The Letters of Cassiodorus
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 Pontikes 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: hoste kai pentekaideka ex
auton ton pepanoteron peira te kai to chrono kreittonon pros
hypographen tois basileusin aphoristhenai, ous eti kai nun depoutatous
kalousin, hoi tou tagmatos ton Augoustalion proteuousin].]
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 ton logikon tes
taxeos systematon] (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: logike
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 plethos]?]
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: Kompophakellorremosyne] =
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