About the same time Carausius,
commander of the Channel fleet, crossed to Britain and had himself
proclaimed independent emperor. In 290 he was acknowledged as third
colleague by the Augusti, but no place was found for him when in 293
the government of the Roman world was divided between Diocletian,
Maximian, and two newly chosen Caesars--Galerius and Flavius Valerius
Constantius, later called Chlorus. By this arrangement the recovery of
Britain from Allectus--who had murdered Carausius about 294--fell to
Constantius, and he accomplished this by a sudden attack in 296.
Constantius was twice married. His first wife, Helena, bore him a son,
Constantine the Great; his second was a step-daughter of Maximian,
named Theodora, to whom coin 18 belongs.
Britain was now divided into four Diocletian provinces, to which a
fifth--Valentia--was later added when the country north of Hadrian's
wall was re-occupied. The only other event of Diocletian's reign to be
noticed is the persecution of Christians in which, according to
tradition, St. Alban lost his life at Verulam about 303.
(19-20) On May 1, 305, Diocletian and Maximian abdicated. Constantius
and Galerius now became Augusti. Trouble arose over the two vacant
Caesarships. It was the aim of Galerius to exclude Constantine, but the
latter escaped to his father's camp at York, a few weeks before
Constantius died on July 25, 306, after a victory over the Picts and
Scots.
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