Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

administrative change 199
the taxes which supported their masters and defenders. 158 This separation was
probably vital to the fiscal structure of the state; if Romans were allowed to
become warriors in the Gothic army, they would tend to remove themselves
from the ranks of tax-payers, as seems to have happened in Merovingian
Gaul, and was effectively the case at the ending of Roman rule in Britain.
The distinction, however, was difficult to maintain and may often have
been unrealistic. Powerful generals naturally had an interest in the business
of the praetorian prefects, if only to ensure supplies for their troops: the
patrician Aetius engaged in tax supervision and reform, and his murder was
accompanied by that of the prefect Boethius and the purging of honorati; 159
successful commanders often acquired control of civilian affairs – for
example, the sequence in Italy of Stilicho, Aetius, Ricimer, Odoacer,
Theoderic, Narses and finally the institution of the exarchate of Ravenna;
the exarchate of Africa is a parallel case where the resources of a particular
area had to be placed under a unitary authority to cope with local military
threats. The case of Sabinianus Magnus, magister militum per Illyricum in
the late fifth century, who acted to prop up local councils and the tax register
which were under threat, indicates that administrative blurring was not
confined to the west. Military problems were a factor in this merging of
responsibilities, and security considerations, which were in part sharpened
by the waning authority of the curial élites, also led to Justinian uniting civil
and military authority in various provinces of the Asianic diocese and in
Egypt: there were administrative precedents for the western exarchates of
the late sixth century. 160
Sabinianus was a soldier who undertook civilian tasks, which might
appear to be the natural process: Vegetius remarked on the superiority of
the army’s bureaucratic procedures to those of the civilian administration.
161 In areas of the empire where the urban infrastructure was weak and
hence educational levels probably relatively low, there may have been a
problem with the supply of civilians to undertake minor routine tasks.
Justinian assigned command over troops in Arabia and Phoenicia
Libanensis to the local governors precisely to keep the army out of civilian
affairs and to repair the impoverished state of the fisc, and a similar move
in Thrace was explained because of the need for ‘a man who is good for
both civilian and military affairs’. 162 Most administrators were recruited
from the peaceful and educated provinces of Asia, Syria, Palestine and
Egypt, whereas from Justinian onwards natives of warlike Armenia
became prominent as governors or exarchs of frontier regions.
The military may have been keen to encroach on civilian responsibilities,
but there are also numerous instances of civilians who took on military
158 Cass. Variae ix.14.8; xii.5.4. 159 Nov. Val. 1.4; Priscus fr. 30; Hydat. Chron. s.a. 453/4.
160 Marc. Com. s.a. 479. Just. Nov. 145; Edict 13.2; Haldon, Byzantium in the Seventh Century 35–6.
161 Vegetius ii.19. 162 Justinian, Nov. 102; Edict 4; Nov. 26.
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