Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Ruling the Later Roman Empire by Christopher Kelly

Ruling the Later Roman Empire by Christopher Kelly. This is a scholarly look at the Roman empire's bureaucracy in the second and third century AD. Much of the analysis is based upon the writings of a member of the bureaucracy John Lydus. This is supported with inscriptions and occasionally artwork. The corruption built into the system is described. It is argued that by legislating payments to bureaucrats this removed personal relationships out of the equation as well as limited the amount of work that the system had to deal with. There is a substantial section of notes. The writing style is rather uneven the same point is made over and over this tends to be a failing of some academic writing.

Recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

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