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CHIEFS OF STAFF AND CHIEFS OF THE SECRET SERVICE

CHIEFS OF STAFF AND CHIEFS OF THE SECRET SERVICE W. G. SINNIGEN / NEW YORK The political history of Late Rome is essentially the story of a struggle to centralize administration in an attempt to counteract centrifugal tendencies that had all but destroyed the Empire during the crises of the third Century. To command obedience and to enforce laws originating at the imperial court, the reforming emperors of the late third and early fourth centuries created an ubiquitous bureaucracy, one which, although descended frorn governmental agencies of the Principate,1 resembled its institutional predecessors only superficially. Late Roman bureaucracy with its complicated System of checks and balances, its competing and parallel chains of command spawning interdepartmental rivalries and disputes, its often vague and overlapping areas of jurisdiction and spheres of competence - was a notably cumbersome, corrupt, and ineffective Instrument with which to govern a civilized state. The central government was well aware that it had created a bureaucratic monster, that the effectiveness of legislation in the interest of reform and centralization was being thwarted by red tape, lethargy, and corrupt vested interest at every level of administration. It sought to remedy the Situation by periodically despatching special commissioners to investigate the more flagrant and notorious instances of http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Byzantinische Zeitschrift de Gruyter

CHIEFS OF STAFF AND CHIEFS OF THE SECRET SERVICE

Byzantinische Zeitschrift , Volume 57 (1) – Jan 1, 1964

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Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 Walter de Gruyter
ISSN
0007-7704
eISSN
1864-449X
DOI
10.1515/byzs.1964.57.1.78
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

W. G. SINNIGEN / NEW YORK The political history of Late Rome is essentially the story of a struggle to centralize administration in an attempt to counteract centrifugal tendencies that had all but destroyed the Empire during the crises of the third Century. To command obedience and to enforce laws originating at the imperial court, the reforming emperors of the late third and early fourth centuries created an ubiquitous bureaucracy, one which, although descended frorn governmental agencies of the Principate,1 resembled its institutional predecessors only superficially. Late Roman bureaucracy with its complicated System of checks and balances, its competing and parallel chains of command spawning interdepartmental rivalries and disputes, its often vague and overlapping areas of jurisdiction and spheres of competence - was a notably cumbersome, corrupt, and ineffective Instrument with which to govern a civilized state. The central government was well aware that it had created a bureaucratic monster, that the effectiveness of legislation in the interest of reform and centralization was being thwarted by red tape, lethargy, and corrupt vested interest at every level of administration. It sought to remedy the Situation by periodically despatching special commissioners to investigate the more flagrant and notorious instances of

Journal

Byzantinische Zeitschriftde Gruyter

Published: Jan 1, 1964

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