Editing Tetrarchy (section)

==Terminology==
The term ''tetrarchy'' (from the {{langx|el|τετραρχία}}, ''tetrarchia'', "leadership of four [people]"){{efn|Historian [[David Stone Potter|David Potter]] translates the term as "[[Gang of Four|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.

Although the term "tetrarch" was current in antiquity, it was never used in the imperial college (as it's often called) under Diocletian. Instead, the term was used to describe independent portions of a kingdom that were ruled under separate leaders.  The [[Tetrarchy (Judea)|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'').<ref>Qtd. and tr. Leadbetter, ''Galerius'', 3.</ref>

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 (Catholic canon law)|college]] led by a single supreme leader.  When later authors described the period, this is what they emphasized: [[Ammianus Marcellinus|Ammianus]] had Constantius II admonish [[Constantius Gallus|Gallus]] for disobedience by appealing to the example in submission set by Diocletian's lesser colleagues; his successor Julian compared the Diocletianic tetrarchs to a chorus surrounding a leader, speaking in unison under his command.<ref>Amm. Marc. 14.11.10; Jul. ''Caes''. 315A-B.</ref>  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.<ref>Leadbetter, ''Galerius'', 3.</ref>

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 Roman Empire (''Geschichte der Römischen Kaiserzeit''), to wit: "''die diokletianische Tetrarchie''".  Even so, the term did not catch on in the literature until [[Otto Seeck]] used it in 1897.<ref>Leadbetter, ''Galerius'', 3–4.</ref>
[[File:Argenteus-Constantius I-antioch RIC 033a (obverse).jpg|thumb|On the reverse of this ''[[argenteus]]'' struck in [[Antioch]] under [[Constantius I]], the tetrarchs offer sacrifice to celebrate a victory against the [[Sarmatians]].]]