The number of officials in the Roman Empire compared with modern Russia

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.

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Zurbarán exhibition at the Louvre opens with the 1627 “Crucifixion” from the Art Institute of Chicago

Congressman Raskin proposes Smithsonian exhibition on Trump's propaganda

Bronze Gallic bracelet of the 3rd or 2nd century BC from the Bucquoy necropolis

How silver became the basis of the Ming tax system and why its shortage destroyed the dynasty