# The 1 May 305 abdication produces a succession that collapses into civil war by 306 Date: 305 ## The fact On 1 May 305 [Diocletian](/people/diocletian) and Maximian abdicated, a rare voluntary exit. The succession design excluded Constantine and Maxentius and collapsed into war from 306. It is one event. ## Context Abdication can be an improving self-limit (separate row). This stores the design that immediately failed as a resilience-harm: colleague-rule without a durable rule of succession. Diocletian’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below. Sharing a field with them is not a reason to drop a documented act, and it is not a reason to assign later consequences done in the name after death. Abdication at Nicomedia and Milan. Constantius and Galerius become Augusti; Severus and Maximinus Caesars; Constantine and Maxentius excluded. 306 York and Rome break the design. Named person as heading of the dated public instrument. Later editors, museums, printers, or offices share publication. Complex where later carriers date the row. ## Evidence and sources Livius, Lactantius, and Britannica independently date 1 May 305 and the 306 breakdown. Official or archival record: Lactantius, Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died — New Advent (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0705.htm; New Advent). ## Significance A succession scheme that produces civil war within a year is a civic-resilience harm. 305 is not 303. He had already issued the persecution edicts. A succession scheme that produces civil war within a year is a civic-resilience harm. ## What is established and what is not Established: 1 May 305 abdication and 306 civil wars. Not established: that a hereditary scheme would have been gentler. What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions. The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit. Established here: a sourced, dated public instrument with a named contribution by Diocletian. What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date, signatory, or non-occurrence; a demonstrated forgery; or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of other causes. They are not a public rating. ## People - Diocletian: https://factrail.ai/people/diocletian ## Drivers - Democratic Resilience: https://factrail.ai/drivers/democratic-resilience ## Sources - https://www.britannica.com/biography/Diocletian - https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0705.htm ## Methodology https://factrail.ai/methodology Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/di-abdication-failure-path