§ 1. Among the ministries of Magistrates the best known is the Accensus, so called from summoning. He imposed silence, which was called the Illicium, and proclaimed that it was the third hour, midday, and the ninth hour. This duty was commonly entrusted to Freedmen. He was more honorable than the Herald. The latter pronounced in an Assembly or in the Comitium anything that had to be recited; the Accensus summoned private persons before the Magistrate. All these were called Apparitors, just as they were Official Ministers. There were several decuries of Heralds. It was the duty of the Summoners to arrest and bind, as it was also that of the Lictors. Some derive the name of the latter from binding; Tiro derives it from the linen or thread with which they were girded crosswise. The same men were called Statores, and they do not appear to have been different from Apparitors. This entire class in the Provinces was called Brutiani. They were commanded to perform not military service but servile works because they had been the first of all to desert to Hannibal.
The Romans also possessed Interpreters, not only when they administered Provinces in which a different language was used, but even in Italy itself, and, although they knew Greek, in Sicily and Greece. They judged it fitting to the majesty of the Empire that they should display not only the fasces but also their language, so that the entire world might appear to belong not only to Roman law but also to the Roman idiom.
The Cornicularii were not Horn-Blowers, but Secretaries who presided over the wings and guarded the Praetorium. They were selected from veteran soldiers for this service, as it were, of repose, inquiry, and honor. Symmachus, book 10, epistle 56. A Greek gloss interprets the term as ῥαβδίτην καὶ πρίμαχον; they were adorned with the insignia of Spectability.
§ 2. There were Minor Court Offices, which were nevertheless also employed in the houses of private persons in the cities. An ancient inscription is reported to bear: “Diophantus, Adorner and Glabrarius of Tiberius Caesar.” The same men were also called Glabratores and Pumicatores, from the foul custom of removing bodily hair. Brambaricarii and Silversmiths also adorned things; they overlaid objects with gold, silver, and bronze, and engraved in gold, silver, and bronze. There was no class of artisans that was not subject to the Emperor. Their guilds were called corporate bodies and the men themselves Corporates; and they possessed
their own Prefects and Magistrates. Indeed, even the very lowest offices had Prefects: the superintendence of lime was a dignity. Cassiodorus, book 7, epistle 7: “Burnt lime is of the same color as snow and lighter than sponges. Our authority sets you over the burning and distribution of lime.”
Nomenclators, or Name-Callers, were produced by the multitude of men and by ambition, since they stuffed the names of individual citizens into the ears of candidates; from this they were also called Fartores, Stuffers. Afterward a law was written that no Nomenclator should attend a candidate.
Couriers must be appointed so that certain knowledge of every region may be possessed. There were Day-Runners, who traversed an immense distance in one day. They were later also called Mandate-Bearers, because they carried mandates to the Governors.
The entire arrangement of transports and freight-carriages, and likewise of navigation, was formerly established very differently in the very great Empire. Now things are generally transported more easily, more quickly, and at less expense through exchange and merchants.
Stationarii and Curiosi were established throughout the Provinces and reported to the Magistrate all offenses both of Judges and of the military. This was also the office of those who are called Agents in Affairs. Formerly the same men were Couriers with post-horses and Grain-Officers, for they were called πυροφόροι. But the name Grain-Officers was also employed for scouts. The Athenians called them ἀλήρους, because they investigated who was grinding grain at home. Accordingly they were ἐρευνηταὶ, that is, investigators of all matters, which they reported to the Prince. They were also soldiers and were named Saiones. Their use is especially necessary; but they must be trusted cautiously, and in cases of great offenses by Governors they must be employed secretly, lest the Governors rebel through fear of punishment. But the Agents in Affairs had various duties. After completing their labors, they were numbered among men of Consular rank. Their Chief summoned litigants before the Prefect. He exacted tributes.
Other Stationarii are forbidden to possess a prison. Constantine, Code, book 12, title 58: “Let no Stationarii dare to go beyond the exaction or possess a prison; nor let any man keep a person in custody before himself, even for a manifest crime, knowing that if anything of this kind has been committed, he is to be punished capitally.” Posted on the Ides of May at Carthage, in the fourth consulship of Constantine Augustus and the fourth of Licinius.
The prudence of the Princes judged that Account-Clerks and Record-Keepers must be disciplined severely by laws. Constantine, Code, book 12, title 50: “The rapacious and fraudulent purpose of the Account-Clerks, who render various services to Governors, must be restrained in such a manner that, as we previously ordained and now likewise ordain, they be subjected to tortures and lie beneath the rack and lacerations.” Given on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of June, in the consulship of Optatus and Paulinus.
A law of Honorius, Code, book 12, title 50, also kept the same men from association with Registry-Clerks: “Lest Registry-Clerks, aided by associations with Account-Clerks, continue longer to the ruin of all, let Your Illustrious Authority command all the Account-Clerks to abstain from the Registry-Clerks and withdraw from association with them. But if, after being admonished, they neglect to observe this, let them not doubt that they are subject to the same penalties as the Registry-Clerks.” Given on the fourth day before the Kalends of June at Nicaea, in the fourth consulship of Honorius Augustus and that of Eutychianus.
Apparitors thereafter held a very honorable place. Valentinian and Valens made them exempt, Code, book 12, title 55: “Those who shall have shown that they serve in the offices of the Masters of Horse and Foot shall be excused from every injurious nomination.” Given on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of October at Aquileia; accepted on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of November at Salerno, in the consulship of the Divine Jovian and Varronianus.
They were also of the military order: “Those who have obtained service in the office of the Masters of Horse and Foot shall be of the military order.”
Finally, the law joins them to Military Tribunes: “We command that the Account-Clerks of the Illustrious men, the Masters of Soldiers both in the Presence and in the East, who have been adorned with rank and years of military service, shall upon departure be joined to Praetorian Tribunes, receiving the benefit from their labors in the military part, in such a manner, plainly, that after their military service has been completed, they shall always be held exempt from all appointments by both military and civil Judges. But we wish those who have discharged the office of Chief to be aggregated to the Twenty Military Tribunes.”