Split celebrated its 1,700th birthday in 2005, an anniversary that marked the dual event of the city's founding and the completion of Diocletian's magnificent palace in A.D. 305. Diocletian deliberately chose this site near ancient Salona, thereby securing a location that could provide the best of both country and city pleasures for his retirement years. As emperor emeritus in Split, the retired ruler might not have had the power of a sitting Roman emperor, but he still had some clout and, claiming that he was a descendant of the god Jupiter, demanded that anyone entering his presence bow to him.
In Split, Diocletian was just 6km (4 miles) from Salona, Dalmatia's provincial center of power, a site close enough to allow him to periodically visit Salona and stick his finger in affairs of state. Off duty, Diocletian lived near the sea in a palace the size of a small city where he could at least maintain the illusion of imperial position by receiving heads of state and other important visitors, who paid lavish homage to the former emperor.
