Wikipedia:Today's featured article/September 25, 2010

Diocletian (244–311) was Roman Emperor from 284 to 305. Acclaimed emperor by the army, his ascension to power ended the Crisis of the Third Century. Diocletian appointed Maximian his Augustus, his senior co-emperor, in 285. In 293, he appointed Galerius and Constantius as Caesars, junior co-emperors. Under this "Tetrarchy", each emperor would rule over a quarter-division of the empire. In campaigns against Sarmatian and Danubian tribes (285–90), the Alamanni (288), and usurpers in Egypt (297–98), Diocletian secured the empire's borders and purged it of threats to his power. In 299, Diocletian led negotiations with Persia, the empire's traditional enemy, and achieved a lasting and favorable peace. He also separated and enlarged the empire's civil and military services and reorganised the provincial divisions, establishing the largest and most bureaucratic government in Roman history. Not all Diocletian's plans were successful; the Edict on Maximum Prices was counterproductive and quickly ignored. The Diocletianic Persecution failed to destroy the empire's growing Christian community. His Tetrarchic system collapsed after his abdication. Despite his failures, Diocletian's reforms fundamentally changed the structure of Roman government, enabling an empire that had seemed near the brink of collapse in Diocletian's youth to remain essentially intact for another century. (more...)

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