This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2010) For the 2005 heavy metal album, see Dominate (album). Ancient Rome This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Ancient Rome Periods Roman Kingdom 753 BC – 509 BC Roman Republic 508 BC – 27 BC Roman Empire 27 BC – AD 1453 Principate Western Empire Dominate Eastern Empire Roman Constitution Constitution of the Kingdom Constitution of the Republic Constitution of the Empire Constitution of the Late Empire History of the Constitution Senate Legislative Assemblies Executive Magistrates Ordinary Magistrates Consul Praetor Quaestor Promagistrate Aedile Tribune Censor Governor Extraordinary Magistrates Dictator Magister Equitum Consular tribune Rex Triumviri Decemviri Titles and Honours Emperor Legatus Dux Officium Praefectus Vicarius Vigintisexviri Lictor Magister militum Imperator Princeps senatus Pontifex Maximus Augustus Caesar Tetrarch Precedent and Law Roman Law

Imperium Mos maiorum Collegiality Roman citizenship Auctoritas Cursus honorum senatus consultum (senatus consultum ultimum) Other countries · Atlas Politics portal view · talk · The Dominate was the 'despotic' latter phase of government in the ancient Roman Empire from the conclusion of the Third Century Crisis of 235–284 until the formal date of the collapse of the Western Empire in AD 476. It followed the period known as the Principate. In the Eastern half of the Empire, and especially from the time of Justinian I, the system of the Dominate evolved into Byzantine absolutism1. The word is derived from the Latin dominus, meaning lord or master, an owner versus his slave — this had been used sycophantically to address emperors from the Julio-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 the 'early' dominate. Historian David Potter describes the transformation of Government under Diocletian when describing the shifts in imagery the Emperor used to display his power (in this case the building of a huge new palace at Sirmium):

The style of Government so memorably described by Marcus, whereby the emperor sought to show himself as a model of correct aristocratic deportment, had given way to a style in which the emperor was seen to be distinct from all other mortals. His house could no longer be a grander version of houses that other people might live in: it, like him, had to be different. During the Principate, the formalities of the constitutionally-never-abolished Roman Republic were still very much the 'politically correct' image of Imperial government. It has also often been said to have ended after the Third Century Crisis of 235–284 A.D., 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 monarchs, 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, they openly displayed 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 Roman governing class passed down from the days of the 'uncrowned' Roman Republic.

Emperors of the Principate, emulating Augustus in his fiction of a Republican government created the idea of the Emperor as a concentration of the various civil and military offices upon one individual, nevertheless hiding any autocratic or despotic connotations by the preservation of the Senate and other facets of the Republican period, such as the annual paired Consulship. After Diocletian, however, Emperors started to wear jewelled robes and shoes (in contrast with the simple toga praetexta that Principate Emperors used, emulating Augustus), inhabiting luxurious palaces (the ruins of Diocletian's enormous palace in Dalmatia survive to this day, see Diocletian's Palace) and surrounded by a court of individuals who, only due to the favor and proximity of the Emperor, attained the highest honorific titles and bureaucratic functions. In fact, many offices associated with the palatine life and that suggested intimate relationship with the Royalty eventually developed connotations of power, such as the office of the Chamberlain or of the Constable. The Senatorial office itself, after the loss of every residue of political power they had in the Principate, became a honorific in the later Empire, as well as the Consulate.

Arguably, more crucial than the chosen title of Dominus was the earlier adoption of a divine status as divus, originally a posthumous exceptional honour awarded to the emperor by the Senate, later granted to the living emperor (and some members of his dynasty), becoming an unwritten prerogative of the Imperial Crown. The divine legitimacy sought by the Emperors to dissuade the rebellions and usurpations of the Military Anarchy period led them to adopt rituals and ceremonies typical of the said Eastern monarchies, such as the kissing of the hem of the Imperial robe and the practice of kneeling before him (proskynesis). After the adoption of Christianity by Constantine I and its conversion in State Religion by the Theodosius, the Imperial divinity became directly associated with the Christian God, its legitimacy being conferred by the Christian Church itself. In the Eastern Roman Empire after 476 A.D., the symbiotic relation between the Imperial Crown in Constantinople and the Orthodox Church led to the establishment of the distinguished character of Medieval Byzantine State.

Another clear symptom of the upgrading of the imperial status was that the emperor came to incarnate the notion (abstract under the uncrowned Republic) of the majesty of Rome, so that lese majeste became high treason. Present historians reject the interpretation of the transition from Principate to Dominate as a clear, easily definable break (cf. Late Antiquity). Rather, they now characterize 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. References ^ Goldsworth, How Rome Fell, Conclusion v · d · eAncient Rome topics Timeline Epochs Foundation · Monarchy · Republic · Empire · (Principate and Dominate) · Decline · Western Empire / Eastern Empire Constitution History · Constitution of the Kingdom / the Republic / the Empire / the Late Empire · Senate · Legislative assemblies (Curiate, Century, Tribal, Plebeian)  · Executive magistrates Government Curia · Forum · Cursus honorum · Collegiality · Emperor · Legatus · Dux · Officium · Praefectus · Vicarius · Vigintisexviri · Lictor · Magister militum · Imperator · Princeps senatus · Pontifex Maximus · Augustus · Caesar · Tetrarch · Optimates · Populares · Province Magistrates Ordinary Tribune · Quaestor · Aedile · Praetor · Consul · Censor · Promagistrate · Governor Extraordinary Dictator · Magister Equitum · Decemviri · Consular Tribune · Triumvir · Rex · Interrex Law Twelve Tables · Roman citizenship · Auctoritas · Imperium · Status · Litigation Society Social class · Patricians · Plebs · Conflict of the Orders · Secessio plebis · Equestrian order · Gens · Tribes · Naming conventions · Women · Marriage · Slavery Military Borders · Establishment · Structure · Campaigns · Technology · Political control · Frontiers and fortifications (Castra) · Strategy · Engineering · Army (Legion • Infantry tactics • Personal equipment • Siege engines) · Navy (Fleet) · Auxiliaries · Decorations and punishments · Hippika gymnasia Culture Theatre · Cuisine · Education · School · Literature · Art · Music · Architecture · Religion (Funeral • Persecution • Imperial cult) · Mythology · Hairstyle · Public Baths (Thermae)  · Forum · SPQR · Clothing · Chronology (Ab urbe condita · Roman calendar (Julian) · Festivals) · Circus · Wine · Prostitution · Deforestation · Romanization · Cosmetics Technology Numerals · Arithmetic · Abacus · Civil engineering · Military engineering · Military technology · Roads  · Bridges  · Aqueducts  · Metallurgy  · Concrete · Sanitation Roman economy Economy · Agriculture · Commerce · Finance · Currency · Republican currency  · Imperial currency Language (Latin) History · Romance languages (Versions) Old · Classical · Vulgar · Late · Medieval · Renaissance · New · Recent · Ecclesiastical Writers Apuleius · Catullus · Cicero · Curtius Rufus · Horace  · Julius Caesar · Juvenal · Livy · Lucretius · Ovid · Petronius · Plautus  · Pliny the Elder · Pliny the Younger · Propertius · Sallust · Seneca · Suetonius · Tacitus · Virgil · Vitruvius Lists Topics · Wars · Battles · Generals · Legions · Emperors · Geographers · Institutions · Laws · Consuls · Distinguished women Portal