Part 10 (2/2)

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 t.i.tle '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 n.o.bleman's name after he had risen higher in the official scale and was ent.i.tled to be called Spectabilis or Ill.u.s.tris. 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 t.i.tle is given to men in high, but not the highest, positions in the Civil Service of the State.

[Footnote 118: See Emil Kuhn's Verfa.s.sung des Romischen Reichs i. 182, and the pa.s.sages quoted there.]

[Footnote 119: p. 31.]

Besides the three cla.s.ses 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 cla.s.ses slight mention is made in the Theodosian Code, and none at all (I believe) in the 'Not.i.tia' or the 'Letters of Ca.s.siodorus.'

CHAPTER IV.

ON THE OFFICIUM OF THE PRAEFECTUS PRAETORIO[120].

[Footnote 120: To ill.u.s.trate 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.

NOt.i.tIA. Ca.s.sIODORUS 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.

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