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Historical person
c. 240s–316
Diocletian was Roman emperor from AD 284 to 305 and one of the most important reformers of the later empire. He reorganised administration, taxation and military command, created the Tetrarchy, and launched the last major imperial persecution of Christians.
Coming to power after the instability of the third century, Diocletian shared imperial authority first with Maximian and later through the Tetrarchy with two senior and two junior emperors. The arrangement was intended to improve succession, defence and administration across a vast empire. Diocletian abdicated voluntarily in 305 and retired near Salona, but the political system he created soon fractured into renewed civil war.
Ian Hughes’ A Military Life of Constantine the Great begins with Constantine’s service under Diocletian and Galerius, his elevation in Britain and his campaigns along the Rhine. In Nick Holmes’ The Roman Revolution, the second half follows Diocletian and Constantine as they reorganised taxation, administration and military command and transformed the basis of imperial rule. Further fictional perspectives on Diocletian can be found in Steven Saylor’s Dominus, Simon Turney’s Masters of Rome, Gordon Doherty’s Sons of Rome, and John Broughton’s The Saxon Shore.
Periods
Series
Co-written by Gordon Doherty and Simon Turney, the Rise of Emperors trilogy dramatises the lives of Constantine and Maxentius from their youth under Diocletian’s Tetrarchy to their struggle for control of the Roman world. A childhood connection develops into rivalry as each man acquires armies, political allies and…
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Rise of Emperors follows Constantine and Maxentius from youth and friendship into the succession struggles created by Diocletian’s Tetrarchy. Their lives develop alongside abdications, rival courts, religious division and repeated civil wars as a system designed to prevent dynastic conflict instead produces competing emperors. The trilogy treats both…
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The Roma Trilogy follows generations of the fictional Pinarius family across the long history of Rome. Roma begins with the city’s legendary foundation and continues through the Republic and the rise of Augustus; Empire carries the family through the Julio-Claudian, Flavian and adoptive-emperor periods; Dominus follows the later…
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The Saxon Shore Trilogy traces the weakening of Roman authority in Britain from the breakaway empire of Carausius to the political world remembered in Arthurian legend. Successive generations of Valdor’s family serve as soldiers and commanders while imperial rivalry, frontier warfare and the withdrawal of Roman forces transform…
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Non Fiction
Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.
