The Letters of Cassiodorus Part 13

[Footnote 153: This we learn from iii. 20. They are not mentioned in iii. 4, where we should have expected to find them.]

[Footnote 154: [Greek: hex andres erastoi kai nounechestatoi kai sphrigontes eti] (Lydus iii. 20).]

[Footnote 155: [Greek: rhegeston e kottidianon (anti tou ephemeron)].]

[Footnote 156: [Greek: Italisti]. Of course the emphasis laid on this point proceeds from the Greek nationality of our present authority.]

The question was already mooted at Constantinople in the sixth century whence the Ab Actis derived his somewhat elliptical name; and our archaeology-loving scribe was able to inform his readers that as the officer of the household who was called _A Pigmentis_ had the care of the aromatic ointments of the Court; as the _A Sabanis_[157] had charge of the bathing towels of the baths; as the _A Secretis_ (who was called Ad Secretis by vulgar Byzantines, ignorant of the niceties of Latin grammar) was concerned in keeping the secret counsels of his Sovereign: so the _Ab Actis_ derived his t.i.tle from the Acts of the Court which it was his duty to keep duly posted up and properly indexed.

[Footnote 157: [Greek: sabanon] = a towel.]

[Sidenote: Numerarii.]

(6) The _Numerarii_ (whose exact number is not stated in the 'Not.i.tia'[158]) were the cashiers of the Praefect's office. Though frequently mentioned in the Theodosian Code, and though persons exercising this function must always have existed in a great Court of Justice like the Praefect's, we hear but little of them from Ca.s.siodorus[159]; and Lydus' notices of the [Greek: diapsephistai], who seem to correspond to the Numerarii[160], are scanty and imperfect. Our German commentator has collected the pa.s.sages of the Theodosian Code which relate to this cla.s.s of officers, and has shown that on account of their rapacity and extortion their office was subjected to a continual process of degradation. All the Numerarii, except those of the two highest cla.s.ses of judges[161], were degraded into _Tabularii_, a name which had previously indicated the cashiers of a munic.i.p.ality as distinguished from those in the Imperial service; and the Numerarii, even of the Praetorian Praefect himself, were made subject to examination by torture. This was not only to be dreaded on account of the bodily suffering which it inflicted, but was also a mark of the humble condition of those to whom it was applied.

[Footnote 158: Except, as before stated, those in the office of the Praetorian Praefect for Illyric.u.m. These were four in number, and one of them had charge of 'gold,' another of '[public] works.' Further information is requisite to enable us to explain these entries.]

[Footnote 159: They are alluded to in Var. xii. 13. The Canonicarii (Tax-collectors) had plundered the Churches of Bruttii and Lucania in the name of 'sedis nostrae Numerarii;' but the Numerarii with holy horror declared that they had received no part of the spoils.]

[Footnote 160: See Bethmann Hollweg, 184.]

[Footnote 161: Ill.u.s.tres and Spectabiles.]

[Sidenote: Scriniarius Curae Militaris.]

We may perhaps see in the _Scriniarius Curae Militaris_ of Ca.s.siodorus[162] one of these Numerarii detailed for service as paymaster to the soldiers who waited upon the orders of the Praefect.

[Footnote 162: xi. 24.]

[Sidenote: Subadjuvae.]

(7) The _Subadjuvae_. This is probably a somewhat vague term, like Adjutores, and indicates a second and lower cla.s.s of cashiers who acted as deputies for the regular Numerarii.

[Sidenote: Cura Epistolarum.]

(8) _Cura Epistolarum._ The officer who bore this t.i.tle appears to have had the duty of copying out all letters relating to fiscal matters[163]. This theory as to his office is confirmed by the words of Ca.s.siodorus (Var. xi. 23): 'Let Constantinian on his promotion receive the care of the letters relating to the land-tax' (Hic itaque epistolarum _canonicarum_ curam provectus accipiat).

[Footnote 163: This is Bethmann Hollweg's interpretation of the words of Lydus, [Greek: hoi tas men epi tois demosiois phoitosas psephous graphousi monon, to loipon kataphronoumenoi] (iii. 21). In another pa.s.sage (iii. 4, 5) Lydus appears to a.s.sign 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 'Not.i.tia' 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 Ca.s.siodorus 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 Not.i.tia, the second in Lydus and Ca.s.siodorus.]

[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 cla.s.s 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 cla.s.s, 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 cla.s.s 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 Ca.s.siodorus (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 cla.s.s of officers.]

[Sidenote: Adjutores.]

(11) The _Adjutores_ of the 'Not.i.tia' were probably a lower cla.s.s 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 'Not.i.tia,' with one exception--the t.i.tle 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 t.i.tle 'Esq.;' the others have only 'Mr.']

[Sidenote: Cancellarius.]

(12) The _Cancellarius_ appears in the 'Not.i.tia' 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 'Not.i.tia' 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 Ca.s.siodorus 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]: