ter of the Roma

organised body, with a carefully arranged system of promotion, and liberal superannuati

l 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 w

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

TI

SIO

). L

and ii

nce

Cornicularius

iscrinius. II

sis. Scrinia

Cura Epi

Scriniarius Cu

Primicerius

arum. Sextus

ius. Praer

mentariensis. I

egendarius.

s Deputatorum. II Cura

ius Augu

Singularioru

o the Curae Ep. Ponticae 'Αι Λογικα

ormation as to

elaborate official hierarchy is

Empire[122], which in its existing shape appears to date from

composed by a civil servant of the Easter

siodorus, the composition of wh

mpires, the second to the Eastern alone, the third to the Western E

n the subject by the Codes

llweg's 'Gerichtsverfassung des sinkenden R?mischen Reichs,'

as described

es are arranged by the 'Notitia,' which is most lik

s and forty-six Provinces which are 'sub dispositione viri illustris Praefecti Praetorio

nce

icul

ju

ntari

act

era

adj

Epist

rend

ept

uto

gul

itia' are exactly the same as this, except that under the head 'Praefectus

r: in his auri un

Urbis Romae' had u

iscri

'Adjutores' an

uale

culat

the offices enumera

nce

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,

erning the rights and endowments of the Cornicularius in the Praefect's office might be truly asserted

icul

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 sa

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 o

said, the Cornicularius took the foremost place; and for that reason he still presides over the who

on[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 (κομη?; comes; companion), but having not yet laid aside his belt of o

he Cornicula

imisc

mment

egen

e Epist

lae of E

rned service" of th

nify his office,' gives us this further information

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 C

nicularius 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

arius 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 prefere

turn 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 r

Officia of the Prae

very line in the treatise of Lydus testifies to it, and shows that the former office, in which he had the mis

tters 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

ep 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 be

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

ju

n 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 pre

haps account for there being two of them in the days of Lydus by the disappearance of the Princeps. The office of Cornicularius had swallowed

nsis, or Co

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. T

ome 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

k 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

ent of a French acte d'accusation, that

Scriniariu

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 flour

old 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, ignora

era

spond 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 Tabul

us Curae

dorus[162] one of these Numerarii detailed for service as payma

adj

, like Adjutores, and indicates a second and lower class o

Epist

matters[163]. This theory as to his office is confirmed by the words of Cassiodorus (Var. xi. 23): 'Let Constantinian on his pr

ius, or Re

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

ept

dy who stood on the lowest step of the official ladder[167] and formed the raw material o

ust

, 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 learn

, since we hear in the 'Variae' of Cassiodorus (xi. 30) of the appointment of a certain Ursus t

uto

es, who may very likely have disappeared when the Augustales were formed ou

d in the 'Notitia,' with one exception-the title of an officer, in himself humble and obs

ella

ut with the Master of the Offices. At the very end of the Officium of this dignitary, after the six Scholae and four Scri

ella

fice being too obscure to make a few

us apparently rose somewhat in importance, and was introduced i

onitions addressed to him by his master[174], we see that he had it in his power considerably to aid t

every other part of his treatise, Lydus has t

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

an from bribes, shows how lowly their office was still considered; and indeed, but for his statement that it used to be fi

e Militia

f the Civil Service behind us, and come to the 'Milit

literata:

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

the Singularii informs him that he is promoted to a place among the King's Body-guard (Domestici

, 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 Lic

ugh 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 o