The army would patrol the farthest reaches of the empire and also provide a defense for all Roman territory.. Beneath these two emperors, who held the title of Augustus, were two junior
Trang 1on the frontiers, but there would now be a “defense
in depth” policy The army would patrol the farthest
reaches of the empire and also provide a defense for all
Roman territory Diocletian secured these changes with
two fundamental alterations to military policy The fi rst
was a de facto division of the empire into an eastern
and western half, with each half having its own
emper-or Beneath these two emperors, who held the title of
Augustus, were two junior emperors who held the title
of Caesar In all, the new imperial college would
con-tain four members: two Augusti and two Caesari For
the military this allowed for a total of four military
commanders who could campaign on the very edge of
empire, without the others having to worry about a
vic-torious general being elevated to the rank of emperor
by his troops In addition to the edges of empire, there
would be military resources and military commanders
for the new defense in depth policy
The imperial college was also intended to create a
sense of stability in the empire The political division
between East and West was not intended to be a true
division In fact, all imperial decrees continued to be
made in the name of all four men of the imperial
col-lege This allowed for a sense of stability during the
sometimes-unstable transfer of power between Roman
rulers The previous princeps system of government had
for hundreds of years left the empire with no formal way
to choose a new emperor after the death of the previous
reigning emperor Diocletian’s reforms sought to rectify
this In theory, when the senior Augustus died, his Caesar
would be elevated and would in turn choose a new
Cae-sar In this manner the Caesar would gain both
experi-ence and legitimacy with the Roman populace
In practice, however, Diocletian’s reforms did not
even last for one full transfer In order that he see his
system of succession put into effect, Diocletian
decid-ed to retire after 20 years as emperor and forcdecid-ed his
co-Augustus, Maximian, to retire as well When this
occurred, each man’s Caesar was elevated to the
imperi-al throne, and two new Caesari were chosen Maximian
did not agree to this forced abdication, and eventually
he attempted to regain his position as head of the
West-ern Roman Empire This failure by Maximian marked
the beginning of the end of the Tetrarchy By the end
of Constantine the Great’s reign in 337, most of
Diocletian’s reforms had failed The rule of Constantine
and his progeny was marked by civil war and
compet-ing imperial claims, just as had been the case before
Diocletian’s reforms of 286
See also late barbarians; Rome: decline and fall;
Rome: government
Further reading: Grant, Michael The Roman Emperors
New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1997; Shelton, Jo Ann
As the Romans Did New York: Oxford University Press, 1998; Williams, Stephen Diocletian and the Roman Recov-ery New York: Routledge, 1997.
Stephen Griffi n
Thebes
In the Iliad Homer famously described the city as
“hundred- gated Thebes.” However, Thebes is better understood as an entire site that encompassed the east and west banks of the Nile, containing temples and palaces, the dwelling-places of the living and the ever-lasting homes of the dead On the east bank were the temples of Amun at Karnak and Luxor The ancient city lay to the east of the great temple of Karnak As the temple expanded, the city had to move and was laid out
on a grid plan Across the river on the west bank, bor-dering the strip of cultivated fi elds, stood the mortuary temples of pharaohs from the Middle and New King-doms Behind them lay the cemeteries of the nobility, while beyond in the desert valleys, the tombs of kings and queens of Egypt On the west bank was the village
of skilled craftsmen and scribes, who worked on the royal tombs, their burial places, and those of common-ers In effect there were two Thebes, one for the living, the other for the dead Ironically, the mud-brick city of the living has long vanished under the fi elds and houses
of the modern city of Luxor, while Thebes of the dead
on the west bank remains one of Egypt’s primary tour-ist locations It is one of the largest archaeological sites
in the world
Thebes lies about 400 miles south of Cairo, just south of the Wadi Hammamat where the Nile Valley comes closest to the Red Sea The Egyptians called the town Waset, “dominion,” and later simply Nìwt, “the city.” Although there are some remains from the Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom periods (3100–2181 b.c.e.),
it was a small town, the capital of the fourth nome (dis-trict) of Upper Egypt The Greeks would name it Thebes after the principal city of Boeotia in Greece A family from the Theban nome ruled Upper Egypt at the close
of the First Intermediate Period (2181–2055 b.c.e.) One of these rulers, Mentuhotep II (2055–04 b.c.e.), gained control over all Egypt founding the Middle Kingdom His mortuary temple lies beside that of the female ruler Hatshepsut, at Deir el-Bahri Although sub-sequent pharaohs moved away from Thebes, the rulers
Thebes 457