Ruling the Later Roman EmpireIn this highly original work, Christopher Kelly paints a remarkable picture of running a superstate. He portrays a complex system of government openly regulated by networks of personal influence and the payment of money. Focusing on the Roman Empire after Constantine's conversion to Christianity, Kelly illuminates a period of increasingly centralized rule through an ever more extensive and intrusive bureaucracy. The book opens with a view of its times through the eyes of a high-ranking official in sixth-century Constantinople, John Lydus. His On the Magistracies of the Roman State, the only memoir of its kind to come down to us, gives an impassioned and revealing account of his career and the system in which he worked. Kelly draws a wealth of insight from this singular memoir and goes on to trace the operation of power and influence, exposing how these might be successfully deployed or skillfully diverted by those wishing either to avoid government regulation or to subvert it for their own ends. Ruling the Later Roman Empire presents a fascinating procession of officials, emperors, and local power brokers, winners and losers, mapping their experiences, their conflicting loyalties, their successes, and their failures. This important book elegantly recaptures the experience of both rulers and ruled under a sophisticated and highly successful system of government. |
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Contents
| 1 | |
| 9 | |
| 11 | |
| 18 | |
| 64 | |
Rulers and Ruled | 105 |
Passages from the Principate to Late Antiquity | 107 |
Standing in Line | 114 |
Purchasing Power | 138 |
Autocracy and Bureaucracy | 186 |
Last Judgments | 232 |
Notes | 247 |
Bibliography | 299 |
Index | 325 |
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Popular passages
Page 233 - ... and the horses with the gilded trappings and the gold bits. But when we see the king we immediately lose sight of all these. For he alone turns our eyes to him, and to the purple robe, and the diadem, and the throne, and the clasp, and the shoes, all that splendour of his appearance. After gathering all these things together then with accuracy, then again remove your thought from these things to things above, and to that awful day in which Christ is coming. For then you will not see any pairs...
Page 138 - ... which they hold from his Majesty. It is this circumstance which exempts the British army from the character of being a
Page 233 - ... allowed him, if thou wilt, to be a soldier in heaven, 'to enlist him in the ranks of that army. For those who are enlisted there are not borne on horses, but in the clouds. They walk not upon earth, but are caught up into heaven. They have not slaves to go before them, but the Angels themselves. They stand not in the presence of a mortal king, but of Him who is immortal, the King of kings and Lord of lords. They have not a leathern girdle about their loins, but that glory which is unspeakable,...
Page 18 - The responsibility for the doings of his Department is his and he must shoulder it. So you must serve him loyally, to the best of your ability, and carry out his decisions, and the decisions of senior officers acting on his behalf. Your loyalty is to the Minister of the day. When a new party comes into power, your new Minister may require radical changes in the policy of your Department. Your duty is to carry out the new policy with the same loyalty that you gave to the old.
Page 125 - Your opponent is tireless in making petitions, and so am I in making counter-petitions; so that I have heeded (your instruction): "Stay close to the Prefect's office, and whenever you are cited, enter an objection.
Page 242 - that while all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man is as the flower of the field, the word of the Lord endureth for ever.
Page 24 - ... the enthusiastic crowds and they lie down in adoration before the throne of the emperor. But when the curtain was drawn aside and the inner part was revealed, and when the hall of the gilded building glittered and Tergazis the Avar looked up at the head of the emperor shining with the holy diadem, he lay down three times in adoration and remained fixed to the ground. The other Avars followed him in similar fear and fell on their faces, and brushed the carpets with their foreheads, and filled...
Page 322 - Explication des inscriptions grecques et latines recueillies en Grèce et en Asie Mineure, deuxième partie.
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Bibliographic information
| Title | Ruling the Later Roman Empire Volume 15 of Revealing Antiquity, ISSN 1052-0422 |
| Authors | Christopher Kelly, Professor Christopher Kelly |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Harvard University Press, 2004 |
| ISBN | 0674015649, 9780674015647 |
| Length | 341 pages |
| Subjects | › › History / Ancient / Rome History / Europe / Italy |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |