From Dalmatia to the Purple
Diocletian was born around 244 in Dalmatia, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic, perhaps near the city of Salona. His name was Diocles, and his family was humble; later writers said his father had been a clerk or a freed slave. Like many men of the Balkan provinces in that age, he made his career in the army, rising through the ranks until he commanded the bodyguard of the emperor Numerian.
The empire he served was falling apart. In the half century before him, more than twenty men had held the title of emperor, most of them killed by their own troops. In November 284, after Numerian was found dead in his litter on the march home from Persia, the army chose Diocles to succeed him. Before the assembled soldiers near Nicomedia he swore he had no part in the death, accused the praetorian prefect Aper, and killed him with his own sword. He took the name Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus and the next year defeated Numerian's brother Carinus to rule alone.
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