The two hundred and fiftieth anniversary parade honoring Rome's shift to a services economy ended in gridlock when a cascade of misfiled tithe scrolls buried the route. Overheated wax reeked across the marble while Bureau clerks clawed through the drifts.
Four thousand abacus beads reset at once, their clatter matching the shouts of a thousand citizens waving their own chits. One stray grain-tithe record froze the entire column for three hours. Scribe Apollonia Veritas muttered that nothing this tangled had hit since the Edict of Excess Tapering.
Heralds bawled slogans of unity until the din of confusion swallowed them. Imperator Flavitus Regularinus observed that a smooth bureaucracy might actually be the empire's biggest liability. Citizens stared upward as fresh clouds formed, ready to drop another layer of paperwork on the mess below.
