El acceso y la promoción de los funcionarios en la administración del bajo imperio

Abstract

This paper addresses the complicated issue of the historical-dogmatic reconstruction of the governmental juridical statute of the Low Roman Empire, regarding only the criteria that ruled the recruitment and promotion of the administrative personnel of low and high hierarchy. In fact, such a statute can be only hypothesized, since the available sources, in particular constitutions under imperialisms, show the non-restricted nature of the hierarchical rules as well as the lack of calling in them supposedly present in all juridical regulations, uniformity and generality. From Constantine to Justinian, rules were established, often oscillating and barely objective, even subject to the discretional power of the head of service in order to discipline the entry to and promotion of the positions in the imperial Administration, revealing by then a strong bureaucracy. Besides, the need for such criteria was not perceived per se in the politi­cal power but rather as a mere vehicle leading to the eradication of a social phenomenon, a widely spread practice, which steadily used to buy off the offices and positions in the Administration.