After reading his wiki, I feel like this characterization is a bit unfair. His rule was by most accounts successful, bringing the Empire back from the brink of collapse.

The worst of the Crisis of the Third Century was over when he took the reins, but he took the initiative in creating the ultra-fucked state of the Dominate, or Late Empire, which Constantine and later Emperors ran with. A complete lack of understanding of economics combined with delusions of godhood and no respect for Roman traditions, with bureaucratic organizational chaos, the codification of proto-feudalism, and the hollowing out of a robust-if-damaged military system in the hopes of dashing the chances of civil war (it did not dash the chances of civil war) are not qualities which recommend him.

Four Emperors is a lot, it does not stop coups or civil wars but rather precipitates them, and multiplying the imperial bureaucracy by over 10x in order to centralize control is not fiscally responsible - especially when combined with a ballooning of the imperial court and its ‘majesty’.

He fucked the government essentially by abdicating, rather than being a shit emperor, which is why they wanted him back.

The Tetrarchy was fucked before he abdicated. Maximian wanted him back because the system only worked when there was a clear supreme Emperor (contrary to Diocletian’s entire attempt) and Diocletian had spent most of his Emperorship accruing the necessary prestige to make it unthinkable that anyone else would rule. In any case, Diocletian stepping back in would have simply made it clear how broken the Tetrarchy was at that point (and arguably always was), since that would have made 5 theoretically reigning Emperors at war with each other.

It seems the Christians took over during Constantine’s subsequent reign and gave him a bad rap.

That’s partly true - the Christians certainly played up the Great Persecution, but most of my critiques are exactly the kind of top-heavy bureaucracy which the Christian Emperors embraced and perpetuated, and not core to their criticisms of Diocletian.

Wiki said he’d gotten sick before he abdicated, and reading between the lines it seems pretty certain he also got sick of everybody’s shit. Honestly, being emperor is hazardous to your health; I’d say he made a pretty smart move. The “nice villa” thing makes it sound like he lived in a hovel on a farm or something, but dude lived the rest of his life in a giant city-sized fort he had built for just that purpose. He was no slouch.

His villa is nice, certainly. Villas usually are - the word in the Roman context being something between a mansion and a self-sufficient farming estate - but Diocletian’s was palatial. The ruins still exist in Croatia, they’re very cool.

An enlightened one 🙏

Wish.com Cincinnatus-ass

The Obama years, when staying informed just meant a low-level sense of continuing dread at the obstructionism of the GOP and lack of spine displayed by the Dems.

It’s not a question of “When were things good” but "When were things not getting worse at a horrific rate "

What a timeline we live in

Holy fucking shit, I remember that interaction but I didn’t catch that Raiden’s face was a pug, how glorious

The lettuce endured where weaker politicians could not 💪

Photo of Diocletian, 310 AD (colorized)

I thought it was “Pay other people to fight our battles for us” :p

I was unaware of any allegations until you commented. I hope the Canadian court system delivers justice.

In any case, it’s just a Trailer Park Boys meme, not an expression of support.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O112414/scent-flask-unknown/

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O111770/brooch-unknown/

Explanation: During the Battle for Caen in WW2, Allied forces dropped leaflets urging the French population to evacuate before the battle. Few did.

When British bombers passed overhead a few days later, the results were… not pretty.

Explanation: Diocletian was a Roman Emperor of the late 3rd century and early 4th century AD who royally fucked the government he took over for some twenty years, and then promptly retired to a nice villa in the Balkans. When one of his co-emperors wrote to him begging him to come back and unfuck the mess he seeded, Diocletian responded “If you [the messenger] could show the cabbage that I planted with my own hands to your emperor, he definitely wouldn’t dare suggest that I replace the peace and happiness of this place with the storms of a never-satisfied greed.”

Explanation: Diocletian was a Roman Emperor of the late 3rd century and early 4th century AD who royally fucked the government he took over for some twenty years, and then promptly retired to a nice villa in the Balkans. When one of his co-emperors wrote to him begging him to come back and unfuck the mess he seeded, Diocletian responded “If you [the messenger] could show the cabbage that I planted with my own hands to your emperor, he definitely wouldn’t dare suggest that I replace the peace and happiness of this place with the storms of a never-satisfied greed.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_ship_Nuestra_Señora_de_la_Santísima_Trinidad

Nuestra Señora de la Santísima Trinidad, nicknamed La Real, was a ship of the line of the Spanish Navy which was the largest warship in the world when launched. She originally mounted 112 guns, which was increased between 1795 and 1796 to 130 guns by closing in the spar deck between the quarterdeck and forecastle. In 1802 Santísima Trinidad was further upgraded to 140 guns, including four guns on the poop deck, effectively creating a continuous fourth gundeck, although the extra guns added were relatively small. She was the most heavily armed ship in the world when rebuilt, and bore the most guns of any ship of the line outfitted in the Age of Sail.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Lexington_and_Concord#First_shot:_Conflicting_accounts

British and Patriot soldiers’ accounts from Lexington, and analyses by later historians, differ on who fired the first shot and whether any definite conclusion can be made. Modern historian David Hackett Fischer wrote that both British commander Pitcairn and Patriot commander Parker, ordered their men to hold their fire but a shot was fired from an unknown person.[55] Some witnesses (on each side) claimed that someone on the other side fired first; however, many more witnesses claimed to not know which side fired the first shot.[56] Some men on both sides stated that the initial shot did not come from the men immediately facing each other at the Common.[57] Fischer has proposed the possibility of multiple near-simultaneous shots.[58] Fischer wrote that while a few militiamen thought the regulars were only firing powder but not ball, when they realized the Regulars were firing ball, few if any of the militiamen managed to load weapons and return fire. The others ran for their lives.[59] Historian Mark Urban wrote that British soldiers cheered and ran at the militiamen who lowered their weapons instead of moving in at an orderly walk to disarm them. According to Urban, one or two villagers opened fire and then, without orders from Pitcairn, one formed British company levelled its weapons and let fly a crashing volley.[60]

I laugh about András Toma but it’s really sad.

He was drafted into the Royal Hungarian Army in October 1944, during WWII, and he served in an artillery regiment.[5] Later that year, while fighting near Auschwitz, Toma was captured by Soviet forces at the age of 19, and was transported to a prisoner of war camp east of Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). Following the closure of the camp in 1947, he was transferred to a mental hospital in Kotelnich, Russia, where he was diagnosed with psychoneurosis.[3][6] Since those in hospitals were removed from prisoner of war lists, Toma was lost to Hungarian authorities. He was declared dead in 1954.[5]

Toma lived in the hospital for the next 53 years under the name András Tamás, where he was unable to communicate with others due to his inability to speak Russian.[7] In 1997, a Slovakian doctor named Karol Moravčík who spoke Hungarian visited the hospital, and identified him as Hungarian.[8] On 11 August 2000, Toma arrived back in Hungary where authorities attempted to identify him. 82 families came forward, thinking he was their missing relative. On 16 September 2000, he returned to his hometown of Sulyánbokor, where he was reunited with his siblings; they were later confirmed through DNA matching.[6][3] Since he was never discharged, Toma was promoted to sergeant major by the Minister of Defence, and since his military service had been continuous, his decades of accumulated unpaid salary were paid in full.[9][5] Toma, then aged 74, moved in with his half-sister Anna, who cared for him until his death in 2004. He was buried with military honours.[10]

Like kids balancing on railings