Can someone explain the concept of bureaucratic absolutism as it applies to the fall of the Roman Empire?

Question

Can someone explain the concept of bureaucratic absolutism as it applies to the fall of the Roman Empire?

Answer 1

1. do your own homework

2. the Roman empire was ruled by 1 dude, CAESAR who had absolute power. there was also the senate, but they really were useless. Anyways. Caesar had ABSOLUTE power so the senators became jealous, and they killed him. then everything fell apart.

does that make sense?  

Answer 2

It's very hard to explain the Late Roman bureaucracy with out getting into a lot of minutia and explaining a lot. But I'll try to explain it as basically as I can:

After the reorganizations of the Empire, bureaucrats became far more important. Holding many bureaucratic offices automatically made a person a Senator and gave them access to a lot of power. First of all, this was very expensive for the Empire, especially toward the end when it was particularly cash-strapped. Also, the bureaucracy was incredibly complicated: my area of concentration of study is the Late Roman Empire, yet I still don't completely understand what every offices did what and fit where. The late Roman bureaucracy thus was very expensive, hard to maneuver, and sapped the strength of the Empire. Also, a lot of people who could have done others things to help the Roman state, like become soldiers or produce things, found more opportunities being redundant bureaucrats.

Now the bureaucracy became absolutist in a number of ways. Under weak Emperors, ie. Honorius, Arcadius, Valentinian II-III, and many others, the bureaucrats ruled the Empire, and many times their interests were different than what was best for Rome. For example, jealousies within the Bureaucracy in 395, right after the death of Theodosius nearly led to war between the two halves of the Empire (the sons of Theodosius were young, weak and controlled by bureaucrats) and led to a permanent split in the Empire and began the slow parting of ways in policies among the two. Hence, when the last Western Emperor was deposed, the East wasn't that interested in seeing a western emperor restored to the purple.

Also, the bureaucrats' absolutism had an effect far from the palace, in the provinces. Agentes in rebus and Notarii, couriers and clerks who were members of the imperial bureaucracy, were infamous for creating havoc, arresting anyone they thought might be traitors and confiscating land, many times for themselves. Many ancient authors (Orosius, Salvian of Marseilles) talk of how the people welcomed the barbarian conquerors because it meant the end of the tax collectors and informers.