(Also, I tried to at least leave a kudos and it tells me I left one but it's not showing up??)
I had the same experience! I wonder if the AO3 servers are just a bit overwhelmed by the amount of incoming kudos.
Primer: Okay, my Roman history is 10 years rusty, so I'm going to open with a simplified prelude, and then give Selena a chance to say stuff about Diocletian and Maximian proper, and then we can discuss!
The first thing you have to understand about Diocletian and Diocletian/Maximian is that what makes them so impressive is what happened before them. To give a very simplified account:
Phase one, there was the expansionist heyday of the Roman empire with the emperors you've heard of: Augustus, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, etc.
Phase two, the empire reaches its greatest extent in circa 100 CE, and it looks like this That looks really impressive! But. Some problems ensue.
1. The Romans only have the communications and transportation technology of circa 100 CE, which means that even if they're militarily superior to any one of their enemies, that border is way way overextended. Can you imagine living in Rome and trying to administer all those provinces and defend all the outreaches of the that red area?
2. The Roman emperors are really, really bad at founding dynasties. They keep dying without male heirs. They try out adoption, but they don't have a really good stable principle of succession. The major principle of succession ends up being, "If you defeat the rival candidates, you win!"
"If you defeat the rival candidates, you win!" very easily translates into "If you're an army based in Gaul or Illyria or Africa or wherever, you can grab your general, go, 'Our general is emperor!' and fight everyone else to make your guy emperor so he will give you big bonuses."
By the mid 3rd century, you have phase three: anarchy. The main means of becoming emperor is being a general, promising your troops money and favors, and marching on Rome to get acknowledged by the Senate before any other generals who have the same idea get acknowledged by the Senate. Bloodline? Previous ruling experience? What's that?
If you make it, and you have a male heir, you can try to get him on the throne, but it's a tossup whether it works, and it doesn't work for long.
One day, another emperor dies, and this soldier guy who was the son of a slave or freedman from somewhere in the Balkans becomes emperor. We know little to nothing about him before he changed his name from Gaius Valerius Diocles to Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus upon becoming emperor. (It's really incredibly tantalizing: I want backstory!)
And the newly minted Diocletian decides that all this anarchy and chaos has got to go! In a nutshell, phase four of the history of the Roman empire is when Diocletian initiates a bunch of reforms, promotes a strong government, and stabilizes the empire reasonably well (and impressively considering the litany of problems he was facing), but also commits at least two major fuckups, which Selena will tell you about if she has time. :)
And once we've covered that, I will describe what led me to request Diocletian/Maximian in the first place. Diocletian for his (usual) competence, obviously, and Diocletian/Maximian for a loyalty kink that you're going to hear all about. :DD
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Re: Diocletian/Maximian primer??
Date: 2022-12-26 05:48 pm (UTC)I had the same experience! I wonder if the AO3 servers are just a bit overwhelmed by the amount of incoming kudos.
Primer: Okay, my Roman history is 10 years rusty, so I'm going to open with a simplified prelude, and then give Selena a chance to say stuff about Diocletian and Maximian proper, and then we can discuss!
The first thing you have to understand about Diocletian and Diocletian/Maximian is that what makes them so impressive is what happened before them. To give a very simplified account:
Phase one, there was the expansionist heyday of the Roman empire with the emperors you've heard of: Augustus, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, etc.
Phase two, the empire reaches its greatest extent in circa 100 CE, and it looks like this That looks really impressive! But. Some problems ensue.
1. The Romans only have the communications and transportation technology of circa 100 CE, which means that even if they're militarily superior to any one of their enemies, that border is way way overextended. Can you imagine living in Rome and trying to administer all those provinces and defend all the outreaches of the that red area?
2. The Roman emperors are really, really bad at founding dynasties. They keep dying without male heirs. They try out adoption, but they don't have a really good stable principle of succession. The major principle of succession ends up being, "If you defeat the rival candidates, you win!"
"If you defeat the rival candidates, you win!" very easily translates into "If you're an army based in Gaul or Illyria or Africa or wherever, you can grab your general, go, 'Our general is emperor!' and fight everyone else to make your guy emperor so he will give you big bonuses."
By the mid 3rd century, you have phase three: anarchy. The main means of becoming emperor is being a general, promising your troops money and favors, and marching on Rome to get acknowledged by the Senate before any other generals who have the same idea get acknowledged by the Senate. Bloodline? Previous ruling experience? What's that?
If you make it, and you have a male heir, you can try to get him on the throne, but it's a tossup whether it works, and it doesn't work for long.
One day, another emperor dies, and this soldier guy who was the son of a slave or freedman from somewhere in the Balkans becomes emperor. We know little to nothing about him before he changed his name from Gaius Valerius Diocles to Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus upon becoming emperor. (It's really incredibly tantalizing: I want backstory!)
And the newly minted Diocletian decides that all this anarchy and chaos has got to go! In a nutshell, phase four of the history of the Roman empire is when Diocletian initiates a bunch of reforms, promotes a strong government, and stabilizes the empire reasonably well (and impressively considering the litany of problems he was facing), but also commits at least two major fuckups, which Selena will tell you about if she has time. :)
And once we've covered that, I will describe what led me to request Diocletian/Maximian in the first place. Diocletian for his (usual) competence, obviously, and Diocletian/Maximian for a loyalty kink that you're going to hear all about. :DD