Numbers

Tetrarchy

A "tetrarchy" is a government lead by four people. The term comes from the Greek for "four" (tetra-) "rulers" or "leaders" (-arch).

It most commonly is used to refer to the period in the later part of the Roman Empire, when it was ruled by four emperors at a time—one senior "Augustus" each for the Eastern and Western halves and one junior "Caesar" each for the Eastern and Western halves.

How It's Used

"In 1565, a passing Englishman observed that the Japanese 'feed moderately but they drink largely.' Four centuries have not quenched their thirst. Each year, the Japanese manage to knock back 7 billion litres (1.5 billion gallons) of beer-56 litres for every man, woman and baby. And all but about 2% of this enormous market is brewed by four companies: Kirin, Asahi, Sapporo and Suntory. With sales of YEN 1.35 trillion ($12.1 billion) in 1993, Kirin almost matched even America's mighty Anheuser-Busch. This cosy tetrarchy, however, is about to have several rude awakenings."

"The Jan. 18 'New in Paperback' review of the book titled 'A History of the Byzantine State and Society' states: 'This survey history covers the Byzantine world from 284 B.C., when the Roman Empire was divided into Eastern and Western administrative divisions' [Book World].

"The year 284 B.C. is incorrect; it should be A.D. In 285 A.D., Diocletian (who became emperor in 284 A.D.) chose Maximian as his vice emperor, implicitly dividing the empire into western and eastern administrative provinces. The third century A.D. was an era of constant war and revolution caused by the encroachment of hostile Germanic tribes upon the empire. Thus, the division of the empire under two capable leaders created a more flexible response system to deal with a serious military threat on the Roman frontier.

"This division was further delineated in 293 A.D., when Diocletian and Maximian each designated another young officer to serve as heir expectant to the senior rulers. In 293 A.D., Diocletian and Maximian reserved for themselves the provinces of Egypt and Africa, respectively. Their lieutenants, Galerius (under Diocletian) and Constantius (under Maximian), received the Balkans and Gaul and Britain, respectively. This 'tetrarchy,' as it was known, allowed the empire to reassert its military strength and continue its dominance through the early part of the fourth century A.D."

"Martin Amis's Koba the Dread has got to be one of the oddest books about Stalin ever written, indignant, angry, personal and strangely touching. Amis has read what he describes as 'several yards of books about the Soviet experiment,' including ones by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Robert Conquest, Vasily Grossman and Dmitri Volkogonov—a small but choice percentage of the vast literature on Stalin and his crimes. Having digested those several yards, Amis sets out to summarize Stalin's lies and murders (which he figures at roughly 20 million), the prison system, the slave labor projects, the purges and show trials and generally the political culture of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during its most fearful years.

"He calls Stalin by his nickname, Koba—and adds the honorific 'the Dread,' in the style of Ivan the Terrible, a k a the Dread. And he jeers at the 'Communist tetrarchy': famine, terror, slavery and failure. Amis says: 'The dictatorship of the proletariat was a lie; Union was a lie, and Soviet was a lie, and Socialist was a lie, and Republics was a lie. Comrade was a lie. The revolution was a lie.'"

"By the end of the 3rd century AD, a centrally ruled Rome could not answer all the agglomerated military threats on her various frontiers. The eventual response was the institution of a tetrarchy, a rule of four men, two pairs, each ruling one half of the empire so that local threats could be answered with rapid force.

"The Venice Tetrarchs are depictions of the original four, the senior member of each pair embracing his junior. These were originally installed on a column in Constantinople, the capital of the Roman Empire from 330 onwards. They have stood since 1204 on the corner of St Mark's in Venice, plundered and brought back as booty when the Fourth Crusade sacked the city."

"When Stratford unveiled its new tetrarchy, led by general director Antoni Cimolino, in the hopeful spring of 2006, it was understood that each of the three co-artistic directors would continue to work elsewhere, linking the festival in new ways to the world beyond Stratford. McAnuff in particular had significant pre-existing commitments that pulled him away but could prove useful if, as was assumed in the theatrical community, his primary role at Stratford was to help grow a peculiarly American species in the cold Canadian soil: new (and money-spinning) musicals."

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