The Letters of Cassiodorus
nearly equal. The same may perhaps be said of the Comes Litoris
Saxonici in Britain and the Dux Tractus Armoricani et Nervicani in
Gaul. While recognising a _general_ inferiority of the Dux to the
Comes, I do not think we can, with the Notitia before us, assert that
the Provincial Duces were regularly subordinated to the Diocesan
Comes, as the Provincial Consulares were to the Diocesan Vicarius. And
the fact that both Comes and Dux were addressed as Spectabilis rather
confirms this view.]
Besides these three classes of dignitaries, the _Castrensis_, who was
a kind of head steward in the Imperial household, and most of the
Heads of Departments in the great administrative offices, such as the
_Primicerius Notariorum_ and the _Magistri Scriniorum_[116], bore the
title of Spectabilis. We have perhaps hardly sufficient data for an
exact calculation, but I conjecture that there would be as many as
fifty or sixty Spectabiles in the Kingdom of Theodoric.
[Footnote 116: Probably, from the order in which they are mentioned by
the Notitia.]
It appears to me that the epithet _Sublimis_ (which is almost unknown
to the Theodosian Code), when it occurs in the 'Variae' is used as
synonymous with Spectabilis[117].
[Footnote 117: Sublimis occurs in the superscription of the following
letters: i. 2; iv. 17; v. 25, 30, and 36; ix. 11 and 14; xii. 5.]
[Sidenote: Clarissimi.]
III. The _Clarissimi_ were the third rank in the official hierarchy.
To our minds it may appear strange that the 'most renowned' should
come below 'the respectable,' but such was the Imperial pleasure. The
title 'Clarissimus' had moreover its own value, for from the time of
Constantine onwards it was conferred on all the members of the Senate,
and was in fact identical with Senator[118]; and this was doubtless,
as Usener points out[119], the reason why the letters Cl. were still
appended to a Roman nobleman's name after he had risen higher in the
official scale and was entitled to be called Spectabilis or
Illustris. The _Consulares_ or _Correctores_, who administered the
Provinces under the Vicarii, were called Clarissimi; and we shall
observe in the collection before us many other cases in which the
title is given to men in high, but not the highest, positions in the
Civil Service of the State.
[Footnote 118: See Emil Kuehn's Verfassung des Roemischen Reichs i. 182,
and the passages quoted there.]
[Footnote 119: p. 31.]
Besides the three classes above enumerated there were also:--
[Sidenote: Perfectissimi.]
IV. The _Perfectissimi_, to which some of the smaller provincial
governors belonged, as well as some of the clerks in the Revenue
Offices (Numerarii) who had seen long service, and even some veteran
Decurions.
Below these again were:--
[Sidenote: Egregii.]
V. The _Egregii_, who were also Decurions who had earned a right to
promotion, or even what we should call veteran non-commissioned
officers in the army (Primipilares).
But of these two classes slight mention is made in the Theodosian
Code, and none at all (I believe) in the 'Notitia' or the 'Letters of
Cassiodorus.'
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 Roemischen 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 ton magistrianon], 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: keraites]), 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: komes]; 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