Lesson 1: Diocletian saves the

day
Key Questions:

How secure was the Roman Empire in the third century?

Who was Diocletian?

What were the main reasons for this instability?

The first emperor, Augustus, never formulated any rule on how the succession of
emperors was meant to happen.
The rise of the Sassanid Empire in Persia.
The Germanic tribes grew stronger and started to settle within the empire.

Activity 2
Class discussion:
Question: if you were a Roman emperor what would you have done to stabilise the
empire?
And a hero comes along

Diocletian came to power in 284CE.

New ruling structure of the tetrarchy (the rule of four).

Activity 2
In the ___________ the Roman Empire stretched from Britain in Western Europe to the area
that we now call the Middle East. During the period the empire experienced a long period

where there was a high turnover rate of emperors. For example in the first 100 years
there had been __ emperors in the third century there was at least __. This traumatic
period was brought to an end when __________ ascended to the throne. In order to
stabilise the empire he invented a new form of rule which is known as the ________. The
empire was spilt in half between ____ and ____ and each side had a ruling emperor called
an ________. They were helped by two junior officers called ________. Diocletian ruled in
the east and was aided by _______. _______ ruled in the west and was helped by _________.
These four ruled until ______ when Diocletian and Maximian retired.
38

Galerius

Caesar

Maximian

Diocletian

Augustus

Third
century
10

Constantius
Tetrarchy

308CE