administrative corruption

[Servilia24]

Hey

 

im writing a paper on the topic of administrative corruption in the later roman empire - i am really struggling

i have as a backbone the mcmullen kelly historiographical divide , that of administrative corruption versus ongoing government inefficiency

im new to Roman history and the Latin gets me baffled - i could really use some take off points if anyone be willing to help

 

thanks

[Maty]

Hey

 

im writing a paper on the topic of administrative corruption in the later roman empire - i am really struggling

i have as a backbone the mcmullen kelly historiographical divide , that of administrative corruption versus ongoing government inefficiency

im new to Roman history and the Latin gets me baffled - i could really use some take off points if anyone be willing to help

 

thanks

 

The first point you may want to look at is what constitutes 'corruption'. Nepotism, bribery and back-scratching do not corrupt a system if they ARE the system. So as a jumping-off point, I'd suggest trying to imagine how an administration might work in the absence of bureaucracy, which is actually quite a modern concept.

 

Good luck with the paper.

[Centurion-Macro]

I think it was corrupt in the fact there were a lot of 'dud' emperors who did not know what they were doing, and corrupted the empire for their own gains. This lead to the army being conflicted and often used in civil wars, meaning it started to lose its loyalty and funding, and therefore less able to fight foreign threats. It was all the emperors. Focus on them and the frequent changes of emperors by the Praetorian guard (etc) and you should go well.

 

Good luck and I hope you do well.