Next, the attending nobles sat quietly, honestly, and dutifully in their respective seats; no one dared to challenge Caesar in public at this meeting again.
Manuel was also happy to see this scene, so he did not pretend to encourage free speech from the attendees, but rather continued to announce the various reforms he was implementing today.
Soon, as the church bells chimed ten times, everyone present knew it was exactly ten o'clock in the morning.
However, Caesar still showed no intention of stopping his speech, which made many attending nobles secretly grumble in their hearts, "Is it not over yet?"
Just as they were grumbling and complaining in their minds, Manuel on the stage announced with a ringing voice a piece of news that made them involuntarily show joy: "...that is, starting next year, the Senate of the Autocratic State will be formally re-established in the Bosphorus Despotate."
The Senate, this was a term extremely familiar to every Roman who had received a normal historical education. Since the Roman Empire was reduced to only its eastern part, this institution gradually declined with the passage of time.
Who would have thought that their young Caesar now intended to revive it? For a time, the atmosphere below the stage gradually filled with joy and excitement, and many nobles even discussed on the spot the possible members of the Senate and the role it would play.
"I am not finished speaking yet," facing these overly enthusiastic nobles, Manuel could not help but lightly tap the wooden table in front of him with a clenched right fist, "For the sake of the Holy Father and my own face, please be quiet for a moment."
At Caesar's reminder, in less than half a minute, the attendees cooperatively closed their mouths, and the once noisy assembly immediately became as silent as a church before evening prayers.
Seeing this, Manuel did not play coy or waste time with meaningless pauses; he immediately proceeded to announce the relevant regulations and systems for the Bosporus Senate:
Although the Bosporus Senate had the name "Senate," it was not the same as the ancient Roman Senate. The most important difference was that "Senator" in Bosporus existed only as an honorary title without real power.
Moreover, the Bosporus Senate would not possess all the various "superfluous powers" of the classical era; on the contrary, the re-established Senate of the Autocratic State would only have advisory power in legislation and administration, and would only meet once quarterly.
As for who could exercise the great powers of legislation and administration, without a doubt, it was only Caesar Manuel himself.
In addition, the current number of Senate members was tentatively set at 250, and their "Senator" title had to be granted by Caesar himself to be recognized.
The majority of these were naturally noble lords with large assets, but the rest were representatives from the middle and lower strata.
Of course, when discussing matters within the Senate, seats would still be arranged according to wealth and status; there would be no anachronistic situation where gentry and merchants squeezed onto the same bench.
After he finished reading this resolution regarding the Bosporus Senate, discordant voices once again appeared below the stage.
This was also within Manuel's expectations, but this time he did not stop them, only watching their reactions and recalling the process of finalizing the Senate system with the scholars.
In fact, before this, he had also discussed with scholars familiar with Roman law and Roman history whether it was feasible to divide the Senate into two chambers, one for upper-class nobles and one for representatives of middle and lower commoners.
However, after several months of discussion, Manuel ultimately abandoned this idea.
Although equality and tolerance were laughable fantasies in this era, rather than isolating the upper and lower classes even in such a setting, it was better to use the name of traditional revival to ease internal contradictions within the state.
After he snapped out of his recollections, the meeting venue also quieted down.
Evidently, recalling Caesar's previous act of having guards fire shots on the spot, most people successfully calmed down and turned to look at Caesar Manuel with more fear than anything else.
Manuel was somewhat at a loss for words: was it necessary to face him with such an expression? He was not Andronikos I, that kind of Pol Pot of East Rome.
However, their behavior was also beneficial for him to continue implementing his will here.
Therefore, after this helpless sigh, Manuel continued to announce the last reform policy he would implement today: the formal rebuilding of the bureaucratic system.
Although he had previously established a rudimentary bureaucratic system, in his eyes, it was ultimately a makeshift setup limited by objective conditions.
Now, funding sources were stable, and the necessary bureaucratic reserves had been largely cultivated over the past few years.
The bureaucratic system he was rebuilding today would no longer be comparable to the previous one.
Thus, amidst the complex gazes of the assembled nobles, he announced the results of his months of careful deliberation—
At the upper level, Manuel, following the two previous "Codes," affirmed that his cabinet held the highest position in the Autocratic State, second only to him.
Below the cabinet were the various departmental areas for which each cabinet member was responsible.
Excluding military officers and intelligence departments, which could not be fitted into the bureaucratic system, all other cabinet members were appointed.
First was the position of Chief Secretary, also known as the Foreign Affairs Director. Although Justinian Seresnus, who was responsible for this position, was temporarily absent from this meeting for some reason, Manuel still elevated the status of this position here.
He granted him the great power to assist Caesar in handling all government affairs, effectively upgrading his authority to that of Chief Minister (Prime Minister), and adding the prefix "Megas" (Megas Mesazon) according to Trabzon tradition.
But as a substitute for the elevated status, the internal and foreign affairs originally under the Chief Minister's jurisdiction were separated into specific responsible departments.
The highest official of the former was traditionally called Megaslogothetēs / Grand Secretary, held by John Anagnostes, an old Greek noble from Thessaloniki who had come to Trabzon for some reason.
He oversaw a secretariat (Λογοθεσιον) composed of five to seven secretaries (plural: logothétai) to assist in handling government affairs.
The highest official of the latter was granted the title of Foreign Affairs Director (Logothetes tou dromou, literally "road sign-bearer"), held by Georgia Mana, a young noble of the same age whom Manuel had personally cultivated since childhood.
It is worth noting that neither the Megaslogothetēs / Grand Secretary nor the Foreign Affairs Director currently had permission to enter the cabinet.
As for the financial department, as mentioned before, the Tauris treasury was still overseen by Isaac Arno, the Tauris Minister of Finance.
He directly commanded the exaktors of the various tax districts of Tauris; for example, Nikephoros Meaessenus, as the chief exaktor of Bangkok Pu, reported directly to Arno and Caesar, and under him were the various exaktors responsible for different types of taxes within the tax district.
Below the exaktors were the tax collectors. Tax collectors were generally selected from the local area based on merit and enjoyed a considerable salary, but they were not considered official officials of the Autocratic State.
If any excessive incidents occurred during tax collection, the risk was entirely borne by the tax collectors.
However, if tax collectors passed the subsequent annual assessment examinations, they could be promoted to officially appointed exaktors.
But exaktors and tax collectors were not the only subordinates of the Minister of Finance.
In fact, in order to achieve his goals, Manuel also transferred some traditionally non-financial secretaries under the Minister of Finance's purview.
For example, the Logothetes Ton Agelon, who managed the monarch's herds and warhorses, the Logothetes Ton Hydaton, also known as the "Komēs Hydatōn" (Count of Waters / Water Director), and the Epitoueidikou, who managed the state treasury, were all transferred to the Minister of Finance's responsibility in this shift of positions.
In addition to the above positions directly responsible for the economy, officials such as the epitōnoikeiakōn were also classified as subordinates of the Minister of Finance.
In other words, these financial and judicial officials were now also managed by the Minister of Finance, rather than the judicial department.
As for the Minister of Finance of Pontus, since Manuel had not yet found a suitable candidate, the position remained vacant for the time being.
However, there would be no vacancies among the officials and clerks under this position, after all, Manuel was not some later emperor of the Eastern Dynasty who would neglect even official appointments when he was ill; he knew exactly what he needed to do.
In addition to these established positions, Manuel also separated the functions of judgment and arbitration from Commander of the Guard Badars' concurrent position as confidential secretary.
He merged them with the judicial position of Diskaiodotes, which had long become an empty title, to create the position of MegasCancellarius, which he granted to the talented George Amiroutzes.
He made him responsible for administrative justice and to lead a court of judges numbering no more than 5 to assist him in adjudicating official business.
And in order to make the status of this position commensurate with the responsibilities it bore, Caesar also granted the MegasCancellarius the status of a cabinet member.
Locally, the Eparchos Poleos, responsible for urban and local justice, was also placed under his jurisdiction, serving alongside the previously established positions of mayor and Commissioner as the highest-ranking local civilian officials for urban internal affairs.
They were also the sole source of members for the court of judges under the MegasCancellarius.
As for why the judicial aspects of financial administration were not integrated, it was naturally because Caesar himself wanted to push for centralization without reservation.
Therefore, as the monarch, Manuel naturally had to firmly hold the supreme judicial power in his hands, to prevent a situation where the chief judge might use the laws he enacted to oppose him.
To achieve this, Manuel also stipulated on the spot that the final verdicts of all major criminal and civil cases must be signed by him personally to officially take effect.
These were the final clarifications of the division of responsibilities in administration and finance.
Without waiting for the nobles below the stage to recover, Manuel continued to announce the last patch he was making to the administrative system:
Since the territory of Bosporus was not vast, after serious discussion, he directly used the distribution of medium and large cities as administrative divisions for the directly administered areas, namely urban districts.
Their highest officials were called city mayors, and they reported directly to the court; the Commissioner was responsible for making suggestions and supervising officials for urban governance, reporting to the Megaslogothetēs / Grand Secretary; as for the justice of each city, it reported to the MegasCancellarius.
At this point, today's meeting finally concluded at noon.
With the end of this meeting, the Bosphorus Despotate officially embarked on a centralized path supported by bureaucratic institutions and local nobles.
However, before the end, the scholars and erudite nobles under Caesar were somewhat helpless: many of the official titles adopted by Bosporus this time were dug up from the komnenos era and even the Macedonian era.
Even Manuel himself could not help but inwardly complain that his improved bureaucratic reform had a "Frankenstein's monster" aesthetic.