245 - 313 AD
In 245 AD the wily, subtle Diocletian had become ruler
of the whole empire. His reorganization of its government
was so extensive that historians call the period from 245
AD onward the Late Roman Empire. Essentially, Diocletian
consolidated the tremendous alterations which had been
required to cope with the stress of the 3rd century.
Politically his subjects had to yield their local
self-government and individual freedom to the demands of
an all-powerful central administration and its agents. In
order to protect his Empire from its external dangers,
the emperor had created a mobile field army which made
more use of cavalry than had been true in the days of
Augustus and Hadrian. To secure the funds for this
elaborate and expensive structure of government,
Diocletian reorganized the tax system of the empire and
restored order to the currency. Diocletian was present at
the fall of Alexandria after a siege of eight months.
After the capitulation, Diocletian is alleged to have
vowed to continue the slaughter of the populace until the
blood reached his horse's knees. After the siege of
Alexandria, Diocletian traveled up-river to the southern
frontier. The trip to the border appears to have had a
serious military and political aim for Diocletian as he
re-established and refortified the island of Philae as a
frontier post and came to an accommodation with the
tribes which inhabited the border region. Years later,
Diocletian was in Alexandria again, just before the
beginning of the "Great Persecution" of the
Christians. He was so detested by Egyptian Christians for
this that the Church later dated its "Era of
Martyrs" retrospectively from the first year of his
reign. Diocletian also ordered against the practice of
the Persian religion in the Roman empire at this time and
this may well be another aspect of a general desire to
re-establish the strength of the traditional Roman
religion. Diocletian was the last reigning Roman emperor
to visit Egypt.
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