Okay, once you've watched the other two vids, which will have given you the political outline (in a funny way) and the most important events, here are the family footnotes:
1) Diocletian and Maximian: not (originally) related, both of humble Balcan origin, rose through the ranks together, though Maximian, a few years younger and not as brilliant, was always a few steps behind. Diocletian appointing him Co-Emperor wasn't unprecedented - there'd been several throughout the by now centuries of Roman Empire history - but it is worth noting that this was still a risky move, because for every successful combination, there were Co-Emperors turning against each other. As the second vid says, at first Maximian was given the title "Caesar" while Diocletian was "Augustus", Caesar implying junior rank; also, state propaganda referred to them as Jupiter (Diocletian) and Hercules (Maximian), and the god and his loyal (brawny) son (greatest of heroes, but still, the son) also implies a certain rank. However, as the vid points out, the workload was still too much for the two of them, and that's how we end up with Diocletian promoting Maximian to Augustus and each of them getting themselves a Caesar - Constantius Chlorus, who shall be Chlorus in order not to be confused with his more famous son, for Maximian, and Galerius for Dioclectian. Presto, the Tetrarchy. Now, both Dioclectian and Maximian were married and had daughters. Maximian also had a son (Maxentius, more about him in a minute). Practically the moment Galerius and Chlorus were appointed Caesars, they also got married to Dioclectian's and to Maximian's daughter, respectively, in order to strengthen the bonds. What were these particular daughters - (Galeria)Valeria and Theodora - like? We have no idea. Chauvinist sources focus on the men folk and don't say. Usually, the only way you got some Roman historian's attention as a woman was when you (in their eyes) misbehaved, usually by aquiring power for yourself and/or having affairs.
2.) Which brings me to (Constantius) Chlorus. He hadn't been single when becoming Maximian's Caesar. He was either married to or had as a steady concubine Helena, mother of his son Constantine, and an important figure of Christian history. The reason why we don't know whether or not these two were married is of course that Constantine emerged of the Tetrarchy implosion as the last man standing and later as top dog of the Roman Empire had some influence on historians, to put it mildly. Also, because Helena was important to Christian history, even once Constantine was dead, her origins kept being rewritten and enobled, which is how we go from Helena, daughter ofa Balcan tavern keeper, waitress and possibly part time prostitute (as waitresses were forced to be at that ime) to Helena, British princess. The later is what she is both in Evelyn Waugh's novel about her and in Dorothy Sayers' play, not because by the 20th century, people were still ignorant of her "lower" origin, but because these were English writers, and the tradition of basically claiming Constantine as a half Brit through his mother and said mother as a full Brit (and of course a princess, not some lowly waitress) had been going on for more than a millennium in Britain at that point. Anyway, Chlorus dumped Helena the Christian and married Theodora (with whom he had some more kids, including the father of later Emperor Julian the Apostate) the daughter of Maximian, but he did always treat Constantine as his legal first born son. (This is not something Constantine later made up, but documented at the time.) The notions of bastardy were murky in the ancient world anyway, but still, if you want an argument that Chlorus and Helena were married after all, you can always resort to this. Chlorus, btw, comes across in general as both competent (he reconquered Britain for the Tetrarchy after some splitaway wannabe Emperor named Cosaurus had ruled it in the aftermath of Diocletian's ascension to power) and the least ego-driven of the Tetrarchs.
3.) Constantine didn't see much of his father as a kid, though, since after Chlorus' promotion to Caesar he was raised at Diocletian's court. As Mike Duncan said in the "History of Rome" podcast, "hostage is such an ugly word". Diocletian might have correctly trusted that his three co-rulers would all remain loyal to him instead of trying to split from the Roman Empire and/or gun to be sole Emperor, but he didn't rely on trust alone in the case of the younger guys. Anyway, young Constantine clearly learned a lot, including when to shut up and when to sway people, because once Dioclatian had retired, and Galerius had become Augustus in Diocletian's place, Constantine somehow talked him into permitting him, Constantine, to leave (now) Galerius' court and let him join his father Chlorus in Britain. Galerius later claimed he was drunk when giving his permission. (Mike Duncan: He would say that. Imagine how he'd look when saying he was sober.) Once permission was given, Constantine rode day and night and made it to GB to be at his father's side the next few years which was absolutely crucial. Because when Chlorus died at Eboracum (York), his troops supposedly intantly hailed Constantine as his successor and new Emperor, and hey, what's a guy to do if the troops want it? Write to Galerius (who together with Chlorus had been promoted from Caesar to Augustus when Diocletian and Maximian retired) that he's the new Augustus (not Caesar, note) in Dad's place because the troops want it so, that's what. (Galerius was so enraged by this letter that he threatened to burn both the messenger and the message.)
4) Galerius, as Diocletian's Caesar, had been earmarked to succeed him as Augustus from the get go. He was another Balcan origin guy of humble origin with a respectable military career when Diocletian picked him as Caesar and married him to his daughter Valeria, though then Galerius wasn't as successful in his wars with the Persians as Chlorus was in his task to reconquer Britain (see above). Otoh, Galerius was VERY successful in keeping his relationhip with Diocletian smooth. Some later chroniclers blame the Great Persecution (see third vid), the greatest and last of the official anti-Christian measures, solely on Galerius in order to make Diocletian (who when all is said and done even in the Christian era of the Empire was seen as having restored order and being a predecessor of the great Constantine) look better, but to me it looks as if they were both united in their desire to get rid of this weird cult once and for all. By that point, Christianity was already the fasted growing religion within the Empire. Not the only popular and growing faith - see also Sol Invictus, Mithras Cult - but definitely the most popular. The Great Persecution created an according backlash, and this in turn played an important role in Constantine's popular support and success. (Not to mention in a lot of less than forgiving Christians once Constantine had made them the state religion.)
Now, whether or not Galerius was the driver behind the Great Persecution, he definitely was the guy to suggest the two new Caesars once Diocletian prepared for his (and Maximian's) retirement. Because both candidates were Galerius' men through and through - one, (Maximinus) Daza, to be referred to as just Daza in order to avoid confusion with Maximian, was Galerius' nephew, the son of his sister, and the other, Severus, was his bff in the army. (One apparantly with a reputation for hard partying, dancing and drinking, but that might have been slander by Christian writers later.) Now clearly, Diocletian should have seen this would not result in a balanced new Tetrarchy, and that Chlorus would feel ganged up upon, so that even if Chlorus hadn't died and been replaced by his son Endgame!Constantine, it a structure just asking to tear itself apart. But Diocletian still let Galerius get away with this.
5.) Meanwhile, two of the four original Tetrarchs - Maximian and Chlorus - had adult sons ready and more than willing to succeed their fathers, to wit, Maxentius and Constantine, respectively, whom Diocletian pointedly did NOT choose to become Caesars. I've already talked about what Constantine did. Note, however, that having been "forced" by his troops to become an Augustus, Constantine mostly stuck to Britain and Gaul, content to watch everyone else tear themselves apart for a while, until he personally went after the remaining competition. Whereas Maxentius, son of Maximian, didn't wait. Diocletian had pissed off a lot of Romans by his constant disdain for the ancient capital in general and the Senate in particular, and they were more than happy to support young Maxentius in his instant rebellion. Galerius sent Severus to deal with this Italian uprising. Maxentius asked his (retired, but clearly just because Diocletian had asked him to) Dad for help. Maximian obliged. Most of Severus' staff and troops were former Maximian soldiers. The inevitable ensued. After his troops had deserted to Maximian, their old commander, Severus either committed suicide or was killed at Maximian's and Maxentius' orders.
6.) Constantine, while watching all of this from Britain and eating popcorn, had also followed his Dad's footsteps in that upon becoming Emperor, he dumped his either concubine or wife, the mother of his oldest son Crispus (while still keeping Crispus as legit oldest son), and married Maximian's younger daughter Fausta. Of all the wives and daughters, Fausta is one of the few we know a bit more about than their name. And not because she found the True Cross, so imagine ominous music playing here. For now, though, all the action was in Italy, because having defeated Severus, Maxentius wanted Dad to go back to retirement, and Maximian very much wanted to remain Emperor and thought that this had been what their team up had all been about. This resulted in a very unbecoming father/son struggle, allegedly down to literally pulling of the imperial purple cloak. And lo, Maximian's old troops now sided with the younger guy. At this point everyone asked Diocletian to come back and sort out this mess. He did briefly emerge from retirement at an All-Emperor-Meeting to give everyone a stern talking to and managed to talk Maximian into retirement again, plus Constantine while accepted as one of the new Tetrarchy Emperors got booted back to Caesar instead of Augustus, but alas Diocletian also made the same mistake of letting Galerius pick the new Augustus. Who was another bff of his, Licinius. Maxentius (still not regarded as a candidate for official Empordom by anyone) just about exploded, and the long neglected Daza (remember him?), hearing this newbie Licinius had been made Augustus instead of Caesar and that Constantine while booted back to Caesar still had gotten an in, just about had it and rebelled as well. In short, the conference only very temporarily had solved anything, and sure enough, Maximian couldn't resist coming out of retirement again and join the struggle.
7) This is where it starts to get really depressing. Maximian had a fallout with his new son-in-law Constantine, because his way of coming out of retirement for the fatal last time (after having stayed with Constantine and Fausta for a while) was to tell the troops in Gaul that Constantine was dead and promote himself back to Emperor in Constantine's place. This resulted in Constantine (once he heard about this one) showing off his military skills and effortlessly defeat him, and then strongly encouraging his father-in-law to committ suicide. Maximian hanged himself. Much later in Constantine's own reign, this whole story was rewritten into an elaborate plot where Maximian tries to personally assassinate Constantine while staying with him, confiding his intentions to Fausta and Fausta warning her husband, resulting in Maximian being executed, but historians from what I can see go with the less complicated version. Galerius also dies, but of an illness (gleefully reported by Christian writers later to have been extremely painful); his wife, Diocletian's daughter Valeria, and her mother, Diocletian's wife, were with him at the time, which was to prove fatal for the two of them. They went to Daza, who was after all a cousin, but wanted Valeria to marry him. She refused, he confiscated her property, locked her and her mother up, and ignored Diocletian's (still alive) entrities to free them. This happened during the last nine months of Diocletian's life, and then he either died of illness or committed suicide himself. Once Daza himself was dead, Licinius (the last appointed Emperor) ordered both Valeria and her mother, Diocletian's widow, executed in the town square, which they were.
8.) Meanwhile, once Maximian had died, Maxentius rediscovered his filial love and declared war on Constantine to avenge his father's honor (and get rid of Constantine). Big mistake. Constantine marched on Rome, famously had a vision telling him to paint the Chi-Ro (aka the cross) on his soldiers' shields "and in this sign you will conquer", and defeated Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge. This, btw, was NOT when Constantine himself became a Christian, or Christianity the state religion. (Constantine still was playing it safe while there were still other emperors around and had coins issued showing him with Sol Invictus, the other popular deity.) During his fight against Maxentius, Constantine had temporarily arranged for a pact with Licinius by marrying him to his sister Constantia (daughter of Theodora, not Helena), but once Maxentius exited the world stage, the Constantine versus Licinius end fight was inevitable. Big spoiler: Constantine won. His oldest son Crispus, btw, distinguished himself greatly as one of the leading commanders and was already very popular with the army.
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Who is Who in the Tetrarchy
Date: 2022-12-27 09:40 am (UTC)1) Diocletian and Maximian: not (originally) related, both of humble Balcan origin, rose through the ranks together, though Maximian, a few years younger and not as brilliant, was always a few steps behind. Diocletian appointing him Co-Emperor wasn't unprecedented - there'd been several throughout the by now centuries of Roman Empire history - but it is worth noting that this was still a risky move, because for every successful combination, there were Co-Emperors turning against each other. As the second vid says, at first Maximian was given the title "Caesar" while Diocletian was "Augustus", Caesar implying junior rank; also, state propaganda referred to them as Jupiter (Diocletian) and Hercules (Maximian), and the god and his loyal (brawny) son (greatest of heroes, but still, the son) also implies a certain rank. However, as the vid points out, the workload was still too much for the two of them, and that's how we end up with Diocletian promoting Maximian to Augustus and each of them getting themselves a Caesar - Constantius Chlorus, who shall be Chlorus in order not to be confused with his more famous son, for Maximian, and Galerius for Dioclectian. Presto, the Tetrarchy. Now, both Dioclectian and Maximian were married and had daughters. Maximian also had a son (Maxentius, more about him in a minute). Practically the moment Galerius and Chlorus were appointed Caesars, they also got married to Dioclectian's and to Maximian's daughter, respectively, in order to strengthen the bonds. What were these particular daughters - (Galeria)Valeria and Theodora - like? We have no idea. Chauvinist sources focus on the men folk and don't say. Usually, the only way you got some Roman historian's attention as a woman was when you (in their eyes) misbehaved, usually by aquiring power for yourself and/or having affairs.
2.) Which brings me to (Constantius) Chlorus. He hadn't been single when becoming Maximian's Caesar. He was either married to or had as a steady concubine Helena, mother of his son Constantine, and an important figure of Christian history. The reason why we don't know whether or not these two were married is of course that Constantine emerged of the Tetrarchy implosion as the last man standing and later as top dog of the Roman Empire had some influence on historians, to put it mildly. Also, because Helena was important to Christian history, even once Constantine was dead, her origins kept being rewritten and enobled, which is how we go from Helena, daughter ofa Balcan tavern keeper, waitress and possibly part time prostitute (as waitresses were forced to be at that ime) to Helena, British princess. The later is what she is both in Evelyn Waugh's novel about her and in Dorothy Sayers' play, not because by the 20th century, people were still ignorant of her "lower" origin, but because these were English writers, and the tradition of basically claiming Constantine as a half Brit through his mother and said mother as a full Brit (and of course a princess, not some lowly waitress) had been going on for more than a millennium in Britain at that point. Anyway, Chlorus dumped Helena the Christian and married Theodora (with whom he had some more kids, including the father of later Emperor Julian the Apostate) the daughter of Maximian, but he did always treat Constantine as his legal first born son. (This is not something Constantine later made up, but documented at the time.) The notions of bastardy were murky in the ancient world anyway, but still, if you want an argument that Chlorus and Helena were married after all, you can always resort to this. Chlorus, btw, comes across in general as both competent (he reconquered Britain for the Tetrarchy after some splitaway wannabe Emperor named Cosaurus had ruled it in the aftermath of Diocletian's ascension to power) and the least ego-driven of the Tetrarchs.
3.) Constantine didn't see much of his father as a kid, though, since after Chlorus' promotion to Caesar he was raised at Diocletian's court. As Mike Duncan said in the "History of Rome" podcast, "hostage is such an ugly word". Diocletian might have correctly trusted that his three co-rulers would all remain loyal to him instead of trying to split from the Roman Empire and/or gun to be sole Emperor, but he didn't rely on trust alone in the case of the younger guys. Anyway, young Constantine clearly learned a lot, including when to shut up and when to sway people, because once Dioclatian had retired, and Galerius had become Augustus in Diocletian's place, Constantine somehow talked him into permitting him, Constantine, to leave (now) Galerius' court and let him join his father Chlorus in Britain. Galerius later claimed he was drunk when giving his permission. (Mike Duncan: He would say that. Imagine how he'd look when saying he was sober.) Once permission was given, Constantine rode day and night and made it to GB to be at his father's side the next few years which was absolutely crucial. Because when Chlorus died at Eboracum (York), his troops supposedly intantly hailed Constantine as his successor and new Emperor, and hey, what's a guy to do if the troops want it? Write to Galerius (who together with Chlorus had been promoted from Caesar to Augustus when Diocletian and Maximian retired) that he's the new Augustus (not Caesar, note) in Dad's place because the troops want it so, that's what. (Galerius was so enraged by this letter that he threatened to burn both the messenger and the message.)
4) Galerius, as Diocletian's Caesar, had been earmarked to succeed him as Augustus from the get go. He was another Balcan origin guy of humble origin with a respectable military career when Diocletian picked him as Caesar and married him to his daughter Valeria, though then Galerius wasn't as successful in his wars with the Persians as Chlorus was in his task to reconquer Britain (see above). Otoh, Galerius was VERY successful in keeping his relationhip with Diocletian smooth. Some later chroniclers blame the Great Persecution (see third vid), the greatest and last of the official anti-Christian measures, solely on Galerius in order to make Diocletian (who when all is said and done even in the Christian era of the Empire was seen as having restored order and being a predecessor of the great Constantine) look better, but to me it looks as if they were both united in their desire to get rid of this weird cult once and for all. By that point, Christianity was already the fasted growing religion within the Empire. Not the only popular and growing faith - see also Sol Invictus, Mithras Cult - but definitely the most popular. The Great Persecution created an according backlash, and this in turn played an important role in Constantine's popular support and success. (Not to mention in a lot of less than forgiving Christians once Constantine had made them the state religion.)
Now, whether or not Galerius was the driver behind the Great Persecution, he definitely was the guy to suggest the two new Caesars once Diocletian prepared for his (and Maximian's) retirement. Because both candidates were Galerius' men through and through - one, (Maximinus) Daza, to be referred to as just Daza in order to avoid confusion with Maximian, was Galerius' nephew, the son of his sister, and the other, Severus, was his bff in the army. (One apparantly with a reputation for hard partying, dancing and drinking, but that might have been slander by Christian writers later.) Now clearly, Diocletian should have seen this would not result in a balanced new Tetrarchy, and that Chlorus would feel ganged up upon, so that even if Chlorus hadn't died and been replaced by his son Endgame!Constantine, it a structure just asking to tear itself apart. But Diocletian still let Galerius get away with this.
5.) Meanwhile, two of the four original Tetrarchs - Maximian and Chlorus - had adult sons ready and more than willing to succeed their fathers, to wit, Maxentius and Constantine, respectively, whom Diocletian pointedly did NOT choose to become Caesars. I've already talked about what Constantine did. Note, however, that having been "forced" by his troops to become an Augustus, Constantine mostly stuck to Britain and Gaul, content to watch everyone else tear themselves apart for a while, until he personally went after the remaining competition. Whereas Maxentius, son of Maximian, didn't wait. Diocletian had pissed off a lot of Romans by his constant disdain for the ancient capital in general and the Senate in particular, and they were more than happy to support young Maxentius in his instant rebellion. Galerius sent Severus to deal with this Italian uprising. Maxentius asked his (retired, but clearly just because Diocletian had asked him to) Dad for help. Maximian obliged. Most of Severus' staff and troops were former Maximian soldiers. The inevitable ensued. After his troops had deserted to Maximian, their old commander, Severus either committed suicide or was killed at Maximian's and Maxentius' orders.
6.) Constantine, while watching all of this from Britain and eating popcorn, had also followed his Dad's footsteps in that upon becoming Emperor, he dumped his either concubine or wife, the mother of his oldest son Crispus (while still keeping Crispus as legit oldest son), and married Maximian's younger daughter Fausta. Of all the wives and daughters, Fausta is one of the few we know a bit more about than their name. And not because she found the True Cross, so imagine ominous music playing here. For now, though, all the action was in Italy, because having defeated Severus, Maxentius wanted Dad to go back to retirement, and Maximian very much wanted to remain Emperor and thought that this had been what their team up had all been about. This resulted in a very unbecoming father/son struggle, allegedly down to literally pulling of the imperial purple cloak. And lo, Maximian's old troops now sided with the younger guy. At this point everyone asked Diocletian to come back and sort out this mess. He did briefly emerge from retirement at an All-Emperor-Meeting to give everyone a stern talking to and managed to talk Maximian into retirement again, plus Constantine while accepted as one of the new Tetrarchy Emperors got booted back to Caesar instead of Augustus, but alas Diocletian also made the same mistake of letting Galerius pick the new Augustus. Who was another bff of his, Licinius. Maxentius (still not regarded as a candidate for official Empordom by anyone) just about exploded, and the long neglected Daza (remember him?), hearing this newbie Licinius had been made Augustus instead of Caesar and that Constantine while booted back to Caesar still had gotten an in, just about had it and rebelled as well. In short, the conference only very temporarily had solved anything, and sure enough, Maximian couldn't resist coming out of retirement again and join the struggle.
7) This is where it starts to get really depressing. Maximian had a fallout with his new son-in-law Constantine, because his way of coming out of retirement for the fatal last time (after having stayed with Constantine and Fausta for a while) was to tell the troops in Gaul that Constantine was dead and promote himself back to Emperor in Constantine's place. This resulted in Constantine (once he heard about this one) showing off his military skills and effortlessly defeat him, and then strongly encouraging his father-in-law to committ suicide. Maximian hanged himself. Much later in Constantine's own reign, this whole story was rewritten into an elaborate plot where Maximian tries to personally assassinate Constantine while staying with him, confiding his intentions to Fausta and Fausta warning her husband, resulting in Maximian being executed, but historians from what I can see go with the less complicated version. Galerius also dies, but of an illness (gleefully reported by Christian writers later to have been extremely painful); his wife, Diocletian's daughter Valeria, and her mother, Diocletian's wife, were with him at the time, which was to prove fatal for the two of them. They went to Daza, who was after all a cousin, but wanted Valeria to marry him. She refused, he confiscated her property, locked her and her mother up, and ignored Diocletian's (still alive) entrities to free them. This happened during the last nine months of Diocletian's life, and then he either died of illness or committed suicide himself. Once Daza himself was dead, Licinius (the last appointed Emperor) ordered both Valeria and her mother, Diocletian's widow, executed in the town square, which they were.
8.) Meanwhile, once Maximian had died, Maxentius rediscovered his filial love and declared war on Constantine to avenge his father's honor (and get rid of Constantine). Big mistake. Constantine marched on Rome, famously had a vision telling him to paint the Chi-Ro (aka the cross) on his soldiers' shields "and in this sign you will conquer", and defeated Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge. This, btw, was NOT when Constantine himself became a Christian, or Christianity the state religion. (Constantine still was playing it safe while there were still other emperors around and had coins issued showing him with Sol Invictus, the other popular deity.) During his fight against Maxentius, Constantine had temporarily arranged for a pact with Licinius by marrying him to his sister Constantia (daughter of Theodora, not Helena), but once Maxentius exited the world stage, the Constantine versus Licinius end fight was inevitable. Big spoiler: Constantine won. His oldest son Crispus, btw, distinguished himself greatly as one of the leading commanders and was already very popular with the army.