The Letters of Cassiodorus
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 prima adjutrice nostra,' which
he proceeds to translate into Greek for the benefit of his readers
([Greek: kai taxeias auton en to proto tagmati to boethounti hemin]).]
[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: synthemata]; _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 [L40] 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:
ten ton monomeron entuchion eisagogen]), 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 [L600].'
[Footnote 132: [Greek: to 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 L480, 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 L600.
[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_ [L22] 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 ton legomenon kompleusimon], apparently the
same source of revenue as the promotion-money ([Greek: ten 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 (L4,000). 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 Hellenes protous tes taxeos kalousi].]
[Footnote 138: De Mag. iii. 11.]
[Footnote 139: [Greek: pareei pros tous primiskrinious taxantas
ekbibasten tois apopephasmenois]. Probably we should read [Greek:
taxontas] for [Greek: taxantas].]
[Footnote 140: [Greek: epleroun dia ton boethein autois tetagmenon] (?
Adjutores).]
[Footnote 141: [Greek: epi tou notou tes entuchias grammasin aidous
autothen apases kai exousias onko sesobemenois].]
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