ABSTRACT
Byzantium seems to have survived so long and recovered so frequently from apparently inevitable disaster because it formed a largely positive power-focus amidst a cluster of somewhat negative communities. The might of Persia rose again and rolled in from the east, capturing Palestine, Syria and Egypt, thus cutting Byzantium off from its main food supplies, while European invaders ravaged the western provinces, flowing right up to the walls of Constantinople. With the transfer by Emperor Constantine in a.d. 330 of Rome’s capital to Byzantium, henceforth to be known as Constantinople, a remarkable span of a thousand years of administrative endeavour began. As the traditions of Rome were to continue most consistently in the eastern realm it is proposed to deal first with the administration of Byzantium. Although many of the Roman institutions and traditions were maintained the rulership of Byzantium was to all intents and purposes absolutism, and once enthroned the Emperor was removable only by revolution or death.
