Caius Valerius Diocles. Le premier nom d'empereur de Dioclétien et la reconnaissance de son autorité en Égypte. À propos de P. Oxy. XLII 3055 et AE 1973, 540

From the P. Oxy. XLII 3055 dated « Year 1 of Dioklês » and from the reputation of Diqlot (Diocles) in Palestine as remembered in the rabbinic tradition, we retain that the authority of the new Augustus was recognized in the East under the name of C. Valerius Diocles. The cognomen Dioklês, -êtos attested in this papyrus shows that Diocletianus was derived from the stem Dioklet-, and refutes the hypothesis recently supported of the Illyrian origin of the last emperor’s cognomen. The same P. Oxy. 3055 leads to establishing the date of the recognition in Egypt of the Augustus Diocles probably in December 284, and to clarifying the chronology of the two successive prefects Pomponius Ianuarianus and M. Aurelius Diogenes. The first emperor’s name Caius Valerius Diocle was replaced in December 284 or in January 285 by the second, Caius Valerius Diocletianus, the only name used after the abandonment of Diocles and until the proclamation of Maximianus, and we propose a new restoration on this topic to the inscription AE 1973, 540. These precisions enable us to shed light on some political and ideological problems in a decisive stage of the conflict with Carinus.