Tetrarchy

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A system of government where power is divided among four rulers
2. A historical political structure in which control is shared by four leaders, often seen in the Roman Empire
3. A form of rule characterized by the division of authority among four significant figures or factions

Etymology: Tetrarchy is a compound built from Greek parts: "tetra-", meaning four, and "-archia", meaning rule, the same ending found in "monarchy" (rule by one) and "oligarchy" (rule by a few). The Greek "tetrarkhia" was originally a fairly modest office: a tetrarch was the ruler of a quarter of a territory, not a supreme monarch of four. The term was then borrowed into Latin as "tetrarchia", and the Greek and Latin senses both point to a division of power rather than a unified state. The word's best-known use comes from late antiquity. In 293 CE the Roman emperor Diocletian set up a system in which two senior emperors, the Augusti, were each assisted by a junior colleague, the Caesar, so that four men shared authority over the empire. Historians now call this arrangement the Tetrarchy, and it is the sense the modern noun most often recalls. The "four" describes the number of rulers, not the territories they governed.

Synonyms: quadrant, quarter