What happened in Rome in A.D. 284?

Answer 1

Stilicho, defeated the Visigoths and Huns in Thrace.

Emperor Valentinian II is assassinated while advancing into Gaul.

Arbogast nominated Eugenius to be the next emperor of the Western Roman Empire.

Theodosius I becomes the last emperor who rules the whole Roman Empire. He decrees a law not allowing prayers or sacrifices at non-Christian temples.

Answer 2

284-305 Ad was the period of the reign of the emperor Diocletian.

Diocletian created the tetrarchy (rule by four). In 285 he appointed the fellow general Maximian as co-emperor. Maximian took overall control of the western part of the Roman Empire, while Diocletian took overall control of the eastern part. Then these two men became senior emperors (Augusti) with the creation of two junior emperors (Caesars) who were subordinates of the Augusti in 293. The empire was subdivided into four praetorian provinces, each headed by one of the emperors. The two Caesars were Galerius and Constantius Chorus. Maximian took charge of Italia et Africa (Italy and north-western Africa) and Constantius took charge of Galliae (Gaul, Britannia and Hispania). Both were in the western part of the empire. Diocletian took charge of Oriens (Thracia, the territories in Asia and Egypt) and Galerius took charge of Illyricum (the Balkan Peninsula except for Thracia, in the southeast, next to modern Turkey). Both were in the eastern part of the empire. Diocletian stressed that the four praetorian prefectures were administrative units and that the empire was indivisible.

Diocletian also created four imperial capitals (or better imperial seats), one for each emperor: Nicomedia (in north-western Turkey) and Milan (in Northern Italy were the seats of the Augusti. Augusta Trevorum (triers, in south-western Germany) and Sirmium (in Serbia) were the seats of the Caesars.

This reform had several aims:

1) The bad experience of recent sole emperors suggested to Diocletian that sole emperors were vulnerable and that co-emperorship made power more secure.

2) Diocletian could not create an informal co-emperorship with a son as previous emperors had done because he was hairless; he had a daughter and no sons. Therefore, he needed a trusted co-ruler from outside the family and had to create a formal co-emperorship

3) There was a need to improve imperial control over the empire. There had been conflict between powerful men in every province of the empire and also attempts at usurpation in some one area. Diocletian shared controlling the provinces with three men.

4) There was also a need to improve the efficiency of the defence of the vast frontiers of the empire. He entrusted the defence of the most troubled tracts of the frontiers to the Caesars

Answer 3

The first Punic War between Rome and Carthage started in 264 B.C.