Dynastic Politics in the Age of Diocletian, AD 284-311 - by Byron Waldron (Paperback)

About the Book

This is the first book to focus on the Tetrarchy as an imperial dynasty.

Book Synopsis

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.

From the Back Cover

How did military politics influence dynastic norms during the reign of Diocletian? 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. Byron Waldron is an Honorary Associate at the University of Sydney and a member of the Serbo-Australian Glac Project, which is excavating a Late Roman site near Sremska Mitrovica. He holds the Australasian Society for Classical Studies Early Career Award.

Review Quotes

In this wide-ranging and accessible book, Byron Waldron marshals a variety of evidence into an original and coherent argument about a controversial period of Roman history - the so-called 'Tetrarchy'. This sympathetic and up-to-date treatment brings Diocletian to life for a new generation of scholars and students alike'

--Roger Rees, Professor of Classics, University of St. Andrews

There is much to commend in this book. By discussing, analyzing, and explaining the ancient sources on which his study is based, Waldron makes his book attractive to advanced undergraduate and graduate students and to non-specialists as an introduction to the Tetrarchs. But his monograph also offers much to scholars and specialists, who will discover a fruitful focus on the Tetrarchs as a dynasty during the age of Diocletian, whose domestic, not foreign, concerns drove him to devise a new scheme of imperial presence.--Moysés Marcos, California State University "Bryn Mawr Classical Review"

About the Author

Byron Waldron is an Honorary Associate at the University of Sydney and a member of the Serbo-Australian Glac Project, which is excavating a Late Roman site near Sremska Mitrovica. He holds the Australasian Society for Classical Studies Early Career Award and has published articles for various journals including Journal of Late Antiquity, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik and Papers of the British School at Rome.