1

Administration,
Byzantine
MEREDITH L. D. RIEDEL

Government administration in the Byzantine

world was large, competent, and highly
centralized. It was engaged in adjudicating
disputes, performing public works, building
roads, minting coinage, regulating trade, and
maintaining a postal service, transport system,
tax regime, and standing army. Fiscal, judicial, ecclesiastical, and military offices were
assigned to perform the various administrative
duties; curiously, there was no dedicated diplomatic or foreign service to maintain relations
with neighboring states. Ambassadors were
usually high-ranking civil servants or clerics,
temporarily seconded for specific journeys
to foreign courts. From the beginning, the
Byzantine state held a monopoly on the production of coinage through the output of a
dozen imperial mints and oversaw a highly
monetized economy for most of its history.
In the fifth century, primary civil authority
was given to the praetorian prefects, military
commanders who oversaw the empire in
four regions, respectively, according to the
Notitia Dignitatum, Gallia, Italy, Illyricum,
and Oriens. Their main task was to levy and
collect the land-tax, either in cash (if available)
or in kind (usually grain or other foods, which
then formed part of the annonae). Out of
this they paid administrative salaries, oversaw
public works like roads and bridges, and
maintained arms and weapons factories.
Two other administrative bodies the sacred
largesses (sacrae largitiones) and the private
fisc (res privata) were responsible for operating mints and managing income from imperial
lands, respectively.
From the reign of Constantine (r. 30637),
administrative duties were gradually divided
between civilian and military officials (see
PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION, BYZANTINE), with
more duties being taken on by civilian officials
in order to limit the military power of

individual commanders. Constantine also

created the office of the magister officiorum,
or master of offices, in 320 CE to be the head
of the civil administration, with no military
responsibilities. One of Constantines most
enduring innovations was to establish the
gold solidus (nomisma or nomismation in
Greek), a coin struck at seventy-two to the
pound, replacing the smaller, thicker gold
aureus, which had been struck at sixty to the
pound. The nomisma retained extraordinary
stability as international currency until the
eleventh century (see COINAGE, BYZANTINE).
Under Justinian (r. 52765), civil and military offices were combined, partly to streamline the collection of taxes needed to support
his numerous and expensive military campaigns. Justinian also moved to standardize
and reform administration in the Byzantine
Empire (see JUSTINIAN I). Between 528 and 534,
he commissioned a revision of all laws from
Hadrian to Theodosius (see CODEX JUSTINIANUS);
this was first promulgated in 529 and updated
in 534. It opened with a decree that the security
of the state proceeded from two sources: the
force of arms, and the force of law. It was also
written to conform to an explicitly Christian
worldview and imposed legal penalties on
adherents of other religions. It emphasized
the divinely granted power of the emperor as
vicegerent with God, a concept that was to
have a long life in Byzantium. Justinian also
commissioned a summary of Roman jurisprudence (Pandects, or Digest), and a textbook on
the principles of law. These three works were
written in Latin; to them, Justinian later added
approximately 150 new laws (Novels), written
in Greek to update older legislation, including
inheritance rights and property laws. The primary reforms instituted by Justinian included
legislation prohibiting the sale of offices,
reforming the administrative structure of the
provinces, and giving provincial judges
authority to hear appeals. He also legislated
extensively on marriage (more freedom)
and divorce (outlawed, but the prohibition
repealed a few years later), male homosexuality

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,
and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 7375.
2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah03001

2
(punishable by castration), and brothels
(outlawed in Constantinople).
In the early seventh century, HERAKLEIOS
(r. 61041) centralized imperial minting, closing most provincial mints and maintaining in
addition to Constantinople only those in
Ravenna, Carthage, and Alexandria. The loss
of Palestine and Syria by 640 to the Muslims
may have precipitated this contraction of
imperial resources. In the seventh century,
the administrative system underwent farreaching changes, principally the establishment
of themata, with the military general in
charge of each theme responsible for both
military and civil administration (see THEMATA).
This represented a radical change from the
Justinianic system of municipal authorities outside Constantinople, designed to concentrate
power in the capital. Later rebellions in the
eighth and ninth centuries were put down and
the themata divided into smaller, less powerful
units, so that the hegemony of the center
could not be challenged. Another development
in the seventh century was the establishment
of the secretariats (logothesia), which replaced
the older res privata and praetorian prefectures
to administer the fiscal system, that is, to levy
and collect taxes. By the ninth century, these
officials were based solely in Constantinople.
There appears to have been a regular land
survey that took place every thirty years.
Byzantiums legal system underwent extensive updating under Basil I and Leo VI in the
late ninth century; these emperors sponsored
revisions of the Justinianic legislation, with
the latter writing 113 new laws that reflected
contemporary concerns (see LEGISLATION, BYZANTINE). The hierarchical structure of Byzantine
bureaucracy in the middle centuries is detailed
by the Kletorologion of Philotheos, a list
of precedence establishing rank for seating at
imperial banquets, promulgated in 899 CE.
Eighteen offices are listed, plus eight for
beardless men or eunuchs. Some of these
are merely titles, conferred by the gift of an
insignia (brabeion, in Greek) rather than legitimate offices, which were granted by appointment (literally, by a word). The real power

lay with the Logothete of the Drome, under

whom the other secretariats (logothesia) were
responsible for various financial departments.
Political power of an office could be measured
by proximity to the emperor. The Kletorologion
also lists dozens of military offices and court
administrators, all of whom were appointed
and dismissed by the emperor personally.
This codification of administrative procedure
and order continued apace: in the tenth
century, the Book of the Eparch gives evidence
that the Byzantine administration included
detailed regulations on trade and trade guilds.
Titles and practices changed in the closing
centuries of the Byzantine state (thirteenth
to fifteenth centuries), with the contraction
of lands under Byzantine hegemony; administration, particularly fiscal, was decentralized,
and the coinage significantly devalued.
SEE ALSO: Army, Byzantium; Basileus/
autokrator, Byzantine; Byzantium, political
structure; Caesaropapism; Church
architecture; Church institutions; Court
(imperial), Byzantine; Court (law),
Byzantine; Economy, Byzantine; Institutiones,
of Justinian; Procopius; Taxation, Byzantine.

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