This chapter explores the striking coincidences between bureaucratic literature such as John Lydus’ On the Magistracies of Rome or the Notitia Dignitatum and the bureaucratic delineations that characterise texts of Proclus such as the Elements of Theology or the Platonic Theology. We meet in Proclus a taxonomic approach to epistemology itself, one in which the ordering power of the mind is projected on a cosmic level, in terms that must at least remind us of the delegation of power that we see in the governmental deployment of imperium, the right of command. In order to pursue this line of comparison, I compare a prominent form of knowledge-making in the fourth through sixth centuries CE, appearing in texts that enumerate lists, ranks, offices, and power dynamics, with the metaphysical schemata of Proclus. Rather than asking about the direction of influence, this chapter will instead seek to understand the epistemological implications of Proclus’ metaphysical taxonomy.

The distribution of loanwords between papyri, inscriptions, and literature is investigated: more appear in literature than in other sources, but papyri have the highest density of Latinisms. Local and regional loanwords existed, and these can be seen not only in papyri and inscriptions, but also in literature, which preserves traces of loanwords specific to the city of Rome. Special attention is paid to the New Testament (especially Acts of the Apostles), Atticising writers (especially Athenaeus and Lucian), the Edict of Diocletian, Roman historians, medical writers (especially Galen), Hesychius, the antiquarian John Lydus, and texts on Roman law (especially Theophilus Antecessor, the Scholia Sinaitica, and Modestinus).