The House That Diocletian Built

Romanesque tower, Renaissance clock, Gothic bell       KW

Today's history lesson, Boys and Goils, is about Emperor Diocletian and his little retirement residence (aka palace), in Split, Croatia. Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus (né Diocles) (244-313 CE) was actually from the area. His father was either a scribe or an emancipated slave, and Diocletian moved up in the way most did in those days, in the military. It had apparently been presaged that he would become emperor upon killing a boar, a prediction that proved to be true (and gained him much awe and respect) in 284, when he slew the father-in-law/adoptive father of the then-late co-emperor Numerian. That unfortunate but (for Diocletian) convenient man's name was Aper, which means "boar" in Latin.
   As emperor, Diocletian stabilized the empire and put into practice or strengthened changes that can be said to be the roots of our current system of bureaucracy, in that he created positions that were more specialized but less powerful than before, and more of them. (He also was a huge persecutor of Christians.) He was the only emperor to abdicate voluntarily, and did so in 305 because of ill health. For that reason, too, his palace was constructed more quickly than usual ~ in 10 years.
   Diocletian's Palace is actually more like a fortress, ringed as it is (still) by high stone walls. He lived in one part, and the rest was a military garrison. Eventually, the Romans abandoned the area and the palace, and it remained so until the 7th century, when it played sanctuary to the people of the area as they fled invading Slavs. Since then, it has been continuously occupied, and even now, as one walks its cobblestone streets and alleyways, one can see the architecture of different eras and cultures blending one into another. It is the most complete Roman palace in the world (and, p.s., was one of the locations for the filming of the fourth season of Game of Thrones): http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/97