Abstract
Archives, or preserved collections of historical documents or records (usually taken to exclude works of literature) relating to a person, family, institution or similar, may seem as though they belong to the era of printing, or now to the electronic era. In fact we know of archives as far back as early Egyptian and near eastern history, as well as ancient China. The Romans, with their massive and diverse empire, used bureaucracy, based on documents collected and recorded in archives, to sustain their taxation and military control. The Byzantines, heirs of the Roman empire in the East, were so engaged in bureaucracy that the phrase "Byzantine bureaucracy" has become a byword. The late Tom Carney, formerly Associate Professor of Ancient History at the University of Sydney, dedicated one of his books to its Senate, declaring that it taught him what Byzantine bureaucracy was all about!
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 67-76 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Church Heritage |
Volume | 19 |
Issue number | 2 |
Publication status | Published - 2015 |