Did the roman empires bureaucracy become to top heavy eventually causing it to collapse upon itself?

Answer 1

Yes, ancient Rome's bureacracy (government) did become too top heavy. The Roman government kept hiring soldiers for the military. When this happened, the soldiers had to be paid, so taxes would increase. Eventually, causing Rome's government to become too top heavy and collapse.

Emperor Diocletian made administrative changes which greatly increased the size of the imperial bureaucracy so as to gain a more autocratic control over the empire. However, Constantine I trimmed the bureaucracy as it had become grossly oversized, too expensive and undermined the cities as many of their administrators had left the cities to join the imperial bureaucracy.

The size of the army was a financial burden, but it did not lead to collapse as such. The collapse of the empire was due to a complex range of factors.

A large army was needed to defend the vast frontier of the empire which stretched from France all the way to Syria. The Romans found it difficult to cope with this and a pattern of legions sent to areas under attack leaving other areas vulnerable to raids developed. Barbarians near the frontier raided the areas left exposed and would withdraw or get defeated by the returning Roman legions. To deal with this situation more efficiently, emperor Galienus developed a cavalry-only force which acted as a rapid deployment force to be sent to the troubled areas. When the pressure on the empire grew again towards the end the western empire, the Romans resorted to enlisting Germanic soldiers or hiring Germanic mercenaries in order to cope

One historian sees the size of the army as having contributed to the fall of the empire by leading d to a tax burden that weakened the peasantry. Another historian sees the political power of the army and the many civil wars between leaders of different legions as the contributing factor, rather than size as such. I am inclined to take the latter view as an army succesful in battle could provide the revenue of loot. The number of times the Roman army was defeated increased in the final period.

Answer 2

The bureaucracy of the Roman Empire did become top heavy. However, it did not cause the empire to collapse onto itself. The western part of the Roman Empire fell under the weight of the invasions by the Germanic peoples. The eastern part of the Roman Empire was not affected by these invasions and continued to exist for nearly 1,000 years.