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on the one hand, but of the things done upon it appearing nowhere, when the so-called 166 *personalium* was brought before the office, a decision was made that was in no way deficient. And who would not shed a tear, coming to the memory of the encomia, which Sergius the great and Proclus the most just and Tribonianus the most learned used on behalf of the bureau and of such tokens of virtue, of whom the one was a prefect like no other, and the other two, having become quaestors, adorned the state, with all the advocates of that time joining them in their praises, about whom I think it is more seemly to be silent than to praise them unworthily. And these things were once so, but now not only are they not so, but it is not even deemed worthy of any memory for reasons which we have given more than once. 21 After the *ab actis*, the *regendarius*, appointed to the care of the warrants of the public post, is still so called even now, but does nothing, since the master of the court has taken away the whole authority of the matter. After him are those of the departments *cura epistularum*, who only write the decrees that circulate on public matters, being otherwise despised; but the so-called *tractatores*, by attaching their recognized instruction to the command, usurped the whole authority, especially from the time when the *scriniarii* began to dare to acquire the office for themselves. Here then is the end of the rational systems of the bureau. *Ducenarii* and *centenarii*, *biarchi* and *adiutores*, and the remaining members of the bureau, fulfilling the public service established for them by law, reach the end of their military service, such as fortune may grant, with the so-called *thecophoroi*, who carry the busts of the magistrate, and the *diaetarii* being enrolled in other corps of the bureau, but fulfilling a public service.

168 ON THE CORNICULARIUS OF THE GREATEST BUREAU 22 Since all the registers, I think, unless I am mistaken, have been gone through in my

account, it remains again at the end to display the *cornicularius* in the history like a venerable leader; for it is necessary to show him, who holds together the whole bureau, as both its beginning and its end. Now, time alone suffices for his credibility, he having been leader of the corps for more than thirteen hundred years and having appeared in affairs along with the very founding of sacred Rome; for from the beginning he was with the Master of the Horse, and the Master of the Horse with the king of that time. So from the beginnings of the Roman state the *cornicularius* is well-known, even if nothing is left to him except the name; for from the time when Domitian, taking the initiative from Augustus, appointed Fuscus—for so the Romans call the dark-complexioned man—praetorian prefect, in command of the armed forces, he showed the promotion of the Master of the Horse to be superfluous, and everything was changed. 23 Therefore, the *cornicularius* alone arranged whatever business was done in the prefectures and carried off the revenues from them for his own consolation; and this, which was in force from Domitian until our Theodosius, was altered on account of the tyranny of Rufinus. For the emperor Arcadius, fearing the power of the office, enacted a law, so that the *princeps* of the Master's bureau, by attending the highest courts, might investigate and meddle with the force of the proceedings in them and discover for what reason the warrants for the post were being issued. And thereafter Rufinus, from the time he came to the East on his own authority, flogged and destroyed the so-called count of the East, for which things he dared to aspire in word to the Prefecture. And the 170 constitution of Arcadius, as I said, was written in the old Theodosian Code, but those who compiled the new one overlooked it, as it appeared to them to be superfluous. 24 The *princeps* of the *magistriani* therefore, being present at the

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μέν, τῶν δὲ ἐπ' αὐτῇ πραχθέντων οὐδαμοῦ φαινομένων, εἰσενεχθέντος ἐπὶ τῆς ἀρχῆς τοῦ λεγομένου 166 περσωναλίου, ἔστη διάγνωσις κατ' οὐδὲν ἐνδέουσα. καὶ τίς οὐκ ἂν ἐπιδακρύσῃ τῶν ἐγκωμίων εἰς μνήμην ἐρχόμενος, οἷς ὑπὲρ τῆς τάξεως καὶ τῶν τοιούτων τῆς ἀρετῆς γνωρισμάτων ἐχρήσατο Σέργιός τε ὁ πολὺς καὶ Πρόκλος ὁ δικαιότατος Τριβουνιανός τε ὁ πολυμαθέστατος, ὧν ὁ μὲν ὕπαρχος οἷος οὐκ ἄλλος, οἱ δὲ ἄμφω κυαίστωρες γενόμενοι τὴν πολιτείαν ἐκόσμησαν, συλλαμβανομένων αὐτῶν αὐτοῖς περὶ τοὺς ἐπαίνους πάντων ὁμοῦ τῶν τότε δικολόγων, περὶ ὧν σιγᾶν ἄμεινον ἢ παρ' ἀξίαν ἐπαινεῖν κοσμιώτερον οἶμαι. καὶ ταῦτα μέν ποτε, νῦν δ' οὐ μόνον οὐκ ἔστιν, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ μνήμης τινὸς ἀξιοῦται δι' ἃς οὐχ ἅπαξ ἀποδεδώκαμεν αἰτίας. 21 Μετὰ δὲ τὸν ἀβ ἄκτις ὁ ῥεγενδάριος ἐπὶ τῆς φροντίδος τῶν συνθημάτων τοῦ δημοσίου δρόμου τεταγμένος ἔτι καὶ νῦν λέγεται μέν, πράττει δὲ οὐδέν, τοῦ μαγίστρου τῆς αὐλῆς τὴν ὅλην ὑφελομένου τοῦ πράγματος ἐξουσίαν. μεθ' ὃν οἱ τῶν διοικήσεων κοῦρα ἐπιστουλάρουμ, οἳ τὰς μὲν ἐπὶ τοῖς δημοσίοις φοιτώσας ψήφους γράφουσι μόνον, τὸ λοιπὸν καταφρονούμενοι· οἱ δὲ λεγόμενοι τρακτευταὶ τὴν ἐγνωσμένην αὐτοῖς διδασκαλίαν ὑποτιθέντες τῷ προστάγματι τὴν ὅλην ὑφήρπαζον ἐξουσίαν, μάλιστα ἐξ ὅτε τὴν ἀρχὴν ἑαυτοῖς ἐθάρρουν περιποιεῖν οἱ σκρινιάριοι. πέρας μὲν ὧδε τῶν λογικῶν τῆς τάξεως συστημάτων. δουκηνάριοι καὶ κεντηνάριοι βίαρχοί τε καὶ ἀδιούτωρες καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ τῆς τάξεως μέλη, ἀνύοντα τὴν ὑπὸ τοῦ νόμου τεθειμένην αὐτοῖς λειτουργίαν, τέρμα τῆς στρατείας, ὁποῖον ἡ τύχη δοίη, καταλαμβάνουσι, τῶν λεγομένων θηκοφόρων, οἳ τὰς προτομὰς τῆς ἀρχῆς φέρουσιν, καὶ διαιταρίων ἐν ἑτέροις μὲν τάγμασι τῆς τάξεως καταλεγομένων, λειτουργίαν δὲ πληρούντων.

168 ΠΕΡῚ ΤΟΥ͂ ΚΟΡΝΙΚΟΥΛΑΡΊΟΥ ΤΗΣ͂ ΜΕΓΊΣΤΗΣ ΤΆΞΕΩΣ 22 Πάντων, οἶμαι, τῶν καταλόγων, εἰ μή τι σφάλλομαι, παρελθόντων τῷ

λόγῳ, ὑπόλοιπόν ἐστιν αὖθις καθάπερ ἡγεμόνα σεμνὸν ἐπὶ τέλους τὸν κορνικουλάριον ἐπὶ τῆς ἱστορίας ἀναδεῖξαι· δεῖ γὰρ αὐτὸν τὴν ὅλην συνέχοντα τάξιν ἀρχὴν ἅμα καὶ πέρας αὐτῆς ἀποδεῖξαι. ἀρκεῖ μὲν οὖν αὐτῷ πρὸς ἀξιοπιστίαν καὶ μόνος ὁ χρόνος ὑπὲρ τριακοσίους καὶ χιλίους ἐνιαυτοὺς ἡγουμένῳ τοῦ τάγματος καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ τῷ πολισμῷ τῆς ἱερᾶς Ῥώμης ἐπιφανέντι τοῖς πράγμασιν· παρῆν γὰρ ἀνέκαθεν τῷ ἱππάρχῳ, ὁ δὲ ἵππαρχος τῷ τότε ῥηγί. ὥστε ἐκ προοιμίων τῆς Ῥωμαϊκῆς πολιτείας γνώριμος ὁ κορνικουλάριός ἐστιν, κἂν εἰ μηδὲν αὐτῷ παρὰ τὴν προσηγορίαν ἀπολέλειπται· ἐξ ὅτε γὰρ Φοῦσκον οὕτω δὲ τὸν μελάγχρωτα Ῥωμαῖοι καλοῦσιν ∆ομιτιανὸς πραιτωρίων ὕπαρχον κατὰ τὴν Αὐγούστου ἐγχείρησιν προβαλόμενος τὴν τοῦ ἱππάρχου περιττὴν ἀπέδειξε προαγωγήν, ὅπλων ἡγούμενος, μετηνέχθη πάντα. 23 Τοιγαροῦν τὰ ὅπως οὖν παρὰ τοῖς ὑπάρχοις πραττόμενα μόνος διέταττεν ὁ κορνικουλάριος καὶ τοὺς ἐξ αὐτῶν πόρους εἰς οἰκείαν ἀπεφέρετο παραψυχήν· καὶ τοῦτο ἀπὸ ∆ομιτιανοῦ ἕως τοῦ καθ' ἡμᾶς Θεοδοσίου κρατοῦν ἠμείφθη διὰ τὴν Ῥουφίνου τυραννίδα. νόμον γὰρ ἔθετο ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἀρκάδιος τὸ τῆς ἀρχῆς δυνατὸν δεδιττόμενος, ὥστε τὸν πρίγκιπα τῆς τάξεως τοῦ μαγίστρου παριόντα ἐπὶ τὰ μέγιστα δικαστήρια περιεργάζεσθαι καὶ πολυπραγμονεῖν τὴν δύναμιν τῶν πραττομένων ἐν αὐτοῖς καὶ οὗτινος χάριν γίνοιντο τὰ τοῦ δρόμου συνθήματα εὑρίσκειν. καὶ τὸ λοιπὸν ὁ Ῥουφῖνος, ἐξ ὅτε δι' ἑαυτοῦ ἐπὶ τὴν ἕω ἦλθεν, τὸν λεγόμενον κόμιτα τῆς ἀνατολῆς μαστίξας ἀπώλεσεν, ἀνθ' ὧν ἐτόλμησε ζηλῶσαι τῷ λόγῳ τὴν ἐπαρχότητα. καὶ ἡ μὲν Ἀρ 170 καδίου, ὡς ἔφην, διάταξις ἐν τῷ πάλαι Θεοδοσιανῷ Κώδικι ἀνεγέγραπτο, οἱ δὲ τὸν νεαρὸν καταστησάμενοι παρεῖδον αὐτὴν ὡς περιττὴν αὐτοῖς εἶναι φανεῖσαν. 24 Παρὼν οὖν ὁ πρίγκεψ τῶν μαγιστριανῶν τοῖς