4 The Imperial Government
thecorrespondenceofPlinyandTrajan.^5 ‘‘Didemperorspersonallyreadlet-
terssenttothem?’’‘‘Didtheywritethereplies?’’‘‘Andiftheydidnot,who
did?’’Itisonlybyaskingspecificquestionslikethesethatwecangetvalidan-
swerstoquestionsaboutthenatureoftheEmpireasapoliticalinstitution—
was it a bureaucracy in which executive decisions could be made anony-
mouslyatsecretariallevels?Whatrangeofdecisionsdidtheemperorhimself
actuallymake?
Administrativehistoryhaspeculiardangersofitsown.Weallknowthat
wedonotunderstandRomanreligion.Administrationseemseasier,more
readily comprehensible in present-day terms. Hence the evidence can be
confidentlydistortedtofitentirelyanachronisticconceptions.Oursources
saythatClaudiuswasdominatedbyhisfreedmen;thefirsteditionofCAH
reproduced this as ‘‘Claudius...tookthedecisivestepofcreatingspecial
departmentsofwhatmaybetermedaCivilService,eachdepartmentbeing
controlled bya freedman.’’^6 But talk about bureaux,offices of state, secre-
tariats, and so forth is mere slogan writing.What we must do is to look
againandtrytoseeexactlywhatthesourcessayabouthowthingsworked
atthecentreofpower.Thehardestthingispreciselytodropanachronistic
presuppositionsandbelievewhatonereads.
Ibeganwiththethemeoftheemperor’spersonalcontactwithhissub-
jects.Thatcontacttookplaceinmanycontexts,asforinstancewhenemper-
orsappearedatthecircusortheatreandansweredtheshoutsofthepeople
by gestures, by word of mouth,or through a herald,^7 when theyaccepted
giftson1January,^8 ordistributedcashtothepeople(congiarium).^9 Butitwas
truealsointheexerciseof business—andthisgivesthelinkwithimperial
correspondence.Theevidenceshowsindisputablythatitwasnormalforem-
perorsnotonlytoconfrontlitigantsanddefendants,petitionersanddele-
gationspersonally,buttodealwiththeirbusinesspersonallyandmakethe
required decisions themselves. For the ideologyone might note especially
- A.N.Sherwin-White,‘‘Trajan’sRepliestoPliny:AuthorshipandNecessity,’’JRS 52
(1962):114–15(withveryslightadditions)The Letters of Pliny(1966),536–57.
6.CAHX(1934),686–87. - See,e.g.,Suet.,Div. Aug.42;Dio54,11,7;59,13,5–7;Suet.,Cal.30;Jos.,Ant. Jud.
19,24–26;Martial,de spec.20;Suet.,Div.Tit.8;Dom.13;Dio69,6,1;16,3;71,29,4. - SeeDio54,35,2(Suet.,Div.Aug.57;CILVI,456ILS99,inabsence);57,8,6(Suet.,
Tib.34—TiberiusoutofRomeon1Januarytoavoidgifts);57,17,1(Tiberius,a.d.17,re-
fuses);59,24,4(a.d.40,giftsgivensymbolicallytochairofabsentGaius).Itseemstohave
beenthiscustomwhichClaudiusabolished:Dio60,6,3. - SeeD.VanBerchem,Lesdistributionsdebléetd’argentàlaplèberomaine(1939),164–65.