   the term "tetrarchy" (from the greek ÏÎµÏÏÎ±ÏÏÎ¯Î± "leadership of four [people]"david potter translates the term as "gang of four". see idem., constantine the emperor (oxford: oxford university press, 2013), 1.) describes any form of government where power is divided among four individuals, but in modern usage usually refers to the system instituted by roman emperor diocletian in 293, marking the end of the crisis of the third century and the recovery of the roman empire. this tetrarchy lasted until c.&nbsp;313, when internecine conflict eliminated most of the claimants to power, leaving constantine in the west and licinius in the east. ==terminology== although the term "tetrarch" was current in antiquity, it was never used of the imperial college under diocletian. instead, the term was used to describe independent portions of a kingdom that were ruled under separate leaders. the tetrarchy of judaea, established after the death of herod the great, is the most famous example of the antique tetrarchy. the term was understood in the latin world as well, where pliny the elder glossed it as follows: "each is the equivalent of a kingdom, and also part of one" (regnorum instar singulae et in regna contribuuntur).qtd. and tr. leadbetter, galerius, 3. as used by the ancients, the term describes not only different governments, but also a different system of government from the diocletianic arrangements. the judaean tetrarchy was a set of four independent and distinct states, where each tetrarch ruled a quarter of a kingdom as they saw fit; the diocletianic tetrarchy was a college led by a single supreme leader. when later authors described the period, this is what they emphasized: ammianus had constantius ii admonish julian for disobedience by appealing to the example in submission set by diocletian's lesser colleagues; julian himself compared the diocletianic tetrarchs to a chorus surrounding a leader, speaking in unison under his command. only lactantius, a contemporary of diocletian and a deep ideological opponent of the diocletianic state, referred to the tetrarchs as a simple multiplicity of rulers.leadbetter, galerius, 3. much modern scholarship was written without the term. although edward gibbon pioneered the description of the diocletianic government as a "new empire", he never used the term "tetrarchy"; neither did theodor mommsen. it did not appear in the literature until used in 1887 by schoolmaster hermann schiller in a two-volume handbook on the rom
293_establishments 3rd_century_in_the_Roman_Empire 4th_century_in_the_Roman_Empire Constitutional_state_types Emperors Forms_of_government Monarchy Oligarchy Roman_emperors