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Are they? And welcome to Emperors of Rome.

I'm your host, Matt Smith, and with me today is Professor Kalyn Davenport, head of the Centre for Classical Studies at the Australian National University.

This is episode C-C-C-L-I, Tetraki. Diocletian and Maximian have established themselves as co-emperors,

working together to administrate a sprawling Roman Empire. But with Persians to the east,

Britons to the west and discontent all around, maybe it's time for more laurel wreaths.

Here's Kailen Davenport.

I thought it would be good to start this off with a bit of a, for those who came in late.

So when we last left Diocletian in the Emperors of Rome, he had gone to Milan, he had met with Maximian, his co-emperor, and they'd properly divided up the empire

between them.

Not a formal division, but they...

No, no, no.

But you manage this part, I'll manage this part.

Yes, yes.

Like a region of responsibility.

Region of responsibility.

Yes, yes. That's a good way to think of it. Or culpability or something like that. Diocletian is still supreme, but Maximeon, you know, you're mainly based on this, in this part. You take care of the Gauls. Yes. So take me through that a bit. What's the division of labour and what situation is the empire in? Yeah, so Diocletian and

Maximeon both have the rank of Augustus, though Diocletian is Senior Augustus, because he was there

first and he helped to elevate Maximian. And Diocletian, as you quite rightly pointed out,

is mainly based in the east and

...