The Letters of Cassiodorus
he had held this office for a considerable time before the death of
Theodoric. Usener thinks that he was made Magister Officiorum for the
first time about the year 518.]
The _Magister Officiorum_, whose relation to the other members of the
Cabinet of the Sovereign was somewhat indefinite, and who was in fact
constantly trying to enlarge the circle of his authority at their
expense, was at the head of the Civil Service of the Roman Empire, and
afterwards occupied a similar position in the Ostrogothic State. It
was said of him by the Byzantine orator Priscus (himself a man who had
been engaged in important embassies), 'Of all the counsels of the
Emperor the Magister is a partaker, inasmuch as the messengers and
interpreters and the soldiers employed on guard at the palace are
ranged under him.' Quite in harmony with this general statement are
the more precise indications of the 'Notitia.' There, 'under the
disposition of the illustrious Magister Officiorum,' we find five
_Scholae_, which seem to have been composed of household troops[51].
Then comes the great Schola of the _Agentes in rebus_ and their
deputies--a mighty army of 'king's messengers,' who swarmed through
all the Provinces of the Empire, executing the orders of the
Sovereign, and earning gold and hatred from the helpless Provincials
among whom their errands lay. In addition to these the four great
stationary bureaux--the Scrinium Memoriae, Scrinium Dispositionum,
Scrinium Epistolarum, and Scrinium Libellorum--the offices whose duty
it was to conduct the correspondence of the Sovereign with foreign
powers, and to answer the petitions of his own subjects, all owned the
Master of the Offices as their head. Moreover, the great arsenals (of
which there were six in Italy at Concordia, Verona, Mantua, Cremona,
Ticinum, and Lucca) received their orders from the same official. An
anomalous and too widely dispersed range of functions this seems
according to our ideas, including something of the Secretaryship for
Foreign Affairs, something of the Home Secretaryship, and something of
the War Office and the Horse Guards. Yet, as if this were not enough,
there was also transferred to him from the office of the Praetorian
Praefect the superintendence of the Cursus Publicus, that excellent
institution by which facilities for intercourse were provided between
the capital and the most distant Provinces, relays of post-horses
being kept at every town, available for use by those who bore properly
signed 'letters of evection.' Thus to the multifarious duties of the
Master of the Offices was added in effect the duty of
Postmaster-General. It was found however in practice to be an
inconvenient arrangement for the Master of the Offices to have the
control of the services of the 'public horses,' while the Praetorian
Praefect remained responsible for the supply of their food; and the
charge of the _Cursus Publicus_ was accordingly retransferred--at any
rate in the Eastern Empire--to the office of the Praefect, though the
letters of evection still required the counter-signature of the
Master[52].
[Footnote 51: They are 'Scutariorum prima, secunda et tertia,
armaturarum seniorum et gentilium seniorum' (Notitia Occidentis, cap.
ix.).]
[Footnote 52: This is the account of the matter given by Lydus (De
Magistratibus ii. 10); but as the Notitia (Or. xi.) puts the 'Curiosus
Cursus Publici Praesentalis' under the disposition of the Magister
Officiorum, the retransfer had probably not then taken place. It would
seem also from the Formula of Cassiodorus (Var. vi. 6) that in his
time the Magister Officiorum still had the charge of the Cursus
Publicus.]
[Sidenote: Death of Theodoric, Aug. 30, 526.]
Such was the position of Cassiodorus when, on the 30th of August, 526,
by the death of Theodoric, he lost the master whom he had served so
long and so faithfully. The difficulties which beset the new reign are
pretty clearly indicated in the letters which Cassiodorus published in
the name of the young King Athalaric, Theodoric's grandson, and which
are to be found in the Eighth Book of the 'Variae.' Athalaric himself
being only a boy of eight or ten years of age, supreme power was
vested in his mother Amalasuentha, with what title we are unable to
say, but apparently not with that of Queen. This Princess, a woman of
great and varied accomplishments, perhaps once a pupil, certainly a
friend, of Cassiodorus, ruled entirely in accordance with the maxims
of his statesmanship, and endeavoured with female impulsiveness to
carry into effect his darling scheme of Romanising the Goths. During
the whole of her regency we may doubtless consider Cassiodorus as
virtually her Prime Minister, and the eight years which it occupied
were without doubt that portion of his life in which he exercised the
most direct and unquestioned influence on State affairs.
[Sidenote: Services of Cassiodorus to the Regent Amalasuentha.]
His services at the commencement of the new reign will be best
described in his own words: 'Nostris quoque principiis[53]' (the
letter is written in Athalaric's name) 'quanto se labore concessit,
cum novitas regni multa posceret ordinari? Erat solus ad universa
sufficiens. Ipsum dictatio publica, ipsum consilia nostra poscebant;
et labore ejus actum est ne laboraret imperium. _Reperimus eum quidem
Magistrum sed implevit nobis Quaestoris officium_: et mercedes
justissima devotione persolvens, cautelam, quam ab auctore nostro
didicerat, libenter haeredis utilitatibus exhibebat[54].'
[Footnote 53: Variarum ix. 25.]
[Footnote 54: The meaning apparently is: 'The experience which he had
gained in Theodoric's service was employed for the advantage of his
grandson.']
[Sidenote: Fears of invasion.]
Cassiodorus then goes on to describe how he laboured for his young
Sovereign with the sword as well as with the pen. Some hostile
invasion was dreaded, perhaps from the Franks, or, more probably, from
the Vandals, whose relations with the Ostrogoths at that time were
strained, owing to the murder of Theodoric's sister Amalafrida by
Hilderic the Vandal King. Cassiodorus provided ships and equipped
soldiers at his own expense, probably for the defence of his beloved
Province of Bruttii. The alarm of war passed away, but difficulties
appear to have arisen owing to the sudden cancellation of the
contracts which had been entered into when hostilities seemed
imminent; and to these difficulties Cassiodorus tells us that he
brought his trained experience as an administrator and a judge,
resolving them so as to give satisfaction to all who were concerned.
[Sidenote: Cassiodorus as Praetorian Praefect, 533.]
Seven years of Amalasuentha's regency thus passed, and now at length,
at fifty-three years of age, Cassiodorus was promoted (Sept. 1, 533)
to the most distinguished place which a subject could occupy. He
received from Amalasuentha the office of Praetorian Praefect. As
thirty-three years had elapsed since his father was invested with the
same dignity, we may fairly conjecture that father and son both
climbed this eminence at the same period of their lives; yet,
considering the extraordinary credit which the younger Cassiodorus
enjoyed at Court, we might have expected that he would have been
clothed with the Praefecture before he attained the fifty-third year
of his age. And, in fact, he hints in the letter composed by him, in
which he informs himself of his own elevation[55], that that elevation
had been somewhat too long delayed, though the reason which he alleges
for the delay (namely, that the people might greet the new Praefect
the more heartily[56]) is upon the face of it not the true cause.
[Footnote 55: Var. ix. 24.]
[Footnote 56: 'Diutius quidem differendo pro te cunctorum vota
lassavimus, ut benevolentiam in te probaremus generalitatis, et
cunctis desiderabilior advenires.']
[Sidenote: Office of the Praetorian Praefect.]
The majesty of the Praetorian Praefect's office is fully dwelt upon
and its functions described in a letter in the following
collection[57], to which the reader is referred. Originally only the
chief officer of those Praetorian troops in Rome by whom the Emperor
was guarded, until, as was so often the case, he was in some fit of
petulance by the same pampered sentinels dethroned, the Praefectus
Praetorio had gradually become more and more of a judge, less and less
of a soldier. In the great changes wrought by Constantine the
Praetorian guards disappeared--somewhat in the same fashion after
which the Janissaries were removed by Sultan Mahmoud. The Praetorian
Praefect's dignity, however, survived, and though he lost every shred
of military command he became or continued to be the first civil
servant of the Empire. Cassiodorus is fond of comparing him to Joseph
at the Court of Pharaoh, nor is the comparison an inapt one. In the
Constantinople of our own day the Grand Vizier holds a position not
altogether unlike that which the Praefect held in the Court of
Arcadius and Theodosius. 'The office of this Praefect,' said one who
had spent his life as one of his subordinates[58],' is like the Ocean,
encircling all other offices and ministering to all their needs. The
Consulate is indeed higher in rank than the Praefecture, but less in
power. The Praefect wears a _mandye_, or woollen cloak, dyed with the
purple of Cos, and differing from the Emperor's only in the fact that
it reaches not to the feet but to the knees. Girt with his sword he
takes his seat as President of the Senate. When that body has
assembled, the chiefs of the army fall prostrate before the Praefect,
who raises them and kisses each in turn, in order to express his
desire to be on good terms with the military power. Nay, even the
Emperor himself walks (or till lately used to walk) on foot from his
palace to meet the Praefect as he moves slowly towards him at the head
of the Senate. The insignia of the Praefect's office are his lofty
chariot, his golden reed-case [pen-holder], weighing one hundred
pounds, his massive silver inkstand, and silver bowl on a tripod of
the same metal to receive the petitions of suitors. Three official
yachts wait upon his orders, and convey him from the capital to the
neighbouring Provinces.'
[Footnote 57: Var. vi. 3.]
[Footnote 58: Joannes Lydus, De Dignitatibus ii. 7, 8, 9, 13, 14.]
[Sidenote: The Praetorian Praefect as Judge of Appeal.]
The personage thus highly placed had a share in the government of the
State, a share which the Master of the Offices was for ever trying to
diminish, but which, in the hands of one who like Cassiodorus was
_persona grata_ at the Court, might be made not only important but
predominant[59]. The chief employment, however, of the ordinary
Praefectus Praetorio consisted in hearing appeals from the Governors
of the Provinces. When the magical words 'Provoco ad Caesarem' had
been uttered, it was in most cases before the Praetorian Praefect that
the appeal was practically heard; and when the Praetorian Praefect had
pronounced his decision, no appeal from that was permitted, even to
the Emperor himself[60].
[Footnote 59: Bethmann Hollweg (pp. 75, 76) enumerates the functions
of the Praetorian Praefect thus: '(1) _Legislative._ He promulgated
the Imperial laws, and issued edicts which had almost the force of
laws. (2) _Financial._ The general tax (indictio, delegatio) ordered
by the Emperor for the year, was proclaimed by each Praefect for his
own Praefecture. Through his officials he took part in the levy of the
tax, and had a special State-chest (arca praetoria) for the proceeds.
(3) _Administrative._ The Praefect proposed the names of provincial
governors, handed to them their salaries, had a general oversight of
them, issued rescripts on the information furnished by them, and could