Explanation: Emperor Diocletian was the only Roman Emperor who retired - to a little villa in modern-day Croatia, where he spent his remaining time being waited on by his slaves and gardening, like an ordinary aristocrat. When his co-emperors begged him to return to unfuck the mess he made, he wrote back that they would not ask such a thing of him if they saw his serene and peaceful cabbages.
How do you know all these small facts?
I sacrificed basic life skills in exchange for an obsession with historical minutiae.
Can’t check the engine of a car to save my life, but you can bet your ass I can talk at length about the favorite hobbies of Roman Emperors or the history of the crossbow!
Ooh I’ll take the history of the crossbow.
Sure, I could look it up myself, or I could let a fellow nerd indulge and share in their delight.
Relatable.
I miss OkayBuddyPhD on Reddit because it was basically all memes about this.
Point me to your sources! (They’re not in my history books from college/ University ;)
And miniscule/mundane was the word I was looking for last night…I was tired :p
About Diocletian retiring to farm cabbages? Epitome de Caesaribus is one source.
- Diocletian actually relinquished the imperial fasces of his own accord at Nicomedia and grew old on his private estates. 6. It was he who, when solicited by Herculius and Galerius for the purpose of resuming control, responded in this way, as though avoiding some kind of plague: “If you could see at Salonae the cabbages raised by our hands, you surely would never judge that a temptation.”
I learned most of this stuff from listening to “the History of Rome” podcast by Mike Duncan. There are many resources available to learn about Rome and the ancient world, and they are full of interesting anecdotes that have survived the passage of time
Isn’t that one of the last anti- or non-Christian emperors?
It is indeed! Diocletian was the last major pagan Emperor (284-305 AD) before the Christian Emperors came in - and he was the worst persecutor of Christianity of the lot. Unlike previous pagan Emperors, who mostly didn’t understand Christianity or didn’t care, or both, Diocletian initiated an actual imperial persecution of Christianity which ultimately killed several thousand Christians during his reign.
There’s one pagan Emperor after him, Julian the Apostate, who comes after a string of Christian Emperors (306-361 AD) and reigns for two years (361-363 AD). He’s a cool guy, doesn’t persecute anyone, but at that point, Christianity is deeply entrenched, and poor Julian catches a Persian javelin in his gut before he can carry out his grand plans for reform anyway.
