Diocletian (Emperor 284-306, died 316 at Split), then by Constantine the Great (Emperor 306-37). From
about 250 there was drastic inflation, which Diocletian vainly tried to check by fixing prices (which
drove goods off the market altogether), and which Constantine fuelled when gold from pagan temple
treasuries was allowed to flood the market. The repulse of the barbarians was achieved at the price of
almost total concentration of power in the Emperor's hands and the decline in political significance of
the old Senate, though senators remained in possession of their great estates and served in high offices of
state. A rigid caste system enforced order. The graded rank of officials in the bureaucracy was marked
by insignia in their clothing, particularly shoes and girdles, and by special titles-in descending order
illustris, spectabilis, clarissimus, perfectissimus, inferior officials in the secretariat being deuotus or
modestus, and so on.
Diocletian divided the old provinces into two, thereby multiplying the costs of the civil service. Late
Roman society felt the hand of bureaucracy heavy upon it, especially when even good bureaucrats, who
felt themselves underpaid, took for granted a substantial tip from any whose interests they served. The
worst officials expected 'protection money'. In the case of high officers of state whose support was
indispensable in an important matter, a douceur would be substantial; we hear of petitioners landing
themselves in huge debts at crushing interest rates, and perhaps even then not getting what they sought.
Usury was frowned on by Christian moralists. But the effect of making it difficult to obtain redress from
a defaulter through the law courts must be to push interest rates higher, since the lender then spreads the
risk over fewer customers. In practice loans continued with little restriction and became a target for
sharp criticism when people of little means took out loans on the security of their houses or small
holdings and ended by being evicted. Towards the end of the fourth century a series of infectious urban
riots occurred which Jerome ascribed to the rage at wholesale evictions resulting from exorbitant interest
rates. In the late Empire there was a constant tendency for land and property to be concentrated in fewer
hands. Under pressure the weak sold to the strong, who competed with each other in the size of their
estates.