accomplished fact under the new régime and was an essential part of Diocletian's system, had been going on for centuries. The division of the larger provinces into smaller units of government, which is a noticeable feature of Diocletian's system, was carried out in many cases as early as the time of Domitian, and many of the honorary titles and insignia of office which Diocletian and his successors took go back to the reigns of Domitian or Aurelian.
It is clear, therefore, that many of the features of his system are to be found in the empire, so that, aside from reorganizing the administration, the most important changes which Diocletian effected consisted in breaking away from the theory of the dyarchy, in securing formal recognition thereby of the fact that the emperor was the sole source of authority, and in putting the succession on a new basis.
Selections from the Sources
All freemen become citizens (212): Dio, LXXVII. 9. — Diocletian: Eutr. IX. 19–28; Aur. Vict. Caes. 39; Lactant, de Mort. Pers. 7 ff.; Zonaras, XII. 31-2; Orosius, VII. 25.
Selected Bibliography[1]
Th. Preuss, Kaiser Diocletian. Leipzig, 1868.
Büdinger, Untersuchungen, etc.
A. W. Hunzinger, Die diocletianische Staats-Reform. Rostock, 1900.
Kawlowa, Römische Rechtsgeschichte, Vol. I. Leipzip, 1885.
Walter, Geschichte d. römischen Rechts, Vol. I. Bonn, 1845.
- ↑ See also pp. 288 and 304.
