r ability and force of character had won his
way up from the ranks to the imperial throne. In attacking the problem of
imperial restoration he displayed restless energy and versatility, a
thorough-going radicalism which knew little respect for traditions, and a
supreme confidence in his ability to restore the economic welfare of the
empire by legislative means. In his administrative reforms he gave
expression to the tendencies which had been at work in the later
principate and with him begins the period of undisguised autocracy, in
which the emperor, supported by the army and the bureaucracy, is the sole
source of authority in the state. Like Augustus, Diocletian was the
founder of a new regime; one in which the absolutist ideal of Julius
Caesar finally attained realization.

*Maximian co-emperor, 286 A. D.* One of the first acts of Diocletian was
to cooept as his associate in the _imperium_, with the rank of Caesar, a
Pannonian officer named Valerius Maximianus. In 286 Maximian received the
title of Augustus and equal authority with Diocletian. However, the latter
always dominated his younger colleague, and really determined the imperial
policy. In conformity with the undisguised absolutism of his rule,
Diocletian assumed the divine title of Jovius, and that of Herculius was
bestowed upon Maximian. Diocletian's choice of a co-emperor was determined
largely by the conviction that the burden of empire was too heavy to be
borne by one man. He therefore entrusted the defense of the western
provinces to Maximian, while he devoted his attention to the Danubian and
eastern frontiers. Maximian's first task was to quell a serious revolt of
the Gallic peasants, called Bagaudae, occasioned by the exactions of the
state and the landholders. After crushing this outbreak (285 A. D.), he
successfully defended the Rhine frontier against the attacks of Franks,
Alamanni and Burgundians (286-88 A. D.). However, in the meantime a
usurper had arisen in Carausius, an officer entrusted with the defense of
the Gallic coast against the North Sea pirates, who made himself master of
Britain and proclaimed himself Augustus (286 A. D.). Maximian was unable
to subdue him, and the two emperors were forced against their will to
acknowledge him as their colleague.

*Regulation of the succession.* Diocletian saw in the absence of a strict
regulation of the succession a fertile cause of civil strife. To do away
with this, and to discourage the rise of u