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# The number of officials in the Roman Empire compared with modern Russia
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/v-iv-v-pravitelstvo-rima-raspologalo-30-tysiachami-chinovnikov/
- Published: 2017-11-02T17:01:12.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:06:36.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Observations, Society, Humour

In the fourth century the government of Rome commanded 30,000 officials. In the empire's heyday, in the first and second centuries, there was one official to every 5,000 subjects, which is to say some 10,000 to 12,000 officials in all. At the same time the number of Rome's senior administrators, senators and equestrians, was a mere 160\. For comparison, in present-day Russia there are more than a million officials, roughly 1 for every 131 Russians.

The other question, of course, is that many administrative and managerial tasks in Rome were handled by the military, of whom there were about 350,000 in the first century AD, that is, 1% of the population. God forbid that in Russia administrative matters should be handed over to the men in uniform.