Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

CHAPTER 7
GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION
sam barnish, a.d. lee and michael whitby
The late Roman period saw the development, for the first time in the
Roman world, of complex bureaucratic structures which permitted emperors,
who had now abandoned the campaigning or peripatetic style of most
of their predecessors during the first four centuries of imperial history, to
retain their authority. The emperor and his court with its glittering ceremonies
in Constantinople was the focus for the eastern empire, and from there
issued the laws which announced imperial wishes. The armies, though no
longer directly commanded by emperors, strove to preserve the frontiers
and maintain law and order inside them. 1 But the smooth functioning of
this system required administrative structures which had to become more
complex and intrusive as the curial élites in individual cities, who had traditionally
performed many vital tasks in the areas of revenue generation,
dissemination of imperial wishes and preservation of local order, slowly
declined in authority or surrendered control of some of these duties; here
was a cyclical process, with administrative developments responding to, but
also encouraging, a weakening of the curial class. The impact of administration
is reflected in a story from the Life of Theodore of Sykeon: devils
being exorcized cried out: ‘Oh violence! Why have you come here, you
iron-eater, why have you quitted Galatia and come into Gordiane? There
was no need for you to cross the frontier. We know you have come, but we
shall not obey you as did the demons of Galatia, for we are much tougher
than they, and not milder.’ It is telling that the author of the Life should have
seen the power of governors to cross provincial boundaries in pursuit of
bandits as an analogy for Theodore’s dealings with demons. 2 Active emperors,
such as Anastasius and Justinian, could attempt to dominate and
reform the administration, but their interference raised hackles; passive
emperors might be treated with contempt for their laziness and neglect of
their subjects. Overall, the fifth and sixth centuries are a time of gradual
development in the key processes which permitted the empire to function.
1 See ch. 6 (McCormick), pp. 142,56 above, and ch. 9 (Liebs) and ch. 11 (Whitby), pp. 242,4 and
308,14 below.
2 See ch. 8 (Liebeschuetz), pp. 219,22 below. Life of Theodore 43, with which cf. Justinian, Nov. 145;
Edict 8; Jones, LRE 294.
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