In the 1st century BC, the Roman Republic underwent a moment of severe crisis following the death of Caesar. This was during the transformation to its second phase as an empire. Prosperity and territorial expansion had filled Rome with money and slaves. Rome was a republic, but it had never been a democracy. Since the beginning, patricians each had a group of plebeians who could turn to them for political favors.

Bureaucracy was a solid institution. It was a way through which individual patricians and their families could place their heirs at the heads of temples, offices, and even whole provinces. Its main function was the convoluted and flexible institution of Roman law and its practices.