:: wikimiki.org ::
| May 1 |
May 1
May 1 is the 121st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (122nd in leap years). There are 244 days remaining.
Events
- 305 - Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman Emperor.
- 1328 - Wars of Scottish Independence end: Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton – England recognises Scotland as an independent nation.
- 1699 - Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville founds the first European settlement in the Mississippi River Valley.
- 1707 - The Act of Union joins England, and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.
- 1753 - Publication of Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, and the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.
- 1776 - Adam Weishaupt founds the Illuminati in Ingolstadt, Germany.
- 1786 - Opening night of the opera The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Vienna.
- 1790 - The United States completes its first census.
- 1834 - The British colonies abolish slavery.
- 1840 - The Penny Black postage stamp is put on sale in the United Kingdom.
- 1848 - Phi Gamma Delta (Fiji), collegiate social fraternity, founded at Jefferson College (now Washington and Jefferson College) in Canonsburg, PA
- 1851 - The Great Exhibition opens in London.
- 1860 - A chondrite-type meteorite falls to earth in Muskingum County, Ohio, near the town of New Concord.
- 1863 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville begins – Union forces under Major General Joseph Hooker begin fighting -- and are eventually defeated by -- Confederate troops commanded by General Robert E. Lee.
- 1869 - The Folies Bergères open in Paris.
- 1873 - The 1873 Vienna World's Fair opens in Vienna.
- 1883 - Buffalo Bill Cody put on his first Wild West Show.
- 1884 - Proclamation of the demand for eight-hour workday in the United States
- 1886 - The start of the general strike which eventually wins the eight-hour workday in the United States. These events are today commemorated as May Day or Labour Day in most industrialized countries.
- 1893 - The World's Columbian Exposition opens in Chicago, Illinois.
- 1894 - Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, arrives in Washington D.C..
- 1897 - The Hindu monastic order Shri Ramakrishna Math and Mission was founded by Swami Vivekananda.
- 1898 - Spanish-American War: The Battle of Manila Bay - The United States Navy destroys the Spanish Pacific fleet in the first battle of the war.
- 1898 - Sikasso falls to the French colonial army.
- 1900 - The Scofield mine disaster kills 200 in Scofield, Utah in the now fifth-worst mining accident in United States history.
- 1901 - The Pan-American Exposition opens in Buffalo, New York.
- 1930 - The planet Pluto is officially named.
- 1931 - The Empire State Building is dedicated in New York City.
- 1940 - The 1940 Summer Olympics are cancelled due to war.
- 1941 - Orson Welles's Citizen Kane premieres in New York City
- 1941 - World War II: German forces launch a major attack on Tobruk.
- 1941 - Cheerios is introduced as CheeriOats by the General Mills cereal company.
- 1948 - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) is established, with Kim Il Sung as president.
- 1950 - Guam is organized as a United States commonwealth.
- 1956 - The polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk is made available to the public.
- 1960 - In India, Bombay Province is split into the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat on linguistic grounds.
- 1960 - Cold War: U-2 Crisis – Francis Gary Powers, in a U-2 spyplane, is shot down over the Soviet Union, sparking off a crisis.
- 1967 - Elvis Presley marries Priscilla Beaulieu.
- 1971 - Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) is formed to take over U.S. passenger rail service.
- 1972 - Vietnam War: Easter Offensive – North Vietnamese troops capture Quang Tri City, effectively giving them control Quang Tri Province.
- 1978 - Japan's Naomi Uemura, travelling by dog sled, becomes the first person to reach the North Pole alone.
- 1980 - Foundation of the Communist Labour Party of Turkey.
- 1982 - The 1982 World's Fair opens in Knoxville, Tennessee.
- 1983 - Edwin El Chapo Rosario wins boxing's vacant WBC world Lightweight title by beating Jose Luis Ramirez in San Juan, by points in 12 rounds, becoming Puerto Rico's 14th world boxing champion. A young Julio Cesar Chavez also wins as part of the undercard.
- 1994 - Formula One driver Ayrton Senna is killed during the San Marino Grand Prix.
- 1997 - HM Prison Pentridge, Melbourne, Australia is officially closed.
- 1999 - Three spectators are killed at an IRL race at Lowe's Motor Speedway when a collision propells a tire into the stands.
- 2003 - War in Iraq: U.S. President George W. Bush announces the end of major combat operations in Iraq.
- 2004 - Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union.
Births
- 1218 - John I, Count of Hainaut (d. 1257)
- 1218 - Rudolph I of Germany, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (d. 1291)
- 1285 - Edmund FitzAlan, 9th Earl of Arundel, English politician (d. 1326)
- 1582 - Marco da Gagliano, Italian composer (d. 1643)
- 1594 - John Haynes, Massachusetts colonial magistrate
- 1672 - Joseph Addison, English politician and writer (d. 1719)
- 1804 - Aleksey Khomyakov, Russian poet (d. 1860)
- 1830 - Mother Jones, American labor activist (d. 1930)
- 1831 - Emily Stowe, Canadian physician and suffragist (b.1903)
- 1852 - Calamity Jane, American Wild West performer (d. 1903)
- 1852 - Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Spanish histologist and neuroscientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1934)
- 1881 - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, French palaeontologist and philosopher (d. 1955)
- 1887 - Alan Gordon Cunningham, British army officer (d. 1983)
- 1896 - Mark Clark, American general (d. 1984)
- 1901 - Heinz Eric Roemheld, American film composer (d. 1985)
- 1901 - Antal Szerb, Hungarian author, literature historian
- 1905 - Henry Koster, German film director (d. 1988)
- 1908 - Giovanni Guareschi, Italian journalist (d. 1968)
- 1909 - Kate Smith, American singer (d. 1986)
- 1913 - Louis Nye, American comedian and actor (d. 2005)
- 1913 - Walter Susskind, Czech conductor (d. 1980)
- 1915 - Archie Williams, American athlete (d. 1993)
- 1916 - Glenn Ford, Canadian actor
- 1917 - John Beradino, American actor and baseball player (d. 1996)
- 1918 - Jack Paar, American television host (d. 2004)
- 1919 - Dan O'Herlihy, Irish film actor (d. 2005)
- 1923 - Joseph Heller, American novelist (d. 1999)
- 1924 - Art Fleming, American game show host (d. 1995)
- 1925 - Chuck Bednarik, American football player
- 1925 - Scott Carpenter, American astronaut
- 1929 - Ralf Dahrendorf, German-born sociologist and politician
- 1930 - Richard Riordan, Mayor of Los Angeles, California
- 1934 - Joan Hackett, American actress (d. 1983)
- 1935 - Ann Robinson, American actress
- 1939 - Judy Collins, American folk singer
- 1939 - Max Robinson, American broadcast journalist (d. 1988)
- 1940 - Elsa Peretti, Italian jewelry designer
- 1941 - Eric Burdon, British singer (The Animals)
- 1944 - Rita Coolidge, American singer
- 1944 - Suresh Kalmadi, Indian politician
- 1946 - Joanna Lumley, British actress
- 1946 - John Woo, Hong Kong director, producer, writer, and actor
- 1950 - Dann Florek, American actor
- 1954 - Ray Parker Jr., American singer and songwriter
- 1960 - Steve Cauthen, American jockey
- 1962 - Maia Morgenstern, Romanian actress
- 1964 - Yvonne van Gennip, Dutch speed skater
- 1967 - Tim McGraw, American musician
- 1968 - Oliver Bierhoff, German footballer
- 1968 - D'arcy, American musician (Smashing Pumpkins)
- 1973 - Curtis Martin, American football player
- 1973 - Oliver Neuville, German footballer
- 1975 - Alexei Smertin, Russian footballer
- 1981 - Aleksander Hleb, Belarusian footballer
- 1990 - Caitlin Stasey, Australian Actress
Deaths
- 408 - Arcadius, Roman emperor
- 1308 - Albert I of Habsburg (murdered) (b. 1255)
- 1572 - Pope Pius V (b. 1504)
- 1731 - Johann Ludwig Bach, German composer (b. 1677)
- 1738 - Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle, English statesman
- 1772 - Gottfried Achenwall, German statistician (b. 1719)
- 1813 - Jean-Baptiste Bessières, French marshal (killed in combat) (b. 1768)
- 1873 - David Livingstone, Scottish missionary (b. 1813)
- 1899 - Ludwig Büchner, German philosopher and physician (b. 1824)
- 1904 - Antonín Dvořák, Czech composer (b. 1841)
- 1945 - Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda (suicide) (b. 1897)
- 1965 - Spike Jones, American band leader, musician, and comedian (b. 1911)
- 1970 - Yi, Eun, Crown Prince Korea (b. 1897)
- 1978 - Aram Khachaturian, Armenian composer (b. 1903)
- 1982 - William Primrose, Scottish violist (b. 1903)
- 1989 - Douglass Watson, American actor (b. 1921)
- 1993 - Pierre Bérégovoy, French minister (suicide) (b. 1925)
- 1993 - Ranasinghe Premadasa, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka (b. 1924)
- 1994 - Ayrton Senna, Brazilian race car driver (b. 1960)
- 1998 - Eldridge Cleaver, American activist (b. 1935)
- 2000 - Steve Reeves, American actor (b. 1926)
- 2003 - Miss Elizabeth, American wrestler (b. 1960)
Holidays and observances
- May Day, Labour Day, Loyalty Day, Workers' Day, Day of the International Solidarity of Workers - see event section above.
- Switzerland - official feast of Spring.
- Czech Republic - "National Love Day" – couples tend to flock to the memorial of a poet in Prague and kiss.
- Lei Day - Hawaiian holiday for the Lei.
- Beltane, Lá Bealtaine, the first day of Summer in modern Ireland was celebrated by the Celts, and is now also celebrated by Neopagans and Wiccans.
- Roman Empire - all-female festival in honour of Bona Dea
- Roman Empire - fourth and last day of the Floralia in honour of Flora
- United States - Law Day
- Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
- Saint Joseph the Worker (also known as Saint Joseph's Day)
- Philip the Apostle
- James the Less
- Jeremiah
- Andeol
- Brieuc
- Sigismund of Burgundy
- Theodulf
- Augustin Schoeffer
- Festival of Matsu in Taiwan and various locales along the southern coast of China (2005)
External links
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/1 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050501.html The New York Times: On This Day]
----
April 30 - May 2 - April 1 - June 1 – listing of all days
ko:5월 1일
ja:5月1日
simple:May 1
th:1 พฤษภาคม
Leap yearA leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing an extra day or month in order to keep the calendar year in sync with an astronomical or seasonal year. Seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of days, so a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would over time drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected.
Leap years (which keep the calendar in sync with the year) should not be confused with leap seconds (which keep clock time in sync with the day).
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar, the current standard calendar in most of the world, adds a 29th day to February in all years evenly divisible by 4, except for century years (those ending in -00), which receive the extra day only if they are evenly divisible by 400. Thus 1996 was a leap year whereas 1999 was not, and 1600, 2000 and 2400 are leap years but 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2100 are not.
The reasoning behind this rule is as follows:
- The Gregorian calendar is designed to keep the vernal equinox on or close to March 21, so that the date of Easter (celebrated on the Sunday after the 14th day of the Moon that falls on or after 21 March) remains correct with respect to the vernal equinox.
- The vernal equinox year is currently about 365.242375 days long.
- The Gregorian leap year rule gives an average year length of 365.2425 days.
This difference of a little over 0.0001 days means that in around 8,000 years, the calendar will be about one day behind where it should be. But in 8,000 years' time the length of the vernal equinox year will have changed by an amount we can't accurately predict (see below). So the Gregorian leap year rule does a good enough job.
Image:Gregoriancalendarleap.png
Which day is the leap day?
The Gregorian calendar is a modification of the Julian calendar first used by the Romans. The Roman calendar originated as a lunar calendar (though from the 5th century BC it no longer followed the real moon) and named its days after three of the phases of the moon: the new moon (calends, hence "calendar"), the first quarter (nones) and the full moon (ides). Days were counted down (inclusively) to the next named day, so 24 February was ante diem sextum calendas martii ("the sixth day before the calends of March").
Since 45 BC, February in a leap year had two days called "the sixth day before the calends of March". The extra day was originally the second of these, but since the third century it was the first. Hence the term bissextile day for 24 February in a bissextile year.
Where this custom is followed, anniversaries after the inserted day are moved in leap years. For example, the former feast day of Saint Matthias, 24 February in ordinary years, would be 25 February in leap years.
This historical nicety is, however, in the process of being discarded: The European Union declared that, starting in 2000, 29 February rather than 24 February would be leap day, and the Roman Catholic Church also now uses 29 February as leap day. The only tangible difference is felt in countries that celebrate feast days.
Julian calendar
The Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4.
This rule gives an average year length of 365.25 days. The excess of about 0.0076 days with respect to the vernal equinox year means that the vernal equinox moves a day earlier in the calendar every 130 years or so.
Revised Julian Calendar
The Revised Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4, except for years divisible by 100 that do not leave a remainder of 200 or 600 when divided by 900. This rule agrees with the rule for the Gregorian calendar until 2799. The first year that dates in the Revised Julian calendar will not agree with the those in the Gregorian calendar will be 2800, because it will be a leap year in the Gregorian calendar but not in the Revised Julian calendar.
This rule gives an average year length of 365.242222… days. This is a very good approximation to the mean tropical year, but because the vernal equinox tropical year is slightly longer, the Revised Julian calendar does not do as good a job as the Gregorian calendar of keeping the vernal equinox on or close to 21 March.
Chinese calendar
The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, so a leap year has an extra month, often called an embolismic month after the Greek word for it. In the Chinese calendar the leap month is added according to a complicated rule, which ensures that month 11 is always the month that contains the northern winter solstice. The intercalary month takes the same number as the preceding month; for example, if it follows the second month then it is simply called "leap second month".
Hebrew calendar
The Hebrew calendar is also lunisolar with an embolistic month. In the Hebrew calendar the extra month is called Adar Alef (first Adar) and is added before Adar, which then becomes Adar Sheni (second Adar). According to the Metonic cycle, this is done seven times every nineteen years, specifically, in years, 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19.
In addition, the Hebrew calendar has postponement rules that postpone the start of the year by one or two days. The year before the postponement gets one or two extra days, and the year whose start is postponed loses one or two days. These postponement rules reduce the number of different combinations of year length and starting day of the week from 28 to 14, and regulate the location of certain religious holidays in relation to the Sabbath.
Hindu Calendar
In the Hindu calendar, which is a lunisolar calendar, the embolismic month is called adhika maas (extra month). It is the month in which the sun is in the same sign of the stellar zodiac on two consecutive dark moons.
Iranian calendar
The Iranian calendar also has a single intercalated day once in every four years, but every 33 years or so the leap years will be five years apart instead of four years apart. The system used is more accurate and more complicated, and is based on the time of the March equinox as observed from Teheran. The 33-year period is not completely regular; every so often the 33-year cycle will be broken by a cycle of 29 or 37 years.
Long term leap year rules
The accumulated difference between the Gregorian calendar and the vernal equinoctial year amounts to 1 day in about 8,000 years. This suggests that the calendar needs to be improved by another refinement to the leap year rule: perhaps by avoiding leap years in years divisible by 8,000.
(The most common such proposal is to avoid leap years in years divisible by 4,000 [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22gregorian+calendar%22+error+%22leap+year%22+4000]. This is based on the difference between the Gregorian calendar and the mean tropical year. Others claim, erroneously, that the Gregorian calendar itself already contains a refinement of this kind [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mleapyr.html].)
However, there is little point in planning a calendar so far ahead because over a timescale of tens of thousands of years the number of days in a year will change for a number of reasons, most notably:
#Precession of the equinoxes moves the position of the vernal equinox with respect to perihelion and so changes the length of the vernal equinoctial year.
#Tidal acceleration from the sun and moon slows the rotation of the earth, making the day longer.
In particular, the second component of change depends on such things as post-glacial rebound and sea level rise due to climate change. We can't predict these changes accurately enough to be able to make a calendar that will be accurate to a day in tens of thousands of years.
Marriage proposal
There is a tradition, said to go back to Saint Patrick and Saint Bridget in 5th century Ireland, whereby women may only make marriage proposals in leap years.
Saint Patrick and the leap year
:Saint Patrick, having driven the frogs out of the bogs was walking along the shores of Lough Neagh, when he was accosted by Saint Bridget in tears, and was told that a mutiny had broken out in the nunnery over which she presided, the ladies claiming the right of popping the question.
:Saint Patrick said he would concede them the right every seventh year, when Saint Bridget threw her arms round his neck, and exclaimed, "Arrah, Pathrick, jewel, I daurn't go back to the girls wid such a proposal. Make it one year in four." Saint Patrick replied, "Bridget, acushla, squeeze me that way again, an' I'll give ye leap-year, the longest of the lot." Saint Bridget, upon this, popped the question to St Patrick himself, who, of course, could not marry: so he patched up the difficulty as best he could with a kiss and a silk gown.
(Source: Evans, Ivor H, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988)
According to a 1288 law in Scotland, fines were levied if the proposal was refused by the man; compensation ranged from a kiss to a silk gown to soften the blow. Because men felt that put them at too great a risk, the tradition was in some places tightened to restricting female proposals to 29 February.
Birthdays
A person who was born on 29 February may be called a "leapling". In non-leap years they usually celebrate their birthday on 28 February or 1 March.
There are many instances in children's literature where a person's claim to be only a quarter of their actual age turns out be based on counting their leap-year birthdays. A similar device is used in the plot of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance.
Category:Calendars
Category:Units of time
als:Schaltjahr
ko:윤년
ja:閏年
simple:Leap year
th:ปีอธิกสุรทิน
Diocletian
Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus (245?–312?), born Diocles, was Roman Emperor as Diocletian from November 20 284 to May 1 305. Diocletian brought to an end the period popularly known to historians as the "Crisis of the Third Century" (235–284). He established an autocratic government and was responsible for laying the groundwork for the second phase of the Roman Empire, which is known variously as the "Dominate" (as opposed to the Principate), the "Tetrarchy", or simply the "Later Roman Empire". Diocletian's reforms helped ensure the survival of the Roman imperium, in the East at least, for several centuries.
Background
An Illyrian of low birth (from the province of Dalmatia in today's Croatia), Diocles rose through the ranks to the consulship. He was chosen by the Roman army on November 20 284 to replace Numerian and after the assassination of Carinus in Spring 285 became sole ruler of the Roman Empire. He changed his name to Diocletianus upon his ascension.
Previously, between 235 and 284, there had been some 20 to 25 successive Emperors in a period of about 50 years - an average of a new Emperor every two to three years.
Diocletian seemed at first to be following in the footsteps of his short-lived predecessors in the years between 284 and 298, as he fought a lengthy series of wars from one end of the Empire to the other, maintaining the extended boundaries of the frontiers and stamping out domestic uprisings. By 298, however, Diocletian had succeeded in repelling Germanic intrusions from across the Danube and Rhine, had put a halt to Persian invasions in Syria and Palestine, and had defeated his political rivals within the Empire.
Diocletian's reforms
His position secure, a remarkable feat after over fifty years of internal instability that nearly saw the collapse of the Roman Empire (what has become known as the Crisis of the Third Century), Diocletian believed that going forward under the current system of Roman Imperial government was unsustainable. He initiated a number of reforms to prevent a return to the anarchy of previous generations and maintain the viability of the Empire. These included splitting the Empire into two in order to be more manageable, creating a new system of Imperial succession, ruling as an autocrat and stripping away any remaining facade of republicanism, and economic reforms aimed at the problem of hyperinflation.
The Roman Emperorship, had originally been a military dictatorship, elaborately disguised as a constitutional monarchy. While it drew much of its legitimacy from a complex array of republican titles and practices, it drew most of its actual power from command over the legions and the Praetorian Guard. This is reflected in the most important of all Imperial titles, Imperator (Supreme Commander), from which the word emperor itself is derived. These arrangements, while awkward at times and followed more closely by some emperors than others, worked for the first two centuries of the empire's existence. However, starting with the reign of Septimius Severus, rulers began to strip away or simply ignore many of the republican niceties, and reigned more as dictators than constitutional monarchs. This process undermined the office's foundations and legitimacy. Diocletian recognized that the title had to be based on something more than simply military force, in order to be more recognized and stable. So he sought to build a new basis for imperial legitimacy in the state religion, with himself as semi-divine monarch and high priest. The old republican title of Pontifex Maximus, would begin to take on a new importance.
Diocletian chose a new title for himself, calling himself Dominus et deus, or "Lord and God". This was in contrast to previous Emperors, who were known as Princeps or "First Citizens", a name which implied some level of equality and democracy, if in name only. Diocletian through his new title removed any such facade, installing himself as a supreme overlord. He was not to be seen in public, and if an audience was required, he had elaborate ceremonies in which the visitor would be required to lie on the ground prostrate and never to look at the Emperor, allowed perhaps to kiss the bottom of his robe. In this way he created a remote, mysterious, theocratic and autocratic office.
The Tetrarchy
Diocletian's experiences during his first nine years of running around the Empire putting out fires brought him to the conclusion that the Empire was simply too big for a single Emperor to rule—that it was not feasible to address barbarian invasions along the Rhine and Egyptian problems at the same time, for example. His radical solution was to split the Empire in two, drawing a line straight down the middle of the map with the axis just east of Rome into eastern and western halves. While this division did not last in the short term, it did eventually become permanent.
The question of Imperial succession had never been solved in the Roman system; there was no clear principle of succession, which often led to civil wars. Prior Emperors had preferred the system of adoption, whereby they would adopt a son in order to be the chosen heir. The military did not like the system of adoption and preferred biological succession, with the emperor's son being the rightful heir. The Senate believed they should have the right to elect a new Emperor. Thus there were usually at least three, if not many more, rightful heirs of succession.
Senate
In order to solve the problem of succession, and to answer the question of who would be Emperor of the newly divided East and West, Diocletian created what has become known as the system of "Tetrarchy", or "rule of four", whereby a senior emperor would rule in the East and West, and each would have a junior emperor. Among the many titles traditionally bestowed on Roman emperors, the most important was that of Augustus and therefore only the two senior emperors took this title, with the junior emperors receiving the lesser title of Caesar. Diocletian intended that when the senior emperor retired or died, the Caesar would take his place and choose a new junior emperor Caesar, thus solving the problem of succession.
By 292 Diocletian had the system in place and chose the Eastern Empire for himself and gave Maximian the Western Empire. The imperial power was now divided between two people. The two men established separate capitals, neither of which was at Rome. The ancient capital was too far removed from the places where the empire's fate was decided by force of arms. While improving the ability of the two emperors to rule the empire, the division of power further marginalized the Senate, which remained in Rome. In 293, Diocletian and Maximian each appointed a Caesar (Galerius and Constantius, respectively), formally adopting them as their heirs. However, these were not merely successors - each was given authority over roughly a quarter of the Empire.
Considering that during the half-century preceding Diocletian's ascension the Empire had been in a constant state of simmering civil war, it is remarkable that the Tetrarchy did not immediately fall apart due to the greed of any one of the four emperors. However, the opportunistic nature of Roman Imperial politics soon brought about the disintegration of the Tetrarchy and the reinstitution of one-man rule. When in 305, Diocletian retired (and his western counterpart was persuaded to do the same), the two Caesars became the senior emperors as designed, but when it came time to choose new Caesars, the military and Senate intervened and brought forward their own candidates. In 306 Constantine started a civil war in the west, which he won in 312, and took the eastern half by 324, thus ruling as a united Empire until his death in 337. However, by 395 the division occurred again and the two halves would never be united again.
Economic reforms
Economically Diocletian made reforms as well. In 301, Diocletian attempted to curb the rampant inflation of the 3rd century, and issued his Edict on Maximum Prices. This Edict fixed prices for over a thousand goods, fixed wages, and threatened the death penalty to merchants who overcharged. It was unable to stop the inflation and was eventually ignored, but it is an important document for an understanding of Roman economics.
All farmers, their children, and their children's children were bound to the land forever. Totaliarianism was the final order of Diocletian's new order for Roman farms.
Military reforms
Militarily Diocletian divided the army into two major portions: The frontier troops (limitanei or ripenses) and mobile field forces (comitatenses) to provide a reserve. About two-thirds of the army's strength was frontier forces. The remainder was the mobile units which the Augusti and Caesars kept centrally located in their territories. Since they were closer to the centers of power, and therefore more politically dangerous, the mobile troops were better paid than the frontier forces. This proved a cause for resentment and, later on, trouble.
The experience with the vexillatio system led Diocletian to reduce the legions of the field forces to about 1,000 men each, to assure greater strategic and tactical flexibility without the need for detachments. The legions of the frontier were kept at full strength (4,000-6,000 men). Auxiliary units in both mobile and frontier forces were usually 1,000 men each.
Also under Diocletian, the post of Praetorian prefect was greatly reduced in power. Instead, each Augustus and Caesar had two major military commanders: a Magister militum (master of soldiers) and a Magister Equitum (master of cavalry). This not only divided military responsibilities, thus reducing political dangers, but it also acknowledged the increased importance of cavalry in the Roman army.
Many of the military reforms started by Diocletian were continued by his successors and largely completed under Constantine, who abolished the Praetorian Guard, replacing it with a smaller, more controllable personal bodyguard of about 4,000 men.
In 303, the last and greatest persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire began. In the earlier part of Diocletian's reign, Galerius was more the instigator of such persecution than Diocletian himself. However, in the later part of Diocletian's reign, Diocletian embraced the policy of persecution with unequivocal zeal. This wave of persecution lasted until 311.
Retirement and death
In 305, at the age of fifty-nine, after almost dying from a sickness, Diocletian retired to his palace near the administrative center of Salona on the Adriatic Sea, taking up his beloved hobby of growing cabbages. When solicited at a later date to resume the honours which he had voluntarily resigned, his reply was, "Would but you could see the vegetables planted by my hands at Salona, you would then never think of urging such an attempt." He was the only Roman Emperor to remove himself from office; all of the others either died of natural causes or were removed by force.
Diocletian's Palace later became the seed of modern Split, Croatia.
Dioceses of Diocletian
Diocletian in fiction
- Diocletian is the main character of the novel Numerius, written by V. Martucci (2005)
- The novel Fabiola, or The Church of the Catacombs, written in 1852 by Cardinal Wiseman, takes place during the reign of Diocletian.
Footnotes
# Adams, For Good and Evil, p. 115. (See below for full citation.)
See also
Further reading
- Roger Rees, Diocletian and the Tetrarchy, Edinburgh University Press, 2004. ISBN 0748616616
- Pat Southern, The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine, Routledge, 2001. ISBN 0415239443
- Adams, Charles, "Diocletian’s New Order" being Chapter 11 (pp. 111-118) of For Good and Evil: The Impact of Taxes on the Course of Civilization, Second Edition, Madison Books, 1999, ISBN 1568331231
External links
- [http://www.roman-emperors.org/dioclet.htm Diocletian] by Ralph W. Mathisen, University of South Carolina.
- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05007b.htm Diocletian] from the Catholic Encyclopedia.
- [http://www.st.carnet.hr/split/diokl.html Diocletian Palace in Split]
- [http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/DLDecArts.AdamRuins Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia, by Adam, Robert] from the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center.
Category:245 births
Category:313 deaths
Category:Roman emperors
Category:Late Antiquity
Category:Crisis of the Third Century
Category:Constantine Dynasty
Category:Adoptive parents
ja:ディオクレティアヌス
Roman EmperorsThis is a list of Roman Emperors with the dates they controlled the Roman Empire.
Note that in the list below Julius Caesar is not mentioned as an Emperor, as conventionally he is not considered as such. For a more in-depth discussion of whether or not Julius Caesar might have been considered as the first Emperor, see Roman Emperor.
For the worship of the Roman Emperor as a god, see imperial cult.
For a simplified list see: Concise List of Roman Emperors
italics: claimant who cannot be considered to have ruled, or who held power over part of the empire only
bold: nickname by which the individual is commonly known
Severan Dynasty, African, Asian and Syrian Emperors
Tetrarchies, unifications and new splits
| | |
