Duklyan

### Aliases

DiocletianGaius Aurelius Valerius DiocletianusJoviusDiocles Gaius Valerius DioclesImperator Caesar Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus AugustusDuklyanin

### Occupation

Roman emperor (former)Leader of The New Duklyan's Army

## Appearances

### Debut

Spell II

**Duklyan**, formerly known as **Diocletian** (/ˌdaɪ.əˈkliːʃən/, *DYE-ə-KLEE-shən*; Latin: *Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus*, Ancient Greek: Διοκλητιανός, romanized: *Diokletianós*; 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed "**Jovius**", is based on the real life Roman emperor of the same name from 284 until his abdication in 305. After his death, his spirit went to The Quarter, where he reigns with **The New Duklyan's Army**.

## Battles and Events

### As a mortal.

He was born **Diocles** to a family of low status in the Roman province of Dalmatia. Diocles rose through the ranks of the military early in his career, eventually becoming a cavalry commander for the army of Emperor Carus. After the deaths of Carus and his son Numerian on a campaign in Persia, Diocles was proclaimed emperor by the troops, taking the name Diocletianus. The title was also claimed by Carus's surviving son, Carinus, but Diocletian defeated him in the Battle of the Margus.

Diocletian's reign stabilized the empire and ended the Crisis of the Third Century. He appointed fellow officer Maximian as *Augustus*, co-emperor, in 286. Diocletian reigned in the Eastern Empire, and Maximian reigned in the Western Empire. Diocletian delegated further on 1 March 293, appointing Galerius and Constantius as junior colleagues (each with the title *Caesar*), under himself and Maximian respectively. Under the Tetrarchy, or "rule of four", each tetrarch would rule over a quarter-division of the empire. Diocletian secured the empire's borders and purged it of all threats to his power. He defeated the Sarmatians and Carpi during several campaigns between 285 and 299, the Alamanni in 288, and usurpers in Egypt between 297 and 298. Galerius, aided by Diocletian, campaigned successfully against Sassanid Persia, the empire's traditional enemy. In 299, he sacked their capital, Ctesiphon. Diocletian led the subsequent negotiations and achieved a lasting and favorable peace.

Diocletian separated and enlarged the empire's civil and military services and reorganized the empire's provincial divisions, establishing the largest and most bureaucratic government in the history of the empire. He established new administrative centres in Nicomedia, Mediolanum, Sirmium, and Trevorum, closer to the empire's frontiers than the traditional capital at Rome. Building on third-century trends towards absolutism, he styled himself an autocrat, elevating himself above the empire's masses with imposing forms of court ceremonies and architecture. Bureaucratic and military growth, constant campaigning, and construction projects increased the state's expenditures and necessitated a comprehensive tax reform. From at least 297 on, imperial taxation was standardized, made more equitable, and levied at generally higher rates.

Not all of Diocletian's plans were successful: the Edict on Maximum Prices (301), his attempt to curb inflation via price controls, was counterproductive and quickly ignored. Although effective while he ruled, Diocletian's tetrarchic system collapsed after his abdication under the competing dynastic claims of Maxentius and Constantine, sons of Maximian and Constantius respectively. The Diocletianic Persecution (303–312), the empire's last, largest, and bloodiest official persecution of Christianity, failed to eliminate Christianity in the empire. After 324, Christianity became the empire's preferred religion under Constantine. Despite these failures and challenges, Diocletian's reforms fundamentally changed the structure of the Roman imperial government and helped stabilize the empire economically and militarily, enabling the empire to remain essentially intact for another 150 years despite being near the brink of collapse in Diocletian's youth. Weakened by illness, Diocletian left the imperial office on 1 May 305, becoming the first Roman emperor to abdicate the position voluntarily. He lived out his retirement in his palace on the Dalmatian coast, tending to his vegetable gardens. His palace eventually became the core of the modern-day city of Split in Croatia.

Diocletian was one of the few emperors of the third and fourth centuries to die naturally, and the first in the history of the empire to retire voluntarily. Once he retired, his tetrarchic system collapsed. Without the guiding hand of Diocletian, the empire fell into civil wars.

### As an avet.

As he ascended to The Quarter, ***Dukljan** or **Dukljanin** (Serbian Cyrillic: Дукљан or Дукљанин),* became a figure in Serbian mythology that was presented as the adversary of God, due to his persecution of Christians.

Legends attribute to him building of the town of Duklja, Dukljan's border, and the Roman milestones near Tuzi (according to a folktale, he was throwing them at his brother and sister as they were fleeing to Hum).

A Serbian folk song about Dukljan says that he once removed the Sun from the sky and brought it to the Earth. Saint John managed to trick him and restore the Sun, but afterwards, while chasing him, Dukljan grabbed at him and tore a piece of flesh from John's foot, which explains why humans have arches of the foot.

Several variants of a story that he is still alive exist; according to them he is chained in the Morača river near Duklja (the Vizier's bridge). In some of them, he constantly gnaws at his chains, and each year around Christmas (or around Đurđevdan) nearly manages to break free and destroy the world, when four Gypsy blacksmiths reforge the chains.

While in The Quarter, he easily gathered the avets to serve him, starting his new age of reign that lasts to this day, as he plans to use the nexus to conquer other realms.

## References

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocletian#
2. ↑ https://www.worldcat.org/title/792013
3. ↑ https://books.google.rs/books?id=VnxoAAAAMAAJ&redir\_esc=y