Constantine The Great: fragments of the gigantic statue from the Basilica of Constantine, Rome (c. A.D.
313). The full-size column and doorway at the right of the picture give an idea of the scale of the statue,
which showed the Emperor seated with his right hand gripping a sceptre or spear and his left hand
holding symbols of power and victory.
There seems to have been no time in antiquity when corruption was excluded from the law courts and
the tax system. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage (martyred 258), trenchantly described the system in which a
man who had bought office felt justified in recouping his outlay and gathering more for the day when he
fell from favour. The Emperors realized what inefficiency resulted from corruption and made
intermittent attempts to stop it. One Christian preacher of about 370, probably at Edessa, illustrates the
awesomeness of the last judgement by painting a word-picture of a provincial governor handing in his
seals of office, standing trembling, white with fear, in the anteroom of the palace awaiting an interview
with the Emperor. To check corruption Diocletian created an inspectorate, but they became merely a
secret police, using power for their own advantage and at least as corrupt as anyone else.
The administration separated the Latin and Greek halves of the Empire, with two praetorian prefects in