Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Prologue: First Thoughts -- Part I . The Bureaucrat's Tale -- Introduction: John Lydus: A Man and His Book -- 1 All the Prefect's Men -- 2 The Competition for Spoils -- Part II . Rulers and Ruled -- Introduction: Passages from the Principate to Late Antiquity -- 3 Standing in Line -- 4 Purchasing Power -- 5 Autocracy and Bureaucracy -- Epilogue: Last Judgments -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.