The
Dominate was the '
despoticDespotism is a form of government by a single authority, either an individual , or tightly knit group, which rules with absolute political power.-History:...
' latter phase of government in the ancient
Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
from the conclusion of the
Third Century CrisisThe Crisis of the Third Century was a period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressures of invasion, civil war, plague, and economic depression...
of 235–284 until the formal date of the collapse of the
Western EmpireThe Western Roman Empire was the western half of the Roman Empire, from its division by Diocletian in 285; the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, today widely known as the Byzantine Empire....
in AD 476. It followed the period known as the
PrincipateThe Principate is the first period of the Roman Empire, extending from the beginning of the reign of Caesar Augustus to the Crisis of the Third Century, after which it was replaced with the Dominate. The Principate is characterized by a concerted effort on the part of the Emperors to preserve the...
. In the Eastern half of the Empire, and especially from the time of
Justinian IFlavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus ; AD 483 – 13 or 14 November 565, known in English as Justinian I or Justinian the Great, was the second member of the Justinian Dynasty and Eastern Roman Emperor from 527 until his death...
, the system of the Dominate evolved into
ByzantineThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
absolutism.
The word is derived from the
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
dominus, meaning
lord or
master, as an owner versus his slave — this had been used sycophantically to address emperors from the Julio-Claudian (first) dynasty on, but not used by them as a style —
TiberiusTiberius Julius Caesar Augustus, born Tiberius Claudius Nero , was the second Roman Emperor, from the death of Augustus in AD 14 until his own death in 37. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla...
in particular is said to have reviled it openly. It became common under
DiocletianGaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus , born Diocles and commonly known as Diocletian , was Roman Emperor from 20 November 284 to 1 May 305. Born to a Dalmatian family of low status, he rose through the ranks of the military to become cavalry commander to the emperor Carus...
, who is therefore a logical choice as the first ruler of the 'early' dominate. Historian David Potter describes the transformation of Government under Diocletian when describing the shifts in imagery the Emperor used to display his power (in this case the building of a huge new palace at
SirmiumSirmium was an ancient city in Roman Pannonia. Sirmium originally was a Celtic town founded in the 3rd century BC and conquered by the Romans in the 1st century BC. It was a very important town in the later Roman Empire, being the economic capital of Roman Pannonia and one of the four capital...
):
The style of Government so memorably described by Marcus, whereby the emperor sought to show himself as a model of correct aristocratic deportment, had given way to a style in which the emperor was seen to be distinct from all other mortals. His house could no longer be a grander version of houses that other people might live in: it, like him, had to be different.
During the
PrincipateThe Principate is the first period of the Roman Empire, extending from the beginning of the reign of Caesar Augustus to the Crisis of the Third Century, after which it was replaced with the Dominate. The Principate is characterized by a concerted effort on the part of the Emperors to preserve the...
, when the formalities of the constitutionally-never-abolished republic were still very much the 'politically correct' image of government, it has also often been said to have ended after the
Third Century CrisisThe Crisis of the Third Century was a period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressures of invasion, civil war, plague, and economic depression...
of 235–284, which concluded when
DiocletianGaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus , born Diocles and commonly known as Diocletian , was Roman Emperor from 20 November 284 to 1 May 305. Born to a Dalmatian family of low status, he rose through the ranks of the military to become cavalry commander to the emperor Carus...
established himself as
Emperor. Moving the notion of the Emperor away from the republican forms of the Empire's first three centuries, Diocletian introduced a novel system of joint rule by four, the
tetrarchyThe term Tetrarchy describes any system of government where power is divided among four individuals, but usually refers to the tetrarchy instituted by Roman Emperor Diocletian in 293, marking the end of the Crisis of the Third Century and the recovery of the Roman Empire...
, and he and his colleagues and his successors (in two imperial territories, east and west, not four) chose to stop using the title
princeps, instead openly displaying the naked face of Imperial power and adopting a Hellenistic style of government more influenced by the veneration of the Eastern potentates of ancient
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
and Persia than by the heritage of civic collegiality amongst the governing class passed down from the days of the 'uncrowned'
Roman RepublicThe Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c...
.
- Arguably, more crucial than the chosen title was the earlier adoption of a divine status as divus, originally a posthumous exceptional honour awarded by the senate, later granted to the living emperor (and some members of his dynasty), becoming an unwritten prerogative of the crown.
- Another clear symptom of the upgrading of the imperial status was that he came to incarnate the notion (abstract under the uncrowned republic) of the majesty
Majesty is an English word derived ultimately from the Latin Maiestas, meaning Greatness.- Origin :Originally, during the Roman republic, the word maiestas was the legal term for the supreme status and dignity of the state, to be respected above everything else...
of Rome, so that lese majesteLèse majesté is the crime of violating majesty, an offense against the dignity of a reigning sovereign or against a state....
became high treason.
- Contemporary historians reject the interpretation of the transition from Principate to Dominate as a clear, easily definable break (cf. Late Antiquity
Late Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the transitional centuries from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world. Precise boundaries for the period are a matter of debate, but noted historian of the period Peter Brown...
). Rather, they now characterise it as a much more subtle, gradual transformation, in which Diocletian's reforms of the Imperial office, while significant, are but one point on a sliding scale. Nevertheless, the distinction between two primary phases of Imperial government in Rome remains an important and useful one.