The imperial administration: Changes in the administrative and bureaucratic structures of the Byzantine Empire from the fourth to seventh centuries

The Byzantine Empire was the eastern portion of the greater Roman Empire which survived the fall of the western portion by nearly one-thousand years. Part of the reason for its survival was the fact that it was a centralised bureaucratic state initially characterised by a marked separation between the civil and military administrations. Later, during the sixth and early seventh centuries, especially in the empire's provincial administration, the distinction between the civil and military administration would begin to blur and in parts of the Empire to disappear altogether. These changes that occurred in the administration of the Empire were the result of external pressures that would force the emperor, and other officials of the empire, to adapt and change the structure of the state in order to survive.;Herein the author will look at: The administrative structure of this empire, the changes said structure experienced over a three-hundred year period and with an emphasis on the impact of the broader historical setting on the Byzantine Empire's administrative and bureaucratic political structures. The focus of this work is threefold. First, it will serve as an introductory survey of the administrative history of the Byzantine Empire during a three hundred-year period. Second, it will illustrate the administrative structure of the Byzantine State. Third and finally it will offer a look at the changes in the administration during the period from the fourth century to the seventh century.