7.26.2005
Provenance
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By the way that last picture is a carved statue in porphyry (most likely mined in Egypt) of the tetrarchs - Diocletian, Maximian, Constantius, and Galerius - each responsible for the civil and military command of a zone of the Roman Empire at the beginning of the 4th century, with Diocletian as the senior ruler with a colleague Maximian and two junior proteges.
Diocletian was the only Roman emperor who voluntarily abdicated in favor of handpicked successors selected by merit (mostly as field commanders) rather than family.
The statue sat at the Imperial Palace in constantinople from the 4th century to 1204 when it was taken to Venice by the Venetians, who benefited from the 4th Crusade against Constantinople in a deal they struck with the Franks to pay for their conveyance...otherwise the crusading army would have been stranded
