ABSTRACT
On 20 November 284 the army proclaimed as emperor Valerius Diocletianus, a man of humble origins—a freedman, it was alleged—who had risen to be commander of the imperial guard of protectores. This remarkable man has been chiefly remembered by posterity as the author of the final and most severe persecution of the Christians. His achievement was to restore stability to the empire, to reorganize the administration, to double the army, and to put the finances in a sound condition.
