The Letters of Cassiodorus Part 11

Subadjuva. Primicerius Exceptorum.

Cura Epistolarum. s.e.xtus 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 _Not.i.tia 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 ill.u.s.tration, we might perhaps say that the Not.i.tia 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 Ca.s.siodorus, 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.

G.o.defroy's Commentary on the Theodosian Code, and Bethmann Hollweg's 'Gerichtsverfa.s.sung des sinkenden Romischen Reichs,' are the chief modern works which have treated of the subject.

[Sidenote: The Officium as described in the Not.i.tia.]

We will follow the order in which the various offices are arranged by the 'Not.i.tia,' which is most likely to correspond with that of official precedence.

In the second chapter of the 'Not.i.tia Orientis,' after an enumeration of the five Dioceses and forty-six Provinces which are 'sub dispositione viri ill.u.s.tris Praefecti Praetorio per Orientem,' we have this list, 'Officium viri ill.u.s.tris 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 'Not.i.tia' are exactly the same as this, except that under the head 'Praefectus Praetorio per Illyric.u.m' 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 'Not.i.tia,' to have disappeared, and his rights and privileges became vested in the Cornicularius. It will be observed that in the letters of Ca.s.siodorus 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. Ca.s.siodorus (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 'Not.i.tia[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 a.s.serted of the Princeps at the time when the 'Not.i.tia' 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 a.s.sistants (Adjutores) is even to this day called _Cornicularius_, that is to say _horned_ ([Greek: kerates]), 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 a.s.sistants (_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 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 a.s.sistants, '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: