kills out the good government as surely as slave-labour destroys
free-labour, or as a debased currency drives out a sound currency. The
existence of proconsuls in the provinces, with great armies at their
beck and call, brought about such results as might have been predicted,
as soon as the growing anarchy at home furnished a valid excuse for
armed interference. In the case of the Roman world, however, the result
is not to be deplored, for it simply substituted a government that was
practicable under the circumstances for one that had become demonstrably
impracticable.

As regards the provinces the change from senatorial to imperial
government at Rome was a great gain, inasmuch as it substituted an
orderly and responsible administration for irregular and irresponsible
extortion. For a long time, too, it was no part of the imperial policy
to interfere with local customs and privileges. But, in the absence of a
representative system, the centralizing tendency inseparable from the
position of such a government proved to be irresistible. And the
strength of this centralizing tendency was further enhanced by the
military character of the government which was necessitated by perpetual
frontier warfare against the barbarians. As year after year went by, the
provincial towns and cities were governed less and less by their local
magistrates, more and more by prefects responsible to the emperor only.
There were other co-operating causes, economical and social, for the
decline of the empire; but this change alone, which was consummated by
the time of Diocletian, was quite enough to burn out the candle of Roman
strength at both ends. With the decrease in the power of the local
governments came an increase in the burdens of taxation and conscription
that were laid upon them.[14] And as "the dislocation of commerce and
industry caused by the barbarian inroads, and the increasing demands of
the central administration for the payment of its countless officials