Diocese
In the Roman empire, a diocese was a city district or part of a province. In the Roman Catholic and some Protestant churches, a diocese is an administrative territorial unit governed by a bishop, sometimes also referred to as a bishopric or episcopal see. As of 2003, there are about 569 Roman Catholic archdioceses and 2014 dioceses in the world.
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Roman Empire
By the time of Diocletian it was a large administrative unit constituted by up to sixteen provinces. The Empire was separated into twelve (or later, fifteen) dioceses. Each diocese was governed by a praetor vicarius who was subjected to the praefectus.
Between the 4th and 6th centuries, Rome became more and more Christian. At the same time, the older administrative structure began to crumble. The senatorial aristocracy, especially in the provinces, remained a source of local authority. By this time, however, that authority was often vested in the spiritual office of bishop. It is therefore of little surprise that, as the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches began to define their administrative structure, they relied on the older Roman terminology to describe administrative units and hierarchy.