Hushed voices and shuffling papers echo through the cavernous halls of the imperial bureaucracy

in Constantinople.

Pens made from reeds, scratch out notes and figures on roles of papyrus.

They record legal decisions and tax records that stretch from the mouth of the Danube River

on the Black Sea to the cataracts of the Nile in North Africa, from the sands of the Syrian

desert to the craggy peaks of the Balkans.

Thanks to these bureaucrats, the soldiers who guard the empire's frontiers will receive

their pay.

Swords and spears and shields and armor make their way from government-run factories to

border forts.

Food and horses and all of the other necessary supplies are purchased, collected, and transferred

from farms to the army units who need them.

City walls are repaired, new aqueducts built, and port facilities maintained.

The hundreds of transport ships that carry enormous amounts of grain from Alexandria and

Egypt to feed the half a million people living in Constantinople can be funded and organized.

The year is 480.

This room full of bureaucrats and their shuffling papyrus roles and whispered questions

and scratching pens is the beating heart of a thriving Roman Empire.

There's no fall happening here, with provinces splitting off and barbarian armies claiming

one region after another.

In fact, things are looking up.

Only half of the Roman Empire actually fell, the western half.

...