• PugJesus@piefed.socialOPMEnglish
    3·
    2 months ago

    Explanation: Diocletian was a Roman Emperor of the late 3rd century and early 4th century AD who royally fucked the government he took over, and then promptly retired to a nice villa in the Balkans. When one of his co-emperors wrote to him begging him to come back and unfuck the mess he seeded, Diocletian responded “If you [the messenger] could show the cabbage that I planted with my own hands to your emperor, he definitely wouldn’t dare suggest that I replace the peace and happiness of this place with the storms of a never-satisfied greed.”

      • Aielman15@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        I actually respect him for that. He ended the clusterfuck of the Third Century which is in itself a great accomplishment, attempted to stabilize the empire (and more or less succeeded) and retired peacefully. I’m the first to lament that our political class is too old and detached from reality, I’m not going to fault a politician who actually decided to step aside and entrust the future to younger people.

        Some of his reforms were more successful than others, and some were bad even without the benefit of hindsight, but at least he tried and seemed to genuinely care about improving and stabilizing an empire on the brink of collapse. I give him a 5/10.

        • PugJesus@piefed.socialOPMEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          I have a long, long laundry list of complaints against him. In fact, I think I struggle to think of anything I actually WOULD praise him for, but I also freely admit that I generally interpret Diocletian’s motivations in a predominantly negative light.