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The Dominate was the 'despotic' last of the two phases of government in the ancient Roman Empire between its establishment in 27 BC and the formal date of the collapse of the Western Empire in AD 476 .

The word is derived from the Latin dominus, meaning ''master'' or ''lord'', as an owner versus his slave - this had been used sycophantically to address emperors from the Julian-Claudian (first) dynasty on, but not used by them as a style - Tiberius in particular is said to have reviled it openly. It became common under Diocletian , who is therefore a logical choice as the first ruler of 'early' dominate.

The first phase of Imperial government, known as the Principate , when the formalities of the constitutionally never abolished republic were still very much the 'politically correct' image, has also often been said to ended after the Third Century Crisis of 235 - 275 , which concluded when Diocletian 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 Tetrarchy , 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 Egypt and Persia than by the heritage of civic collegiality amongst the governing class passed down from the days of the 'uncrowned' Roman Republic .

  • Arguably, more crucial than the chosen title was the earlier adoption of a divine status as Divus , originally a posthumous execeptional honour awarded by the senate, later granted to the living emperor (and some members of his dynasty), becoming an unwritten prerogative of the crown. The pagan state religion had always been linked with the political elite, e.g. from Julius Caesar on the strong man (Princeps since Augustus) has systematically been made Pontifex Maximus (the most prestigious but non-professional religious office), but now the state started promoting, in time even imposing, official emperor cults, the legal basis for the persecution of monotheist Christians, so an insult to the 'god' became sacreligious.


  • 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 of Rome, so any crime against him would be punishable as what could be called high treason.


  • Historians nowadays reject the interpretation of the transition from Principate to Dominate as a clear, easily definable break (cf. Late Antiquity ). 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.