The reforms of Diocletian and Constantine, by implementing a policy of systemic spoliation to the profit of the State, made all productive activity impossible. The reason is, not that there were no more large fortunes: on the contrary, their build-up was made easier. But the foundation of their build-up was now no longer creative energy, or the discovery and bringing into use new sources of wealth, or the improvement and development of husbandry, industry, and commerce. It was, on the contrary the cunning exploitation of a privileged position in the State, used to despoil people and State alike. The officials, great and small, got rich by way of fraud and corruption.
- Michael Ivanovich Rostovtzev, Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire (Oxford, 1926), p. 475.
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