the State system

The article focuses on the influence of the East, particularly Iran, on the political system of the Byzantine Empire during the period of its formation. The research is based, above all, on the data of prosopography. The study shows that in the 4th–th centuries Persians were in the civil service in the Byzantine Empire being on very high positions in the administration of the Empire and in the environment of the Emperor, particularly as praepositi sacri cubiculi. This led to a certain orientalization of the State system of the Byzantine Empire.