Diocletian and the Roman Empire

Carinus, pretorian prefect, the man who would have been most able to induce a defection of that magnitude, was kept on in his post after carinu's fall. The other more salacious story is that a tribune who harbored a personal grudge against the emperor because carinus had seduced his wife, assassinated him just as diocletian's army was about to be defeated. One way or the other, at the end of the day, carinus was dead, and Diocletian stood tall as the sole ruler of the roman empire.