Explanation: The bust pictured is of the Emperor Diocletian, a later Roman Emperor who decided that one Emperor just wasn’t enough. In fact, he decided two Emperors wasn’t enough, and neither was three - for the first time in the Roman Empire’s history, it had four (theoretically) legitimate Emperors ruling over the place - two senior Emperors, and two junior Emperors - the Tetrarchy.
It uh, did not work well once Diocletian retired to farm cabbages (no joke, literally what he did). It can even be argued that he outlived the system. Turns out, four Emperors IS a lot!
This different from the year of four emperors in the chaos after Nero?
Yes, this is about ~230 years after that. The Year of the Four Emperors was a year in which four emperors reigned in sequence - Galba was overthrown by Otho, who was overthrown by Vitellius, who was overthrown by Vespasian. Think of the Year of the Four Emperors like a year-long civil war, or a series of coups.
The Tetrarchy was a formalized system wherein four emperors would rule simultanously, each delegated a specific area of the Empire to rule over.
Cabbage worms are annoying Me -o- Diocletian
Lights, that’s another story (franchise)
