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The Tetrarchy was the system instituted by to govern the ancient Roman Empire by dividing it between two emperors, the , and their junior colleagues and designated successors, the . It was kept in place between AD 293 and 313.

Initially Diocletian chose as his caesar in 285, raising him to co- augustus the following year; Maximian was to govern the western provinces and Diocletian would administer the eastern ones. The role of the augustus was likened to Jupiter, while his caesar was akin to Jupiter's son . and Constantius were appointed caesares in March 293. Diocletian and Maximian retired on 1 May 305, raising Galerius and Constantius to the rank of augustus. Their places as caesares were in turn taken by and .

The orderly system of two senior and two junior rulers endured until Constantius died in July 306, and his son Constantine was unilaterally acclaimed augustus and caesar by his father's army. Maximian's son contested Severus' title, styled himself princeps invictus, and was appointed caesar by his retired father in 306. Severus surrendered to Maximian and Maxentius in 307. Maxentius and Constantine were both recognized as augusti by Maximian that same year. Galerius appointed augustus for the west in 308 and elevated Maximinus Daza to augustus in 310.

Constantine's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 left him in control of the western part of the empire, while Licinius was left in control of the east on the death of Maximinus Daza. Constantine and Licinius jointly recognized their sons – , Constantine II, and – as caesares in March 317. Ultimately the tetrarchic system lasted until c. 324, when mutually destructive civil wars eliminated most of the claimants to power: resigned as augustus after losing the Battle of Chrysopolis, leaving Constantine in control of the entire empire.

The Constantinian dynasty's emperors retained some aspects of collegiate rule; Constantine appointed his son as another caesar in 324, followed by in 333 and his nephew in 335, and the three surviving sons of Constantine in 337 were declared joint augusti together, while the concept of the division of the empire under multiple joint emperors endured until the Fall of the Western Roman Empire. In the Eastern Roman Empire, augusti and caesares continued to be appointed sporadically.

Terminology
The term tetrarchy (from the , tetrarchia, "leadership of four people") describes any form of government where power is divided among four individuals.

Although the term "tetrarch" was current in antiquity, it was never used in the imperial college (as it's often called) under Diocletian. Instead, the term was used to describe independent portions of a kingdom that were ruled under separate leaders. The tetrarchy of Judaea, established after the death of Herod the Great, is the most famous example of the antique tetrarchy. The term was understood in the Latin world as well, where Pliny the Elder glossed it as follows: "each is the equivalent of a kingdom, and also part of one" ( regnorum instar singulae et in regna contribuuntur).Qtd. and tr. Leadbetter, Galerius, 3.

As used by the ancients, the term describes not only different governments, but also a different system of government from the Diocletianic arrangements. The Judaean tetrarchy was a set of four independent and distinct states, where each tetrarch ruled a quarter of a kingdom as they saw fit; the Diocletianic tetrarchy was a college led by a single supreme leader. When later authors described the period, this is what they emphasized: Ammianus had Constantius II admonish Gallus for disobedience by appealing to the example in submission set by Diocletian's lesser colleagues; his successor Julian compared the Diocletianic tetrarchs to a chorus surrounding a leader, speaking in unison under his command.Amm. Marc. 14.11.10; Jul. Caes. 315A-B. Only , a contemporary of Diocletian and a deep ideological opponent of the Diocletianic state, referred to the tetrarchs as a simple multiplicity of rulers.Leadbetter, Galerius, 3.

Much modern scholarship was written without the term. Although pioneered the description of the Diocletianic government as a "New Empire", he never used the term "tetrarchy"; neither did . It did not appear in the literature until used in 1887 by schoolmaster Hermann Schiller in a two-volume handbook on the Roman Empire ( Geschichte der Römischen Kaiserzeit), to wit: " die diokletianische Tetrarchie". Even so, the term did not catch on in the literature until used it in 1897.Leadbetter, Galerius, 3–4.

Creation
The first phase, sometimes referred to as the ("rule of two"), involved the designation of the general as co-emperor—firstly as caesar (heir apparent) in 285, followed by his promotion to augustus in 286. took care of matters in the eastern regions of the empire while Maximian similarly took charge of the western regions. In 293, Diocletian thought that more focus was needed on both civic and military problems, so with Maximian's consent, he expanded the imperial college by appointing two caesares (one responsible to each augustus)— and .The chronology has been thoroughly established by Kolb, Diocletian, and Kuhoff, Diokletian.

In 305, the senior emperors jointly abdicated and retired, allowing Constantius and Galerius to be elevated in rank to augustus. They in turn appointed two new caesares—Severus II in the west under Constantius, and in the east under Galerius—thereby creating the second Tetrarchy.

Regions and capitals
The four tetrarchs based themselves not at Rome but in other cities closer to the frontiers, mainly intended as headquarters for the defence of the empire against bordering rivals (notably ) and (mainly Germanic, and an unending sequence of nomadic or displaced tribes from the eastern steppes) at the and . These centres are known as the tetrarchic capitals. Although Rome ceased to be an operational capital, Rome continued to be nominal capital of the entire Roman Empire, not reduced to the status of a province but under its own, unique Prefect of the city ( praefectus urbi, later copied in Constantinople).

The four tetrarchic capitals were:

  • in northwestern Asia Minor (modern İzmit in Turkey), a base for defence against invasion from the Balkans and Persia's Sassanids was the capital of Diocletian, the eastern (and most senior) augustus; in the final reorganisation by Constantine the Great, in 318, the equivalent of his domain, facing the most redoubtable foreign enemy, Sassanid Persia, became the praetorian prefecture Oriens, 'the East', the core of later Byzantium.
  • (modern Sremska Mitrovica in the Vojvodina region of modern Serbia, and near Belgrade, on the Danube border) was the capital of , the eastern caesar; this was to become the Balkans-Danube prefecture Illyricum.
  • (modern Milan, near the Alps) was the capital of , the western augustus; his domain became "Italia et Africa", with only a short exterior border.
  • Augusta Treverorum (modern Trier, in Germany) was the capital of Constantius, the western caesar, near the strategic Rhine border; it had been the capital of Gallic emperor . This quarter became the prefecture Galliae.

, a port on the Adriatic coast, and (modern York, in northern England near the Celtic tribes of modern Scotland and Ireland), were also significant centres for Maximian and Constantius respectively.

In terms of regional jurisdiction there was no precise division among the four tetrarchs, and this period did not see the Roman state actually split up into four distinct sub-empires. Each emperor had his zone of influence within the Roman Empire, but little more, mainly high command in a 'war theater'. Each tetrarch was himself often in the field, while delegating most of the administration to the hierarchic bureaucracy headed by his respective praetorian prefect, each supervising several vicarii, the governors-general in charge of another, lasting new administrative level, the civil diocese. For a listing of the provinces, now known as eparchy, within each quarter (known as a praetorian prefecture), see .

In the West, the augustus controlled the provinces west of the Adriatic Sea and the Syrtis, and within that region his caesar, Constantius, controlled and . In the East, the arrangements between the augustus and his caesar, , were much more flexible.

The Tetrarchs’ authority is recorded not only on coins and milestones but also on boundary stones from the Levant, which document local land surveys and village boundaries.

Public image
Although power was shared in the tetrarchic system, the public image of the four members of the imperial college was carefully managed to give the appearance of a united empire ( patrimonium indivisum). This was especially important after the numerous civil wars of the 3rd century.

The tetrarchs appeared identical in all official portraits. Coinage dating from the tetrarchic period depicts every emperor with identical features—only the inscriptions on the coins indicate which one of the four emperors is being shown. The Byzantine sculpture Portrait of the Four Tetrarchs shows the tetrarchs again with identical features and wearing the same military costume.

Military successes
One of the greatest problems facing emperors in the Third Century Crisis was that they were only ever able to personally command troops on one front at any one time. While and Probus were prepared to accompany their armies thousands of miles between war regions, this was not an ideal solution. Furthermore, it was risky for an emperor to delegate power in his absence to a subordinate general, who might win a victory and then be proclaimed as a rival emperor himself by his troops (which often happened). All members of the imperial college, on the other hand, were of essentially equal rank, despite two being senior emperors and two being junior; their functions and authorities were also equal.

Under the Tetrarchy a number of important military victories were secured. Both the dyarchic and the tetrarchic system ensured that an emperor was near to every crisis area to personally direct and remain in control of campaigns simultaneously on more than just one front. After suffering a defeat by the in 296, Galerius crushed in 298—reversing a series of Roman defeats throughout the century—capturing members of the imperial household and a substantial amount of booty and gaining a highly favourable peace treaty, which secured peace between the two powers for a generation. Similarly, Constantius defeated the British usurper , Maximian pacified the Gauls, and Diocletian crushed the revolt of Domitianus in .

Demise
When in 305 the 20-year term of Diocletian and Maximian ended, both abdicated. Their caesares, Galerius and Constantius Chlorus, were both raised to the rank of augustus, and two new caesares were appointed: ( caesar to Galerius) and ( caesar to Constantius). These four formed the second tetrarchy.

However, the system broke down very quickly thereafter. When Constantius died in 306, Constantine, Constantius' son, was proclaimed augustus by his father's troops; however, Galerius instead chose to promote Severus to augustus while granting Constantine the position of caesar to Severus. At the same time, , the son of Maximian, resented being left out of the new arrangements, so he rebelled against and defeated Severus before forcing him to abdicate and then arranging his murder in 307. Maxentius and Maximian both then declared themselves augusti. By 308 there were therefore no fewer than four claimants to the rank of augustus (Galerius, Constantine, Maximian and Maxentius), and only one to that of caesar (Maximinus Daza).

In 308 Galerius, together with the retired emperor Diocletian and the supposedly retired Maximian, called an imperial "conference" at Carnuntum on the River Danube. The council agreed that would become augustus in the West, with Constantine as his caesar. In the East, Galerius remained augustus and Maximinus remained his caesar. Maximian was to retire, and Maxentius was declared a usurper. This agreement proved disastrous: by 308 Maxentius had become de facto ruler of Italy and Africa even without any imperial status, and neither Constantine nor Maximinus—who had both been caesares since 306 and 305 respectively—were prepared to tolerate the promotion of the augustus Licinius as their superior.

After an abortive attempt to placate both Constantine and Maximinus with the meaningless title filius augusti ("son of the augustus", essentially an alternative title for caesar), they both had to be recognised as Augusti in 309. However, four full Augusti all at odds with each other did not bode well for the tetrarchic system.

Between 309 and 313 most of the claimants to the imperial office died or were killed in various civil wars. Constantine forced Maximian's suicide in 310. Galerius died naturally in 311. Maxentius was defeated by Constantine at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 and subsequently killed. Maximinus committed suicide at Tarsus in 313 after being defeated in battle by Licinius.

By 313, therefore, there remained only two rulers: Constantine in the West and Licinius in the East. The tetrarchic system was at an end, although it took until 324 for Constantine to finally defeat Licinius, reunite the two halves of the Roman Empire and declare himself sole augustus. (1776). "Chapter XIV". The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Vol. II.

Emperors

Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus

( Whole, then East)

20 November 284 – 1 May 305
(20 years, 5 months and 11 days)		 ( caesar, 21 July 285; co- augustus, 1 May 305)

( caesar, 1 March 293)

Constantius I ( caesar, 1 March 293)

(2025). 9780521840262 .

Marcus Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus ( West)		1 April 286 – 1 May 305
(19 years and 1 month; retired)pac

28 October 306 – 11 November 308
(2 years and 14 days)

 ( augustus, 21 July 285; co- augustus, 1 May 305)

( caesar, 21 March 293)

Constantius I ( caesar, 1 March 293)

(co- augustus, 306–308)

Constantine I (rival augustus, 25 July 306; co- augustus, 307)


Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus

( East)

1 May 305– 5 May 311
(6 years and 4 days)		 ( augustus, 21 March 293–1 May 305) ( augustus, 21 March 293–1 May 305)

Constantius I ( caesar, 1 March 293; co- augustus, 1 May 305–25 July 306)

( caesar, 1 May 305; co- augustus, August 306–April 307)

( caesar, 28 October 306; junior co- augustus, April 307–May 311)

(designated augustus for the West, 11 November 308–311)

( caesar, 1 May 305; co- augustus, 1 May 310–early May 311)

Constantius I "Chlorus"
Marcus Flavius Valerius Constantius

( West)

1 May 305 – 25 July 306
(1 year, 2 months and 24 days)		 ( augustus, 1 March 293–1 May 305) ( augustus, 1 April 286–1 May 305)

( caesar, 21 March 293; co- augustus, 1 May 305–25 July 306)

( caesar, 1 May 305 –July 306)

( caesar, 1 May 305–25 July 306)

Constantine I "the Great"
Flavius Valerius Constantinus

( West)

25 July 306 – 18 September 324
(18 years, 1 month and 25 days;
sole emperor 324–337)		 (rival augustus, 306–307; co- augustus, 307–308)

(rival augustus, 306–307; co- augustus; 308)

(rival augustus, 308–310; co- augustus, 310–316; rival, 316–324)

( caesar, 1 March 317–324)

Constantine II ( caesar, 1 March 317–324)

Martinian (rival augustus, 324)


Flavius Valerius Severus

( West)

25 July 306 – April 307
(8 months)		 ( augustus, 25 July 306–April 307) (rival augustus, 28 October 306)

Constantine I (rival augustus, 306–307)

( caesar, 1 May 305–April 307)


Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius

( West)

28 October 306 – 28 October 312
(6 years)		 (co- augustus, 306–308) (rival augustus, August 306–April 307)

(rival- augustus, 11 November 308–28 October 312)

Constantine I (rival augustus, 25 July 306–28 October 312)


Valerius Licinianus Licinius

( West, then East)

11 November 308 – 19 September 324
(15 years, 10 months and 8 days)		Constantine I (rival augustus, 308–310; co- augustus, 310–316; rival, 316–324) (designated Western augustus, October 316–February 317)

( caesar, 1 March 317–324)

( caesar, 1 March 317–324)

Constantine II ( caesar, 1 March 317–324)

Martinian (designated Western augustus, July–September 324)


Galerius Valerius Maximinus

( East)

310 – c. July 313
(3 years)		Constantius I ( augustus, 1 May 305–25 July 306) ( augustus, 1 May 305–25 July 311)

( caesar, 1 May 305; augustus 25 July 306)

( augustus, late 306–November 308)

(rival augustus, 310–312)

Constantine I (rival augustus, 310–313)

( augustus, 308–313; rival augustus, 313–313)

Family tree
Detailed timeline

—
Two caesares are appointed in 293, thus starting the Tetrarchy.
Constantius Caesar



Achilleus
After the retirement of the two a ugusti both previous caesares succeeded them, and two new caesares were appointed.
Constantius Augustus
After the sudden death of Constantius Chlorus (who died of natural causes), the caesar succeeded him as augustus. However, Constantius' troops immediately proclaimed Constantine, Constantius' son, as their new augustus. Galerius accepted Constantine as part of the imperial college, but only as caesar. On 28 October 306, Maximian's son proclaimed himself emperor in Rome. Maximian also proclaimed himself emperor, ruling jointly with his son. Despite being accepted by the , they were not recognized by the other emperors.
Constantine Caesar


Severus was taken hostage by Maximian in April 307, but Galerius still acknowledged him as the official emperor of the west. Constantine was denied the promotion to augustus even after Severus' death in September, as Galerius had decided to exclude him from the system altogether. Maximian acknowledge Constantine's status as augustus, but this meant nothing given that he himself was declared an usurper. Galerius and Maximinus thus remained as the only "legitimate" members of the imperial college.
( vacant)


Constantine
At the council of Carnutum, Diocletian decides that Licinius will be the new augustus of the west (although his western domains only consist of the Diocese of Pannonia). Constantine was given back the title of caesar, which he continued to unacknowledge.
Constantine Caesar

Domitius Alexander
Maximinus was proclaimed augustus by his troops in about May 310. Galerius reluctantly agreed to recognize both Maximinus and Constantine as augusti, thus breaking the Diocletian's tetrarchic system.
Constantine Augustus


After the death of Galerius' (who died of natural causes), Licinius acquires parts of his domains, thus ruling over territories both in the East and West.
( Licinius)
Constantine Augustus

—
Licinius eventually fights and defeats Maximinus, gaining all eastern territories. He then makes peace with Constantine, who remains as the emperor of the West. This joint rule lasted until 316, when Licinius rejected Constantine's election of Bassianus as caesar. In the ensuing war, both augusti appointed their own sons as caesares, restoring a dynastic system. Licinius appointed and Martinian as augustus in 316 and 324 respectively (literary sources refer to them as caesar, but coins bear the title augustus); almost nothing is known about them.
Constantine Augustus


Constantine Caesar
 Martinian Augustus
—

Chronological table
Legacy
Although the tetrarchic system as such only lasted until 313, many aspects of it survived. The fourfold regional division of the empire continued in the form of Praetorian prefectures, each of which was overseen by a praetorian prefect and subdivided into administrative , and often reappeared in the title of the military supra-provincial command assigned to a .

The pre-existing notion of consortium imperii, the sharing of imperial power, and the notion that an associate to the throne was the designated successor (possibly conflicting with the notion of hereditary claim by birth or adoption), was to reappear repeatedly.

The idea of the two halves, the east and the west, re-emerged and eventually resulted in the permanent de facto division into two separate Roman empires after the death of ; though, importantly, the Empire was never formally divided. The emperors of the eastern and western halves legally ruled as one imperial college until the Fall of the Western Roman Empire left Byzantium, the "second Rome", as the sole direct heir.

Other examples
  • Tetrarchies in the ancient world existed in both (in northern Greece) and (in central ; including ) as well as among the British .
  • The constellation of Jewish principalities in the of was known as a tetrarchy; see Tetrarchy (Judea).
  • In the novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the siblings rule Narnia as a tetrarchy of two kings and two queens. Peter was High King and Susan was High Queen, making them the Augusti of the group. Lucy was simply Queen and Edmund was simply King, making them the Caesares of the group.
  • At one point in the animated television series , four ruled as a tetrarchy of four princesses: Princess Celestia, , , and Princess Twilight Sparkle.

See also
  • Notitia dignitatum, a later document from the imperial chancery

Notes
Citations
  • (1984). 9780674165311, Harvard University Press. .
  • (1982). 9780674280663, Harvard University Press. .
  • (2025). 9780521044943, Cambridge University Press. .
  • (2025). 019815304X, Oxford University Press. . 019815304X
  • (2025). 9783110846508, de Gruyter. .
  • (2025). 9783631367926, Lang. .
  • (2025). 9781135261320, Routledge. .
  • (2025). 9780748616602, Edinburgh University Press. .

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