ABSTRACT
Every day, one of the most powerful images of Late Antiquity is passed almost unnoticed by thousands of tourists strolling around on Venice's San Marco Square. It is the Philadelphion, the reddish porphyry statue of the tetrarchy, the 'college of the four rulers', that was cut for the Emperor Diocletian's palace at Nicomedia (Asia Minor). With the installation of the tetrarchy, Diocletian intended to firmly restore peace, unity and prosperity to the Roman Empire after decades of turmoil and civil war. The third century, in particular its middle part, had been beset with all sorts of crises: large-scale barbarian invasions, renewed Persian attacks on the eastern border, mutinies in the army, followed by an avalanche of military coups, massive fall in population, economic decline, impoverishment of the countryside, widespread epidemic disease, rampant inflation following the virtual collapse of the imperial silver coinage.
