What do you think could have been done by Either Diocletian or Constantine to save the Roman Empire?

Answer 1

Neither Diocletian nor Constantine saved the empire or had to save it. The western part of the Roman Empire fell well over a century after their reigns and was not connected to what these two men had done during their rule. They also ruled after the Crisis of the Third Century had ended. This was a political, military and economic crisis. On the political and military side, during this period the Roman army found it hard to cope with a large number of attempted invasions of the empire form outside. This strain led to political instability. Parts of the empire broke away from it, and there was a sting of as many as 35 usurper emperors. The emperor Aurelian ended this side of the crisis by defeating the various peoples who were trying to invade the empire, defeating a brake away area of the empire and restoring the central control of the emperor.

Diocletian realised that he could not rule by himself and created what historians have called the tetrarchy (rule by four) to strengthen imperial control. He created a co-emperorship with two senior emperors (one in the east and one in the west) assisted by one junior emperor each. This succeeded in ending rebellions against imperial authority. It temporarily strengthened the empire, but also weakened it because after his abdication and that of his co-emperor in the west (Maximian), there were civil wars between the men of the tetrarchy. His Great Persecution of the Christians also created political instability as the Christians resisted it and its cruelty created dissent. Diocletian also failed to solve the problem of hyperinflation, which was the economic side of the Crisis of the Third Century. Runaway inflation, which made the currency worthless, and the disruption of the attempted invasions and the usurpations led to a collapse in trade, which in turn led to a decline in the urban economy and in agriculture.

Constantine could be said to have saved the empire from the problems Diocletians had created in three respects. He won the mentioned civil wars and became the sole emperor. This brought an end to the civil wars and restored political stability. He finalised the end of Great Persecution of the Christians (which had been started by the emperor Galerius a few year earlier), restored toleration of the Christians and supported both Christians and pagans. This restored religious stability and a sense of unity among the people of the empire. Finally he resolved the problem of hyperinflation by scrapping the silver coins and relying solely on the gold coins, which proved to be stable. However, this protected only the rich who could get gold coins from inflation. The poor had to rely on a token copper currency which was vulnerable to inflation.