PUBLIC FINANCES 75
of the population, or public welfare). For this supervision a
vast number of officials was needed. Further, the State
possessed immense landed property and itself engaged in
various industries. The kingdoms of the Renaissance,
which also practised economic intervention, if not centraliza-
tion, and also possessed State property, both agricultural and
industrial, adopted the system of the sale of public posts.
But in the Byzantine Empire only a few Court posts or
empty titles were sold.1 It was therefore necessary to give
salaries to the public officials and each salary was composed
of three parts: the siteresion (provisions), the roga (cash-
payment), and the supply of clothing. The roga and the
clothing were distributed once a year, to the higher function-
aries by the Emperor himself, to the others by the para-
koimomenos. Liutprand (Antapodosis, vi. 10) tells us that the
file past the Emperor lasted three days, while that past the
parakoimomenos lasted a week. From other sources we learn
that the higher functionaries received a handsome roga1 and
costly clothing. Hence, while we lack evidence for the
monetary value of the siteresion and the salaries of the lower
officials, it is clear that the bureaucracy, like the army, con-
stituted a heavy charge upon the public treasury.
2. In consequence of an evolution, which had its origin
in Diocletian's time and was reinforced by the contact with
the Caliphs of Bagdad, the Roman principatus had gradu-
ally changed into an Oriental monarchy. To this form
of government corresponded the splendid palaces and the
magnificent Court of Constantinople. From the financial
standpoint alone it is difficult to estimate the cost of con-
structing the imperial residences (the chief Palace was in
itself a small city) and the expense of the thousands of nobles,
clerics, soldiers, eunuchs, and servants who swarmed therein.
Yet it is certain that even under the most parsimonious
Emperors what to-day we call the 'civil list* must have been
enormous. It was swollen by all the largesses which the
sovereign was expected to distribute to the army, the
1 Cf. A. Andr<£ades, 'La Venalite* des charges est-elle d'origine byzantine ?%
Noiwelle Rc*vuc historique de droit franfais, vol. xlv (1921), pp. 232-41.
2 Thus the roga of the Dean of the Law School amounted to four gold pounds
per annum (equivalent in purchasing power to £1,000 sterling at least).