DIOCLEA
DIOCLEA (
Δοκλέα,
Ptol. 2.16.12: Eth.
Docleatae,
Plin. Nat. 3.28), a place in Dalmatia, where Diocletian was born, and from which he took his name. (Aurel. Vict.
Epit. 54; comp.
Eutrop. 9.19.)
It was really called Doclea, but the rising soldier changed the barbaric Docles into the Grecian Diocles, which, after his assumption of the purple, was Latinised into Diocletianus.
The surrounding district bore the same name. (Const. Porph.
de Adm. Imp. c. xxxv.)
The town continued to be a place of considerable importance till the Turkish invasion.
The ruins of it are found at the delta formed by the union of the rivers
Zetta and
Moraça in
Montenegro. (Schafarik,
Slav. Alt. vol. ii. pp. 239, 249, 272--275.)
[
E.B.J]
