CHAPTER IV.

ON THE OFFICIUM OF THE PRAEFECTUS PRAETORIO[120].

[Footnote 120: To illustrate the Eleventh Book of the Variae, Letters 18 to 35.]

[Sidenote: Military character of the Roman Civil Service.]

The official staff that served under the Roman governors of high rank was an elaborately organised body, with a carefully arranged system of promotion, and liberal superannuation allowances for those of its members who had attained a certain position in the office.

Although, in consequence of the changes introduced by Diocletian and Constantine, the civil and military functions had been for the most part divided from one another, and it was now unusual to see the same magistrate riding at the head of armies and hearing causes in the Praetorium, in theory the officers of the Courts of Justice were still military officers. Their service was spoken of as a _militia_; the type of their office was the _cingulum_, or military belt; and one of the leading officers of the court, as we shall see, was styled _Cornicularius_, or trumpeter.

The Praetorian Praefect, whose office had been at first a purely military one, had now for centuries been chiefly concerned in civil administration, and as Judge over the highest court of appeal in the Empire. His _Officium_ (or staff of subordinates) was, at any rate in the Fifth Century, still the most complete and highly developed that served under any great functionary; and probably the career which it offered to its members was more brilliant than any that they could look for elsewhere. Accordingly, in studying the composition of this body we shall familiarise ourselves with the type to which all the other _officia_ throughout the Empire more or less closely approximated.

NOTITIA. CASSIODORUS LYDUS (xi.). (iii. 3 and ii. 18.).

Princeps. Cornicularius. Cornicularius. Cornicularius. Adjutor. Primiscrinius. II Primiscrinii. Commentariensis. Scriniarius Actorum. Ab Actis. Cura Epistolarum. IV Numerarii. Scriniarius Curae Militaris. Subadjuva. Primicerius Exceptorum. Cura Epistolarum. Sextus Scholarius. Regerendarius. Praerogativarius. Exceptores. Commentariensis. II Commentarisii. Adjutores. Regendarius. II Regendarii. Singularii. Primicerius Deputatorum. II Curae Epistolarum Ponticae. Primicerius Augustalium. Primicerius Singulariorum. Singularii.

Lydus calls all the officers down to the Curae Ep. Ponticae [Greek: Hai Logikai Leitourgiai] (Officium Litteratum).

[Sidenote: Sources of information as to the Officium.]

Our chief information as to this elaborate official hierarchy is derived from three sources[121]:--

[Footnote 121: See Table, p. 94.]

(1) The _Notitia Dignitatum_, the great Official Gazetteer of the Empire[122], which in its existing shape appears to date from the reign of Arcadius and Honorius, early in the Fifth Century.

[Footnote 122: To use a modern illustration, we might perhaps say that the Notitia Dignitatum = Whitaker's Almanac + the Army List.]

(2) The _De Magistratibus_ of Joannes Lydus, composed by a civil servant of the Eastern Empire in the middle of the Sixth Century.

(3) The _Variae Epistolae_ of Cassiodorus, the composition of which ranges from about 504 to 540.

The first of these authorities relates to the Eastern and Western Empires, the second to the Eastern alone, the third to the Western Empire as represented by the Ostrogothic Kingdom founded by Theodoric.

Much light is also thrown on the subject by the Codes of Theodosius and Justinian.

Godefroy's Commentary on the Theodosian Code, and Bethmann Hollweg's 'Gerichtsverfassung des sinkenden Römischen Reichs,' are the chief modern works which have treated of the subject.

[Sidenote: The Officium as described in the Notitia.]

We will follow the order in which the various offices are arranged by the 'Notitia,' which is most likely to correspond with that of official precedence.

In the second chapter of the 'Notitia Orientis,' after an enumeration of the five Dioceses and forty-six Provinces which are 'sub dispositione viri illustris Praefecti Praetorio per Orientem,' we have this list, 'Officium viri illustris Praefecti Praetorio Orientis:'

Princeps. Cornicularius. Adjutor. Commentariensis. Ab actis. Numerarii. Subadjuvae. Cura Epistolarum. Regerendarius. Exceptores. Adjutores. Singularii.

The lists of the officia of all the other Praetorian Praefects in the 'Notitia' are exactly the same as this, except that under the head 'Praefectus Praetorio per Illyricum' we have, instead of the simple entry 'Numerarii,'

'Numerarii quatuor: in his auri unus, operum alter;'

and the 'Praefectus Urbis Romae' had under his Numerarii, a

'Primiscrinius,'

and between the 'Adjutores' and 'Singularii,'

Censuales and Nomenculatores.

We will go through the offices enumerated above in order:

[Sidenote: Princeps.]

(1) The PRINCEPS was the head of the whole official staff. In the case of the officium of the Praetorian Praefect, however, this officer seems, after the compilation of the 'Notitia,' to have disappeared, and his rights and privileges became vested in the Cornicularius. It will be observed that in the letters of Cassiodorus to the members of his staff there is none addressed to the Princeps; and similarly there is no mention of a Princeps as serving under the Praetorian Praefect in the treatise of Lydus. This elimination of the Princeps, however, was not universally applicable to all the officia. Cassiodorus (xi. 35) mentions a _Princeps Augustorum_, who was, perhaps, Princeps of the _Agentes in Rebus_; and Lydus more distinctly ('De Mag.' iii. 24) speaks of a bargain made between the Cornicularius of the Praetorian Praefect and the [Greek: Prinkips tôn magistrianôn], who must be supposed to be Princeps in the officium of the _Magister Officiorum_, though no such officer appears in the 'Notitia[123].'

[Footnote 123: See also Var. vii. 24 and 28.]

Speaking generally, however, we may perhaps say that the greater part of what we are about to hear concerning the rights and endowments of the Cornicularius in the Praefect's office might be truly asserted of the Princeps at the time when the 'Notitia' was compiled, before the two offices had been amalgamated.

[Sidenote: Cornicularius.]

(2) The _Cornicularius_. As to this officer we have a good many details in the pages of Joannes Lydus. The antiquarian and etymological part of his information must generally be received with caution; but as to the actual privileges of the office in the days of Justinian we may very safely speak after him, since it was an office which he himself held, and whose curtailed gains and privileges caused him bitter disappointment.

'The foremost in rank,' says he[124], 'of the Emperor's assistants (Adjutores) is even to this day called _Cornicularius_, that is to say _horned_ ([Greek: keraïtês]), or _fighting in the front rank_. For the place of the monarch or the Caesar was in the middle of the army, where he alone might direct the stress of battle. This being the Emperor's place, according to Frontinus, on the left wing was posted the Praefect or Master of the Horse, and on the right the Praetors or Legati, the latter being the officers left in charge of the army when their year of office was drawing to a close, to hold the command till the new Consul should come out to take it from them.

[Footnote 124: De Mag. iii. 3, 4.]

'Of the whole Legion then, amounting to 6,000 men, exclusive of cavalry and auxiliaries, as I before said, the _Cornicularius_ took the foremost place; and for that reason he still presides over the whole [civil] service, now that the Praefect, for reasons before stated, no longer goes forth to battle.

'Since, then, all the rest of the staff are called assistants (_Adjutores_), the Praefect gives an intimation under his own hand to him who is entering the service in what department ([Greek: katalogos]) he is ordered to take up his station[125]. And the following are the names of all the departments of the service. First the _Cornicularius_, resplendent in all the dignity of a so-called Count ([Greek: komês]; comes; companion), but having not yet laid aside his belt of office, nor received the honour of admission to the palace, or what they call brevet-rank (_codicilli vacantes_), which honour at the end of his term of service is given to him, and to none of the other chiefs of departments[126].

[Footnote 125: Lydus here gives the Formula for the admission of assistants, 'et colloca eum in legione primâ adjutrice nostrâ,' which he proceeds to translate into Greek for the benefit of his readers ([Greek: kai taxeias auton en tô prôtô tagmati tô boêthounti hêmin]).]

[Footnote 126: I have slightly expanded a sentence here, but this is evidently the author's meaning.]

'And after the Cornicularius follow:--

'2 Primiscrinii, '2 Commentarisii, '2 Regendarii, '2 Curae Epistolarum, '15 Scholae of Exceptores,

and then the "unlearned service" of the Singularii[127].'

[Footnote 127: Condensed from Lydus, De Mag. iii. 4-7.]

Again, further on[128], Lydus, who delights to 'magnify his office,' gives us this further information as to the rank and functions of the Cornicularius:

[Footnote 128: Ib. iii. 22-24.]

'Now that, if I am not mistaken, we have described all the various official grades, it is meet to set forth the history of the Cornicularius, the venerable head of the Civil Service, the man who, as beginning and ending, sums up in himself the complete history of the whole official order. The mere antiquity of his office is sufficient to establish his credit, seeing that he was the leader of his troop for 1,300 years, and made his appearance in the world at the same time with the sacred City of Rome itself: for the Cornicularius was, from the first, attendant on the Master of the Horse, and the Master of the Horse on the King, and thus the Cornicularius, if he retained nothing of his office but the name, would still be connected with the very beginnings of the Roman State.

'But from the time when Domitian appointed Fuscus to the office of Praefect of the Praetorians (an office which had been instituted by Augustus), and abolished the rank of Master of the Horse, taking upon himself the command of the army[129], everything was changed. Henceforward, therefore, all affairs that were transacted in the office of the Praefect were arranged by the Cornicularius alone, and he received the revenues arising from them for his own refreshment. This usage, which prevailed from the days of Domitian to our own Theodosius, was then changed, on account of the usurpation of Rufinus. For the Emperor Arcadius, fearing the overgrown power of the Praefectoral office, passed a law that the Princeps of the Magister [Officiorum]'s staff[130] ... should appear in the highest courts, and should busy himself with part of the Praefect's duties, and especially should enquire into the principle upon which orders for the Imperial post-horses ([Greek: synthêmata]; _evectiones_) were granted[131].... This order of Arcadius was inscribed in the earlier editions of the Theodosian Code, but has been omitted in the later as superfluous.

[Footnote 129: This seems to be the meaning of Lydus, but it is not clearly expressed.]

[Footnote 130: There is something wanting in the text here.]

[Footnote 131: See Cod. Theod. vi. 29. 8, which looks rather like the law alluded to by Lydus, notwithstanding his remark about its omission.]

'Thus, then, the Princeps of the Magistriani, being introduced into the highest courts, but possessing nothing there beyond his mere empty dignity, made a bargain with the Cornicularius of the day, the object of which was to open up to him some portion of the business; and, having come to terms, the Princeps agreed to hand over to the Cornicularius one pound's weight of gold [£40] monthly, and to give instant gratuities to all his subordinates according to their rank in the service. In consequence of this compact the Cornicularius then in office, after receiving his 12 lbs. weight of gold without any abatement, with every show of honour conceded to his superior[132] (?) the preferential right of introducing "one-membered" cases ([Greek: tên tôn monomerôn entuchiôn eisagôgên]), having reserved to himself, beside the fees paid for promotion in the office[133], and other sources of gain, especially the sole right of subscribing the _Acta_ of the court, and thus provided for himself a yearly revenue of not less than 1,000 aurei [£600].'

[Footnote 132: [Greek: tô kreittoni].]

[Footnote 133: [Greek: ek tou bathmou].]

I have endeavoured to translate as clearly as possible the obscure words of Lydus as to this bargain between the two court-officers. The complaint of Lydus appears to be that the Cornicularius of the day, by taking the money of the Princeps Magistrianorum, and conceding to him in return the preferential claim to manage 'one-membered' cases (or unopposed business), made a purse for himself, but prepared the way for the ruin of his successors. The monthly payment was, I think, to be made for twelve months only, and thus the whole amount which the Cornicularius received from this source was only £480, but from other sources--chiefly the sums paid for promotion by the subordinate members of the _officium_, and the fees charged by him for affixing his subscription to the _acta_ of the court--he still remained in receipt of a yearly revenue of £600.

[Sidenote: Jealousy between the Officia of the Praefect and the Magister.]

The jealousy between the Officia of the Praetorian Praefect and the Magister Officiorum was intense. Almost every line in the treatise of Lydus testifies to it, and shows that the former office, in which he had the misfortune to serve, was being roughly shouldered out of the way by its younger and more unscrupulous competitor.

Lydus continues[134]: 'Now, what followed, like the Peleus of Euripides, I can never describe without tears. For on account of all these sources of revenue having been dried up, I myself have had to bear my part in the general misery of our time, since, though I have reached the highest grade of promotion in the service, I have derived nothing from it but the bare name. I do not blush to call Justice herself as a witness to the truth of what I say, when I affirm that I am not conscious of having received one obol from the Princeps, nor from the Letters Patent for promotions in the office[135]. For indeed whence should I have derived it, since it was the ancient custom that those who in any way appeared in the highest courts should pay to the _officium_ seven and thirty _aurei_ [£22] for a "one-membered" suit; but ever after this bargain was made there has been given only a very moderate sum of copper--not gold--in a beggarly way, as if one were buying a flask of oil, and that not regularly? Or how compel the Princeps to pay the ancient covenanted sum to the Cornicularius of the day, when he now scarcely remembered the bare name of that officer, as he never condescended to be present in the court when promotions were made from a lower grade to a higher? Bitterly do I regret that I was so late in coming to perceive for what a paltry price I was rendering my long services as assistant in the courts, receiving in fact nothing therefrom as my own _solatium_. It serves me right, however, for having chosen that line of employment, as I will explain, if the reader will allow me to recount to him my career from its commencement to the present time.'

[Footnote 134: De Mag. iii. 25.]

[Footnote 135: [Greek: apo tôn legomenôn kompleusimôn], apparently the same source of revenue as the promotion-money ([Greek: tên ek tou bathmou pronomian]).]

Lydus then goes on to describe his arrival at Constantinople (A.D. 511), his intention to enter the _Scrinium Memoriae_ (in which he would have served under the Magister Officiorum), and his abandonment of this intention upon the pressing entreaties of his countryman Zoticus, who was at the time Praefectus Praetorio. This step Lydus looks upon as the fatal mistake of his life, though the consequences of it to him were in some degree mitigated by the marriage which Zoticus enabled him to make with a lady possessed of a fortune of 100 pounds' weight of gold (£4,000). Her property, her virtues (for 'she was superior to all women who have ever been admired for their moral excellence'), and the consolations of Philosophy and Literature, did much to soothe the disappointment of Lydus, who nevertheless felt, when he retired to his books after forty years of service, in which he had reached the unrewarded post of Cornicularius, that his official life had been a failure.

It has seemed worth while to give this sketch of the actual career of a Byzantine official, as it may illustrate in some points the lives of the functionaries to whom so many of the letters of Cassiodorus are addressed; though I know not whether we have any indications of such a rivalry at Ravenna as that which prevailed at Constantinople between the _officium_ of the Praefect and that of the Magister. We now pass on to

[Sidenote: Adjutor.]

[Sidenote: Primiscrinius.]

(3) The _Adjutor_. Some of the uses of this term are very perplexing. It seems clear (from Lydus, 'De Mag.' iii. 3) that all the members of the officium were known by the generic name _Adjutores_. Here however we may perhaps safely assume that Adjutor means simply an assistant to the officer next above him, as we find, lower down in the list of the 'Notitia,' the Exceptores followed by their Adjutores. We may find a parallel to Adjutor in the word Lieutenant, which, for the same reason is applied to officers of such different rank as the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, a Lieutenant-General, a Lieutenant-Colonel, and a simple Lieutenant in the Army or Navy. In the lists of Cassiodorus and Lydus we find no mention of an officer bearing the special name of Adjutor, but we meet instead with a _Primiscrinius_, of whom, according to Lydus, there were two. He says[136], 'After the Cornicularius are two Primiscrinii, whom the Greeks call first of the service[137].' And later on[138], when he is describing the course of business in the _secretum_ of the Praefect, as it used to be in the good old days, he informs us that after judgment had been given, and the Secretarii had read to the litigant the decree prepared by the Assessors and carefully copied by one of the Cancellarii, and after an accurate digest of the case had been prepared in the Latin language by a Secretarius, in order to guard against future error or misrepresentation, the successful litigant passed on with the decree in his hand _to the Primiscrinii, who appointed an officer to execute the judgment of the Court_[139]. These men then put the decree into its final shape by means of the persons appointed to assist them[140] (men who could puzzle even the professors themselves in logical discussions), and endorsed it on the litigant's petition in characters which at once struck awe into the reader, and which seemed actually swollen with official importance[141]. The name and titles of the 'completing' officer were then subscribed.

[Footnote 136: De Mag. iii. 4.]

[Footnote 137: [Greek: meta de ton kornikoularion primiskrinioi duo, ous Hellênes prôtous tês taxeôs kalousi].]

[Footnote 138: De Mag. iii. 11.]

[Footnote 139: [Greek: parêei pros tous primiskrinious taxantas ekbibastên tois apopephasmenois]. Probably we should read [Greek: taxontas] for [Greek: taxantas].]

[Footnote 140: [Greek: eplêroun dia tôn boêthein autois tetagmenôn] (? Adjutores).]

[Footnote 141: [Greek: epi tou nôtou tês entuchias grammasin aidous autothen apasês kai exousias onkô sesobêmenois].]

If the suggestion that the Primiscrinii were considered as in some sense substitutes (Adjutores) for the Cornicularius be correct, we may perhaps account for there being two of them in the days of Lydus by the disappearance of the Princeps. The office of Cornicularius had swallowed up that of Princeps, and accordingly the single Adjutor, who was sufficient at the compilation of the 'Notitia,' had to be multiplied by two.

[Sidenote: Commentariensis, or Commentarisius.]

(4) The _Commentariensis_. Here we come again to an officer who is mentioned by all our three authorities, though in Cassiodorus he seems to be degraded some steps below his proper rank (but this may only be from an accidental transposition of the order of the letters), and though Lydus again gives us two of the name instead of one. The last-named authority inserts next after the Primiscrinii 'two Commentarisii--so the law calls those who are appointed to attend to the drawing up of indictments[142].'

[Footnote 142: [Greek: kommentarisioi duo (houtô de tous epi tôn hypomnêmatôn graphê tattomenous ho nomos kalei)] (iii. 4). I accept the necessary emendation of the text proposed in the Bonn edition.]

The Commentariensis (or Commentarisius, as Lydus calls him[143]) was evidently the chief assistant of the Judge in all matters of criminal jurisdiction[144]. We have a remarkably full, and in the main clear account of his functions in the pages of Lydus (iii. 16-18), from which it appears that he was promoted from the ranks of the _Exceptores_ (shorthand writers), and had six of his former colleagues serving under him as Adjutores[145]. Great was the power, and high the position in the Civil Service, of the Commentariensis. The whole tribe of process-servers, gaolers, lictors[146]--all that we now understand by the police force--waited subserviently on his nod. It rested with him, says Lydus, to establish the authority of the Court of Justice by means of the wholesome fear inspired by iron chains and scourges and the whole apparatus of torture[147]. Nay, not only did the subordinate magistrates execute their sentences by his agency, he had even the honour of being chosen by the Emperor himself to be the minister of vengeance against the persons who had incurred his anger or his suspicion. 'I myself remember,' says Lydus, 'when I was serving as Chartularius in the office of the Commentariensis, under the praefecture of Leontius (a man of the highest legal eminence), and when the wrath of Anastasius was kindled against Apion, a person of the most exalted rank, and one who had assisted in his elevation to the throne[148], at the same time when Kobad, King of Persia, blazed out into fury[149], that then all the confiscations and banishments which were ordered by the enraged Emperor were entrusted to no one else but to the Commentarienses serving under the Praefect. In this service they acquitted themselves so well, with such vigour, such harmonious energy, such entire clean-handedness and absence of all dishonest gain, as to move the admiration of the Emperor, who made use of them on all similar occasions that presented themselves in the remainder of his reign. They had even the honour of being employed against Macedonius, Patriarch of Constantinople, when that prelate had provoked the Emperor by suspending all intercourse with him as a heretic; and that, although Celer, one of the most intimate friends of Anastasius, was at that very time holding the rank of Magister Officiorum.'

[Footnote 143: To avoid confusion I will use the term 'Commentariensis' throughout.]

[Footnote 144: So Bethmann Hollweg (p. 179), 'Diess ist der Gehülfe des Magistrats bei Verwaltung der Criminaljustiz.' I compare him in the following translation of Cassiodorus to a 'magistrate's clerk.']

[Footnote 145: See iii. 9 (p. 203, ed. Bonn), and combine with iii. 16. The _Augustales_ referred to in the latter passage were a higher class of Exceptores.]

[Footnote 146: Applicitarii, Clavicularii, Lictores.]

[Footnote 147: [Greek: sidêreois desmois kai poinaiôn organôn kai plêktrôn poikilia saleuontôn tô phobô to dikastêrion] (iii. 16).]

[Footnote 148: [Greek: kai koinônêsantos autô tês basileias].]

[Footnote 149: [Greek: hote Kôadês ho Persês ephlegmaine]. The whole passage is mysterious, but we seem to have here an allusion to the outbreak of the Persian War (A.D. 502).]

An officer who was thus privileged to lay hands on Patriarch and Patrician in the name of Augustus was looked up to with awful reverence by all the lower members of the official hierarchy; and Lydus, with one graphic touch, brings before us the glow of gratified self-love with which, when he was a subordinate _Scriniarius_, he found himself honoured by the familiar conversation of so great a person as the Commentariensis[150]: 'I too am struck with somewhat of my old awe, recurring in memory to those who were then holders of the office. I remember what fear of the Commentarisii fell upon all who at all took the lead in the _Officium_, but especially on the Scriniarii; and how greatly he who was favoured with a chat with a Commentarisius passing by valued himself on the honour.' Lydus also describes to us how the Commentariensis, instructed by the Praefect, or perhaps even by the Emperor himself, would take with him one of his faithful servants, the Chartularii, would visit the abode of the suspected person (who might, as we have seen, be one of the very highest officers of the State), and would then in his presence dictate in solemn Latin words the indictment which was to be laid against him, the mere hearing of which sometimes brought the criminal to confess his guilt and throw himself on the mercy of the Emperor.

[Footnote 150: iii. 17 (p. 210).]

It was from this _commentum_, the equivalent of a French _acte d'accusation_, that the Commentariensis derived his title.

[Sidenote: Ab Actis (Scriniarius Actorum?).]

(5) The _Ab Actis_. The officer who bore this title (which is perhaps the same as the Scriniarius Actorum of Cassiodorus[151]) seems to have been exclusively concerned with civil cases, and perhaps held the same place in reference to them that the Commentarienses held in criminal matters[152]. Practically, his office appears to have been very much what we understand by that of _Chief Registrar_ of the Court. He (or they, for in Lydus' time there were two _Ab Actis_ as well as two Commentarienses[153]) was chosen from the select body of shorthand writers who were known as Augustales, and was assisted by six men of the same class, 'men of high character and intelligence and still in the vigour of their years[154].' His chief business--and in this he was served by the _Nomenclatores_, who shouted out in a loud voice the names of the litigants--was to introduce the plaintiff and defendant into the Court, or to make a brief statement of the nature of the case to the presiding magistrate. He then had to watch the course of the pleadings and listen to the Judge's decision, so as to be able to prepare a full statement of the case for the Registers or Journals[155] of the Court. These Registers--at least in the flourishing days of Roman jurisprudence--were most fully and accurately kept. Even the _Dies Nefasti_ were marked upon them, and the reason for their being observed as legal holidays duly noted. Elaborate indices, prepared by the Chartularii, made search an easy matter to those who wished to ascertain what was the decision of the law upon every point; and the marginal notes, or _personalia_, prepared in Latin[156] by the Ab Actis or his assistants, were so excellent and so full that sometimes when the original entry in the Registers had been lost the whole case could be sufficiently reconstructed from them alone.

[Footnote 151: Var. xi. 22.]

[Footnote 152: This seems to be Bethmann Hollweg's view (p. 181).]

[Footnote 153: This we learn from iii. 20. They are not mentioned in iii. 4, where we should have expected to find them.]

[Footnote 154: [Greek: hex andres erastoi kai nounechestatoi kai sphrigôntes eti] (Lydus iii. 20).]

[Footnote 155: [Greek: rhegestôn ê kottidianôn (anti tou ephêmerôn)].]

[Footnote 156: [Greek: Italisti]. Of course the emphasis laid on this point proceeds from the Greek nationality of our present authority.]

The question was already mooted at Constantinople in the sixth century whence the Ab Actis derived his somewhat elliptical name; and our archaeology-loving scribe was able to inform his readers that as the officer of the household who was called _A Pigmentis_ had the care of the aromatic ointments of the Court; as the _A Sabanis_[157] had charge of the bathing towels of the baths; as the _A Secretis_ (who was called Ad Secretis by vulgar Byzantines, ignorant of the niceties of Latin grammar) was concerned in keeping the secret counsels of his Sovereign: so the _Ab Actis_ derived his title from the Acts of the Court which it was his duty to keep duly posted up and properly indexed.

[Footnote 157: [Greek: sabanon] = a towel.]

[Sidenote: Numerarii.]

(6) The _Numerarii_ (whose exact number is not stated in the 'Notitia'[158]) were the cashiers of the Praefect's office. Though frequently mentioned in the Theodosian Code, and though persons exercising this function must always have existed in a great Court of Justice like the Praefect's, we hear but little of them from Cassiodorus[159]; and Lydus' notices of the [Greek: diapsêphistai], who seem to correspond to the Numerarii[160], are scanty and imperfect. Our German commentator has collected the passages of the Theodosian Code which relate to this class of officers, and has shown that on account of their rapacity and extortion their office was subjected to a continual process of degradation. All the Numerarii, except those of the two highest classes of judges[161], were degraded into _Tabularii_, a name which had previously indicated the cashiers of a municipality as distinguished from those in the Imperial service; and the Numerarii, even of the Praetorian Praefect himself, were made subject to examination by torture. This was not only to be dreaded on account of the bodily suffering which it inflicted, but was also a mark of the humble condition of those to whom it was applied.

[Footnote 158: Except, as before stated, those in the office of the Praetorian Praefect for Illyricum. These were four in number, and one of them had charge of 'gold,' another of '[public] works.' Further information is requisite to enable us to explain these entries.]

[Footnote 159: They are alluded to in Var. xii. 13. The Canonicarii (Tax-collectors) had plundered the Churches of Bruttii and Lucania in the name of 'sedis nostrae Numerarii;' but the Numerarii with holy horror declared that they had received no part of the spoils.]

[Footnote 160: See Bethmann Hollweg, 184.]

[Footnote 161: Illustres and Spectabiles.]

[Sidenote: Scriniarius Curae Militaris.]

We may perhaps see in the _Scriniarius Curae Militaris_ of Cassiodorus[162] one of these Numerarii detailed for service as paymaster to the soldiers who waited upon the orders of the Praefect.

[Footnote 162: xi. 24.]

[Sidenote: Subadjuvae.]

(7) The _Subadjuvae_. This is probably a somewhat vague term, like Adjutores, and indicates a second and lower class of cashiers who acted as deputies for the regular Numerarii.

[Sidenote: Cura Epistolarum.]

(8) _Cura Epistolarum._ The officer who bore this title appears to have had the duty of copying out all letters relating to fiscal matters[163]. This theory as to his office is confirmed by the words of Cassiodorus (Var. xi. 23): 'Let Constantinian on his promotion receive the care of the letters relating to the land-tax' (Hic itaque epistolarum _canonicarum_ curam provectus accipiat).

[Footnote 163: This is Bethmann Hollweg's interpretation of the words of Lydus, [Greek: hoi tas men epi tois dêmosiois phoitôsas psêphous graphousi monon, to loipon kataphronoumenoi] (iii. 21). In another passage (iii. 4, 5) Lydus appears to assign a reason for the fact that the Praefectus Urbis Constantinopolitanae, the Magister Militum, and the Magister Officiorum had no _Cura Epistolarum_ on their staff; but the paragraph is to me hopelessly obscure. Curiously enough, too, while he avers that every department of the State (perhaps every diocese) had, as a rule, its own Curae Epistolarum, he limits the two in the Praetorian Praefect's office to the diocese of Pontica ([Greek: koura epistolaroum Pontikês duo]).]

[Sidenote: Regerendarius, or Regendarius.]

(9) _Regerendarius_, or _Regendarius_[164]. This officer had the charge of all contracts relating to the very important department of the _Cursus Publicus_, or Imperial Mail Service. At the time of the compilation of the 'Notitia' only one person appears to have acted in this capacity under each Praefect. When Lydus wrote, there were two Regendarii in each Praefecture, but, owing to the increasing influence of the Magister Officiorum over the Cursus Publicus[165], their office had become apparently little more than an ill-paid sinecure. As we hear nothing of similar changes in the West, the Cursus Publicus was probably a part of the public service which was directly under the control of Cassiodorus when Praetorian Praefect, and was administered at his bidding by one or more Regendarii.

[Footnote 164: The first form of the name is found in the Notitia, the second in Lydus and Cassiodorus.]

[Footnote 165: It is not easy to make out exactly what Lydus wishes us to understand about the Cursus Publicus; but I think his statements amount to this, that it was taken by Arcadius from the Praetorian Praefect and given to the Magister Officiorum, was afterwards restored to the Praefect, and finally was in effect destroyed by the corrupt administration of John of Cappadocia. (See ii. 10; iii. 21, 61.)]

[Sidenote: Exceptores.]

(10) We now come to the _Exceptores_, or shorthand writers[166], a large and fluctuating body who stood on the lowest step of the official ladder[167] and formed the raw material out of which all its higher functionaries were fashioned in the regular order of promotion.

[Footnote 166: The [Greek: tachygraphoi] of Lydus.]

[Footnote 167: In making this statement I consider the Adjutores to be virtually another class of Exceptores, and I purposely omit the Singularii as not belonging to the _Militia Litterata_, which alone I am now considering.]

[Sidenote: Augustales.]

[Sidenote: Deputati.]

We are informed by Lydus[168], that in his time the Exceptores in the Eastern Empire were divided into two corps, the higher one called _Augustales_, who were limited in number to thirty, and the lower, of indefinite number and composing the rank and file of the profession. The Augustales only could aspire to the rank of Cornicularius; but in order that some prizes might still be left of possible attainment by the larger class, the rank of Primiscrinius was tenable by those who remained 'on the rolls of the Exceptores.' The reason for this change was that the unchecked application of the principle of seniority to so large a body of public servants was throwing all the more important offices in the Courts of Justice into the hands of old men. The principle of 'seniority tempered by selection' was therefore introduced, and the ablest and most learned members of the class of Exceptores were drafted off into this favoured section of Augustales, fifteen of the most experienced of whom were appropriated to the special service of the Emperor, while the other fifteen filled the higher offices (with the exception of the Primiscriniate) in the Praefectoral Courts[169]. The first fifteen were called _Deputati_[170], the others were apparently known simply as Augustales.

[Footnote 168: iii. 6, 9.]

[Footnote 169: I think this is a fair summary of Lydus iii. 9 and 10, but these paragraphs are very difficult and obscure.]

[Footnote 170: We should certainly have expected that the Augustales would be those writers who were specially appropriated to the Emperor's service, but the other conclusion necessarily follows from the language of Lydus (iii. 10): [Greek: hôste kai pentekaideka ex autôn tôn pepanôterôn peira te kai tô chronô kreittonôn pros hypographên tois basileusin aphoristhênai, ous eti kai nun dêpoutatous kalousin, hoi tou tagmatos tôn Augoustaliôn prôteuousin].]

The change thus described by Lydus appears to have been made in the West as well as in the East, since we hear in the 'Variae' of Cassiodorus (xi. 30) of the appointment of a certain Ursus to be Primicerius of the Deputati, and of Beatus to take the same place among the Augustales[171].

[Footnote 171: The form of the word must I think prevent us from applying the Princeps _Augustorum_ of xi. 35 to the same class of officers.]

[Sidenote: Adjutores.]

(11) The _Adjutores_ of the 'Notitia' were probably a lower class of Exceptores, who may very likely have disappeared when the Augustales were formed out of them by the process of differentiation which has been described above.

We have now gone through the whole of what was termed the 'Learned Service[172]' mentioned in the 'Notitia,' with one exception--the title of an officer, in himself humble and obscure, who has given his name to the highest functionaries of mediaeval and modern Europe.

[Footnote 172: [Greek: tous epi tais logikais tetagmenous leitourgiais] (Lydus iii. 7). [Greek: Peras men hode tôn logikôn tês taxeôs systêmatôn] (iii. 21). The 'Learned Service' may be taken as corresponding to 'a post fit for a gentleman,' in modern phraseology. In our present Official Directories the members of the [Greek: logikê taxis] appear to be all dignified with the title 'Esq.;' the others have only 'Mr.']

[Sidenote: Cancellarius.]

(12) The _Cancellarius_ appears in the 'Notitia' only once[173], and then in connection not with the Praetorian Praefect, but with the Master of the Offices. At the very end of the Officium of this dignitary, after the six _Scholae_ and four _Scrinia_ of his subordinates, and after the _Admissionales_, whom we must look upon as the Ushers of the Court, comes the entry,

Cancellarii:

their very number not stated, the office being too obscure to make a few less or more a matter of importance.

[Footnote 173: Occidentis ix. 15.]

After the compilation of the 'Notitia' the office of Cancellarius apparently rose somewhat in importance, and was introduced into other departments besides that of the Master of the Offices.

One Cancellarius appears attached to the Court of Cassiodorus as Praetorian Praefect, and from the admonitions addressed to him by his master[174], we see that he had it in his power considerably to aid the administration of justice by his integrity, or to hinder it by showing himself accessible to bribes.

[Footnote 174: In Var. xi. 6, which see.]

In describing the Cancellarius, as in almost every other part of his treatise, Lydus has to tell a dismal story of ruin and decay[175]:

[Footnote 175: iii. 36, 37.]

'Now the Scriniarii [subordinates of the Magister Officiorum] are made Cancellarii and Logothetes and purveyors of the Imperial table, whereas in old time the Cancellarius was chosen only from the ranks of Augustales and Exceptores who had served with credit. In those days the Judgment Hall [of the Praefect] recognised only two Cancellarii, who received an _aureus_ apiece[176] per day from the Treasury. There was aforetime in the Court of Justice a fence separating the Magistrate from his subordinates, and this fence, being made of long splinters of wood placed diagonally, was called _cancellus_, from its likeness to network, the regular Latin word for a net being casses, and the diminutive cancellus[177]. At this latticed barrier then stood two _Cancellarii_, by whom, since no one was allowed to approach the judgment-seat, paper was brought to the members of the staff and needful messages were delivered. But now that the office owing to the number of its holders[178] has fallen into disrepute, and that the Treasury no longer makes a special provision for their maintenance, almost all the hangers-on of the Courts of Law call themselves Cancellarii; and, not only in the capital but in the Provinces, they give themselves this title in order that they may be able more effectually to plunder the wealthy.'

[Footnote 176: About twelve shillings.]

[Footnote 177: This derivation from casses is, of course, absurd.]

[Footnote 178: Can this be the meaning of [Greek: eis plêthos]?]

This description by Lydus, while it aptly illustrates Cassiodorus' exhortations to his Cancellarii to keep their hands clean from bribes, shows how lowly their office was still considered; and indeed, but for his statement that it used to be filled by veteran Augustales, we might almost have doubted whether it is rightly classed among the 'Learned Services' at all.

[Sidenote: End of the Militia Literata.]

Now at any rate we leave the ranks of the gentlemen of the Civil Service behind us, and come to the 'Militia Illiterata,' of whom the 'Notitia' enumerates only

[Sidenote: Militia Illiterata: Singularii.]

(13) The _Singularii_, a class of men of whose useful services Lydus speaks in terms of high praise, contrasting their modest efficiency with the pompous verbosity[179] of the Magistriani (servants of the Master of the Offices) by whom they were being generally superseded in his day. They travelled through the Provinces, carrying the Praefect's orders, and riding in a post-chaise drawn by a single horse (veredus), from which circumstance, according to Lydus, they derived their name Singularii[180].

[Footnote 179: [Greek: Kompophakellorrêmosynê] = Pomp-bundle-wordiness, an Aristophanic word.]

[Footnote 180: De Dignitatibus iii. 7.]

We observe that the letter of Cassiodorus[181] addressed to the retiring chief (Primicerius) of the Singularii informs him that he is promoted to a place among the King's Body-guard (Domestici et Protectores), a suitable reward for one who had not been a member of the 'Learned Services.'

[Footnote 181: Var. xi. 31.]

After the Singularii Lydus mentions the _Mancipes_, the men who were either actually slaves or were at any rate engaged in servile occupations; as, for instance, the bakers at the public bakeries, the _Rationalii_, who distributed the rations to the receivers of the annona[182], the _Applicitarii_ (officers of arrest), and _Clavicularii_ (gaolers), who, as we before heard, obeyed the mandate of the Commentariensis. The Lictors, I think, are not mentioned by him. A corresponding class of men would probably be the _Apparitores_, who in the 'Notitia' appear almost exclusively attached to the service of the great Ministers of War[183].

[Footnote 182: This seems a probable explanation of a rather obscure passage.]

[Footnote 183: See the following sections of the Notitia: Magister Militum Praesentatis (Oriens v. 74, vi. 77; Occidens v. 281, vi. 93); M.M. per Orientem (Or. vii. 67); M.M. per Thracias (Or. viii. 61); M.M. per Illyricum (Or. ix. 56); Magister Equitum per Gallias (Occ. vii. 117). The only civil officer who has Apparitores is the Proconsul Achaiae (Oriens xxi. 14).]

Thus, it will be seen, from the well-paid and often highly-connected Princeps, who, no doubt, discussed the business of the court with the Praetorian Praefect on terms of friendly though respectful familiarity, down to the gaoler and the lictor and the lowest of the half-servile _mancipes_, there was a regular gradation of rank, which still preserved, in the staff of the highest court of justice in the land, all the traditions of subordination and discipline which had once characterised the military organisation out of which it originally sprang.