Thebes on the frontiers, but there would now be a “defense in depth” policy The army would patrol the farthest reaches of the empire and also provide a defense for all Roman territory Diocletian secured these changes with two fundamental alterations to military policy The first was a de facto division of the empire into an eastern and western half, with each half having its own emperor Beneath these two emperors, who held the title of Augustus, were two junior emperors who held the title of Caesar In all, the new imperial college would contain four members: two Augusti and two Caesari For the military this allowed for a total of four military commanders who could campaign on the very edge of empire, without the others having to worry about a victorious general being elevated to the rank of emperor by his troops In addition to the edges of empire, there would be military resources and military commanders for the new defense in depth policy The imperial college was also intended to create a sense of stability in the empire The political division between East and West was not intended to be a true division In fact, all imperial decrees continued to be made in the name of all four men of the imperial college This allowed for a sense of stability during the sometimes-unstable transfer of power between Roman rulers The previous princeps system of government had for hundreds of years left the empire with no formal way to choose a new emperor after the death of the previous reigning emperor Diocletian’s reforms sought to rectify this In theory, when the senior Augustus died, his Caesar would be elevated and would in turn choose a new Caesar In this manner the Caesar would gain both experience and legitimacy with the Roman populace In practice, however, Diocletian’s reforms did not even last for one full transfer In order that he see his system of succession put into effect, Diocletian decided to retire after 20 years as emperor and forced his co-Augustus, Maximian, to retire as well When this occurred, each man’s Caesar was elevated to the imperial throne, and two new Caesari were chosen Maximian did not agree to this forced abdication, and eventually he attempted to regain his position as head of the Western Roman Empire This failure by Maximian marked the beginning of the end of the Tetrarchy By the end of Constantine the Great’s reign in 337, most of Diocletian’s reforms had failed The rule of Constantine and his progeny was marked by civil war and competing imperial claims, just as had been the case before Diocletian’s reforms of 286 See also late barbarians; Rome: decline and fall; Rome: government 457 Further reading: Grant, Michael The Roman Emperors New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1997; Shelton, Jo Ann As the Romans Did New York: Oxford University Press, 1998; Williams, Stephen Diocletian and the Roman Recovery New York: Routledge, 1997 Stephen Griffin Thebes In the Iliad Homer famously described the city as “hundred-gated Thebes.” However, Thebes is better understood as an entire site that encompassed the east and west banks of the Nile, containing temples and palaces, the dwelling-places of the living and the everlasting homes of the dead On the east bank were the temples of Amun at Karnak and Luxor The ancient city lay to the east of the great temple of Karnak As the temple expanded, the city had to move and was laid out on a grid plan Across the river on the west bank, bordering the strip of cultivated fields, stood the mortuary temples of pharaohs from the Middle and New Kingdoms Behind them lay the cemeteries of the nobility, while beyond in the desert valleys, the tombs of kings and queens of Egypt On the west bank was the village of skilled craftsmen and scribes, who worked on the royal tombs, their burial places, and those of commoners In effect there were two Thebes, one for the living, the other for the dead Ironically, the mud-brick city of the living has long vanished under the fields and houses of the modern city of Luxor, while Thebes of the dead on the west bank remains one of Egypt’s primary tourist locations It is one of the largest archaeological sites in the world Thebes lies about 400 miles south of Cairo, just south of the Wadi Hammamat where the Nile Valley comes closest to the Red Sea The Egyptians called the town Waset, “dominion,” and later simply Nìwt, “the city.” Although there are some remains from the Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom periods (3100–2181 b.c.e.), it was a small town, the capital of the fourth nome (district) of Upper Egypt The Greeks would name it Thebes after the principal city of Boeotia in Greece A family from the Theban nome ruled Upper Egypt at the close of the First Intermediate Period (2181–2055 b.c.e.) One of these rulers, Mentuhotep II (2055–04 b.c.e.), gained control over all Egypt founding the Middle Kingdom His mortuary temple lies beside that of the female ruler Hatshepsut, at Deir el-Bahri Although subsequent pharaohs moved away from Thebes, the rulers