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Diocletian was also responsible for some major administrative reforms. Two are particularly noteworthy: rearranging the provinces and changing the provenance of office-holders. Besides his general hostility towards Diocletian for religious reasons, Lactantius (c. 250–c. 325) in his De Mortibus Persecutorum (Concerning the Deaths of the Persecutors) accused Diocletian of “chopping the provinces into pieces.” (Lactantius, de Mort. Pers. 7. 4–5.) The provinces were nearly doubled in number, and Diocletian separated civil from military responsibilities (a policy completed by Constantine), civil authority being vested in a governor with the title of praeses (plural: praesides), while the armed forces were under the command of a dux (plural: duces). The provinces were grouped into dioceses, of which there were twelve, under vicars (Latin: vicarius, plural vicarii) (deputies or lieutenants) because they were deputies to the praetorian prefects, their official title being vices agens praefecti paetorio (deputy to the praetorian prefect). Under Diocletian vicars and praetorian prefects combined civil and military authority, though this would change under Constantine. The praetorian prefects were essentially like chief ministers, or viziers, to the emperor. Initially, under Diocletian, there were two praetorian prefects, one attached to each Augustus. Under Constantine and his successors, there were always at least three, and more often four, praetorian prefects in office at the same time. After 312 the praetorian prefects’ military authority was transferred to a new purely military official called magister militum (master of the soldiers) or, more specifically, magister peditum (master of the infantry) and magister equitum (master of the horse). The power of the praetorian prefects was reduced still further by the creation by Constantine of the post of magister officiorum (Master of the Offices), as Grand Chamberlain or head of the imperial civil service.

The provinces which suffered the greatest reductions were, predictably enough, the old proconsular provinces of Africa and Asia. The former was divided into three provinces: Africa, Byzacena, and Tripolitana; the latter was even more finely fragmented, into six provinces: Asia, Helespontus, Lydia, Caria, Phrygia I and Phrygia II. (Verona Codex). The truncated provinces of Africa and Asia were the only proconsular provinces under the tetrarchy and, as such, exempt from the authority of praetorian prefects and vicars. All the new African and Asian provinces, like all the other provinces everywhere else except for those of Italy and Achaea, were praesidial.