Šarkamen Roman Palace
Šarkamen (Serbia) '23
This is the remains of what seems to be the retirement palace of Maximinus Daza, one of the tetrarchic emperors of the early 4th century. When Diocletian created the tetrarchy the idea was to restore the Roman Empire by increasing the number of emperors so they could deal with problems on different fronts. There was a college of four emperors, two Augusti and two Caesars, and every ten years the Augusti would elevate their Caesars, put new ones in their place, and retire. This worked exactly once. And then Constantine's father died and he decided he wanted to become emperor in his place. So everything went to hell. Maximinus was a third (and final) generation tetrarch. He had been elevated by his Augustus Galerius, who replaced Diocletian but then died of illness. Maximinus was eventually defeated and killed by Licinius before he could enjoy his new palace.
The imperial retirement home was uniquely tetrarchic type of architecture. Diocletian built himself a retirement home that is now the core of his hometown of Split. His co-Augustus Maximian presumably built a similar one somewhere else, either in Italy or near his hometown of Sirmium (now covered under the city of Sremska Mitrovica). Maximinus' former Augustus Galerius' is probably the most similar in design - rather than a city palace it is an isolated and new settlement built in the countryside at Gamzigrad. It's found only a couple of hours away at Gamzigrad.
These palaces seem to mark the birthplaces or at least long term homes of these emperors, which suggest that Daza was born near here. It's an isolated place, miles from any settlement, down a single-track dirt road that I feared my car would get damaged by. It's hard to say whether it would be any more appealing in antiquity, but it is a most peculiar place to find an imperial palace. The site itself is not irrationally bad. I heard running water near by so there seems to have been a river at the bottom. And being hidden deep in the hills it would be very hard to come across this place by accident, offering it a degree of protection (at least as a village or farmstead).
Šarkamen Roman Palace
Šarkamen (Serbia) '23
This is the remains of what seems to be the retirement palace of Maximinus Daza, one of the tetrarchic emperors of the early 4th century. When Diocletian created the tetrarchy the idea was to restore the Roman Empire by increasing the number of emperors so they could deal with problems on different fronts. There was a college of four emperors, two Augusti and two Caesars, and every ten years the Augusti would elevate their Caesars, put new ones in their place, and retire. This worked exactly once. And then Constantine's father died and he decided he wanted to become emperor in his place. So everything went to hell. Maximinus was a third (and final) generation tetrarch. He had been elevated by his Augustus Galerius, who replaced Diocletian but then died of illness. Maximinus was eventually defeated and killed by Licinius before he could enjoy his new palace.
The imperial retirement home was uniquely tetrarchic type of architecture. Diocletian built himself a retirement home that is now the core of his hometown of Split. His co-Augustus Maximian presumably built a similar one somewhere else, either in Italy or near his hometown of Sirmium (now covered under the city of Sremska Mitrovica). Maximinus' former Augustus Galerius' is probably the most similar in design - rather than a city palace it is an isolated and new settlement built in the countryside at Gamzigrad. It's found only a couple of hours away at Gamzigrad.
These palaces seem to mark the birthplaces or at least long term homes of these emperors, which suggest that Daza was born near here. It's an isolated place, miles from any settlement, down a single-track dirt road that I feared my car would get damaged by. It's hard to say whether it would be any more appealing in antiquity, but it is a most peculiar place to find an imperial palace. The site itself is not irrationally bad. I heard running water near by so there seems to have been a river at the bottom. And being hidden deep in the hills it would be very hard to come across this place by accident, offering it a degree of protection (at least as a village or farmstead).