Byzantine Intrigue- Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Chapter 29 Part 1

The Byzantine Empire has a well deserved reputation for intrigue,plots and corruption in high places.  Much of its history is that of court politics and behind the scenes power struggles.  None illustrates this as well as the story of the able, energetic and utterly self serving scoundrel Rufinus who for a time managed the affairs of the eastern empire with a view to his own selfish ends.