Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

192 7. government and administration
Inevitably, the men who emerged from the ranks and thought innovatively
about administrative issues had their detractors: to a traditionalist like
John Lydus, however, their excessive professionalism was as unwelcome as
the literary talents of Cyrus of Panopolis – John might have been expected
to appreciate the latter’s cultural sophistication, but instead criticized him
as an amateur. John Lydus, of course, represented the ideal balance
between these inappropriate extremes, but we should be cautious about
accepting his judgements at face value. It would be wrong to assume a lack
of fiscal, as distinct from legal or rhetorical, professionalism among all aristocrats
and littérateurs: Cyrus in fact seems to have been an effective administrator.
The classical education, if pursued beyond rhetoric and law, might
be of value: Boethius’ mathematical talents were summoned to reform
Theoderic’s gold currency, and a high level of mathematical skill was
expected of the emperor’s chief architect, as demonstrated by Anthemius
of Tralles whose family also produced doctors, a lawyer and a grammarian.
129 The men who inherited and ran great estates in Egypt, whose organization
might be modelled on that of the empire, may often have had
substantial skills – for example, Apion, whom Anastasius appointed to
manage the food supply of the eastern army. Good estate management
earned praise for Roman nobles under the Ostrogoths, and, as with the
Cassiodori, who provided remounts for the army, their activity might be
integrated with the state system. Many landowners had experience of that
system: Justinian encouraged the praetorian prefect to promote to governorships
curiales and other honestiores knowledgeable in taxation. 130 In spite of
the usually short terms of aristocratic office, when state service ran in families
experience might be transmitted down the generations by combinations
of personal advice and the tenure of minor posts: Cassiodorus began
his career as consiliarius to his father when the latter was prefect of Italy.
There was a tendency for the comes sacrarum largitionum and the comes rerum
privatarum to be recruited from families linked to imperial service rather
than from intellectual circles; these recruits had often held relevant offices
earlier in their careers, and they tended to move on either to the other
financial countship, or to an urban or praetorian prefecture. Youth spent at
a monarch’s court might also give training to educated gentry, as well as to
palace eunuchs like Narses. Within departments, the in-house histories
noted above should be associated with an induction into bureaucratic
values – though the training provided by the prefect Zoticus to his young
protégé John Lydus was apparently more concerned with personal profit
than administrative competence. 131 In general, Cassiodorus’ letters of
129 Cass. Variae i.10; vii.5, and cf. Inst. i.30.4–5; Agathias v.6.3–6 with PLRE iii s.v. Stephanus 1.
130 Hardy (1968) 29; Banaji (1992) 164, 179. Cass. Variae i.4.17; ii.1.3–4; iii.6.6. Justinian, Nov. 8.8.
131 Ordo Generis Cassiodorum; cf.Variae viii.16.3; 20.5–6; 31.1. Education at court: Variae iv.4.3;
viii.10.3; John Lydus, De Mag. iii.27; Delmaire (1989) 94–118.
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