section_path: Government and military/Governance
section_name: Governance
paragraph_text: Governance
  
  The emperor was the centre of the whole administration of the Empire, who the legal historian Kaius Tuori has said was "above the law, within the law, and the law itself"; with a power that is difficult to define and which does not align with our modern understanding of the separation of powers. The proclamations of the crowds of Constantinople, and the inaugurations of the patriarch from 457, would legitimise the rule of an emperor. The senate had its own identity but would become an extension of the emperor's court, becoming largely ceremonial.
  
  The reign of Phocas (r. 602–610) was the first military overthrow since the third century, his reign also being one of 43 emperors violently removed. Donald Nicol states that there were nine dynasties between Heraclius in 610 and 1453, however only 30 of those 843 years was the Empire not ruled by men linked by blood or kinship which was largely due to the practice of co-emperorship.
  
  As a result of the Diocletianic–Constantinian reforms, the Empire was organised into Praetorian prefectures and the army was separated from the civil administration. From the 7th century onwards, the prefectures became provinces and were later divided into districts called themata governed by a military commander called a strategos who oversaw the civil and military administration.
  
  In earlier times, cities had been a collection of self-governing communities with central government and church representatives, whereas the emperor focused on defense and foreign relations. The Arab destruction primarily changed this due to constant war and their regular raids, with a decline in city councils and the local elites that supported them. Robert Browning states that due to the Empire's fight for survival, it developed into one centre of power, with Leo VI (r. 886–912) during his legal reforms formally ending the rights of city councils and the legislative authority of the senate.