Explanation: Diocletian was the last Emperor to come to power during the tumultuous Crisis of the Third Century. The constant invasions and civil wars of the Third Century AD had severely damaged the Roman Empire’s integrity, and what remained was little more than a military dictatorship with some republican trappings. It was far from absurd to look at it and think that it needed reforms - however, Diocletian’s reforms were in entirely the wrong direction. He bound common people to the land and to the professions of their parents, creating, at one stroke, serfdom and a caste system; he changed the (at least nominally, at that time) volunteer legions into a force that was conscripted - for lifelong terms; he bloated the imperial bureaucracy to an insane degree, split the Empire between four co-rulers of absolute autocratic power, and demanded that he be worshipped as a living god (offensive to Roman and republican norms); he instituted the biggest and most brutal of the persecutions of the Christians - and while I’m no friend of Christianity, senseless religious persecution is not moral nor practical.
This is but a fraction of Diocletian’s tyranny. He eventually retired to farm cabbages. No joke.
Why would anyone joke about Cabbages? Lettuce be serious. The Romaine Empire was a great civilization built on a brusseling sprout of philosophy and engineering. While not where the dish originates, one might say it was the Ceaser Salad of jurisprudence and culture whose influence can be felt to this modern day.
Explanation: Diocletian was the last Emperor to come to power during the tumultuous Crisis of the Third Century. The constant invasions and civil wars of the Third Century AD had severely damaged the Roman Empire’s integrity, and what remained was little more than a military dictatorship with some republican trappings. It was far from absurd to look at it and think that it needed reforms - however, Diocletian’s reforms were in entirely the wrong direction. He bound common people to the land and to the professions of their parents, creating, at one stroke, serfdom and a caste system; he changed the (at least nominally, at that time) volunteer legions into a force that was conscripted - for lifelong terms; he bloated the imperial bureaucracy to an insane degree, split the Empire between four co-rulers of absolute autocratic power, and demanded that he be worshipped as a living god (offensive to Roman and republican norms); he instituted the biggest and most brutal of the persecutions of the Christians - and while I’m no friend of Christianity, senseless religious persecution is not moral nor practical.
This is but a fraction of Diocletian’s tyranny. He eventually retired to farm cabbages. No joke.
Why would anyone joke about Cabbages? Lettuce be serious. The Romaine Empire was a great civilization built on a brusseling sprout of philosophy and engineering. While not where the dish originates, one might say it was the Ceaser Salad of jurisprudence and culture whose influence can be felt to this modern day.
angry upvote