Diocletian began his reforms by adopting a scheme for
"partnership emperors." He shared the Roman world with a trusted
lieutenant named Maximian. Each was to be an Augustus, with all the honors of
an emperor. Diocletian ruled the East; Maximian ruled the West. Further
partnership soon seemed advisable, and so each Augustus chose a younger
associate, or Caesar, to aid him in the government and at his death or
abdication to become his heir. Diocletian also remodeled the provincial system.
The entire empire, including Italy, was divided into more than one hundred
provinces. They were grouped into thirteen dioceses and these, in turn, into
four prefectures. [4] This reform much lessened the authority of the provincial
governor, who now ruled over a small district and had to obey the vicar of his
diocese.
[4] The number and arrangement of these divisions varied
somewhat during the fourth century.
THE NEW ABSOLUTISM
The emperors, from Diocletian onward, were autocrats. They
bore the proud title of Dominus ("Lord"). They were treated as
gods. Everything that touched their persons was sacred. They wore a diadem of
pearls and gorgeous robes of silk and gold, like those of Asiatic monarchs.
They filled their palaces with a crowd of fawning, flattering nobles, and
busied themselves with an endless round of stately and impressive ceremonials.
Hitherto a Roman emperor had been an imperator, the head of an army.
Now he became a king, to be greeted, not with the old military salute, but with
the bent knee and the prostrate form of adoration. Such pomps and vanities,
which former Romans would have thought degrading, helped to inspire reverence
among the servile subjects of a later age. If it was the aim of Augustus to
disguise, it was the aim of Diocletian to display, the unbounded power of a
Roman emperor.
