ABSTRACT
The work of the so-called ‘soldier emperors’ in the late third century AD saved the Roman world from utter collapse. It also paved the way for the systematic changes of structure initiated by Diocletian (AD 285-305) and completed by Constantine the Great (AD 312-37). Diocletian and Constantine realized the temper of the times and, like their predecessor Augustus, integrated the elements developed in the chaotic era into a system that had the permanence of a constitutional form. The pressure of military, fiscal and administrative demands provoked the creation of a system that may be construed as imparting a permanent form to a state of emergency. They established an intricate network of state intervention and supervision of individuals and social groups, an expansion of bureaucracy and police control, an organization of small administrative and legal units commanded by new intermediate authorities and a hitherto unknown degree of state planning and managerial intervention in every sphere of life. However, their measures were not promulgated and implemented throughout the empire at one precise moment. Rather, this process occurred in a largely fragmentary fashion during the five and a half decades that separated the accession of Diocletian and the death of Constantine. The transformation of the Roman state and society that transpired under these emperors inaugurated the last phase of Roman history, known as the ‘Dominate’ (dominatus), and ushered in the medieval world as well.
