christian Empire, London 2004; Paul Stephenson: Constantine. Unconquered Emperor, Christian Victor, London 2009; Timothy D. Barnes: Constantine. Dynasty, Religion and Power in the Later Roman Empire, Malden 2011; Jonathan Bardill: Constantine, Divine Emperors of the Christian Golden Age, Cambridge 2012; David Potter: Constantine the Emperor, Oxford 2012; etc.

[2] William Seston: Dioclétien et la Tétrarchie:1: Guerres et réformes [284-300], Paris 1946.

[3] Stephen Williams: Diocletian and the Roman Recovery, London 1985.

[4] Bernard Rémy: Dioclétien: l'Empire restauré, Paris 2016.

[5] Filippo Carlà-Uhink: Diocleziano, Bologna 2019.

[6] Alexander Demandt: Diokletian. Kaiser zweier Zeiten. Eine Biographie, Munich 2022.

[7] Byron Waldron: Dynastic Politics in the Age of Diocletian, Edinburgh 2022.

[8] Filippo Carlà-Uhink / Christian Rollinger (eds.): The Tetrarchy as Ideology. Reconfigurations and Representations of an Imperial Power, Stuttgart 2023.

[9] Serena Connolly: Lives behind the Laws. The World of the Codex Hermogenianus, Bloomington 2010.