One of Diocletians accomplishments from before his rule as emporer is his ability to seize power. He came from a family of slaves (both parents were slaves of a Roman Senator), but still persevered and to gain his power.

 

Diocletian was very popular for his reorganization of the whole empire. Diocletian doubled the number of provinces and organized those into twelve diocese ruled by "vicars". In doing this, Diocletian helped prevent the possiblity of revolts in the outlying provinces. Diocletian also reorganized the military system into mobile field forces, called the comitantesses, and frontier units, called the limitanei.

 

Diocletian's greatest accomplishment was the tetrarchy. The Tetrarchy refers to the establishment by the Roman Emperor Diocletian, in 293, of a 4-part division of the empire. Diocletian continued to rule in the east. He made Maximian his equal and co-emperor in the west. They were each called Augustus which signified that they were emperors. By doing this, Diocletian allowed better protection and ruling over such a vast empire.