, unlike the others of which we have been speaking, was held for
life.

It is a question on which I think we need further information, whether
a person who had once filled an Illustrious office lost the right to
be so addressed on vacating it. I am not sure that we have any clear
case in the following collection of an ex-official holding this
courtesy-rank; but it seems probable that such would be the case.

Considering also the great show of honour with which the Consulate,
though now destitute of all real power, was still greeted, it seems
probable that the Consuls for the year would rank as Illustres; but
here, too, we seem to require fuller details.

[Sidenote: Spectabiles.]

II. We now come to the Second Class, the _Spectabiles_, which consists
chiefly of the lieutenants and deputies of the Illustres.

For instance, every Praetorian Praefect had immediately under him a
certain number of _Vicarii_, each of whom was a Spectabilis. The
Praefecture included an extent of territory equivalent to two or three
countries of Modern Europe (for instance, the Praefecture of the Gauls
embraced Britain, Gaul, a considerable slice of Germany, Spain, and
Morocco). This was divided into Dioceses (in the instance above
referred to Britain formed one Diocese, Gaul another, and Spain with
its attendant portion of Africa a third), and the Diocese was again
divided into Provinces. The title of the ruler of the Diocese, who in
his restricted but still ample domain wielded a similar authority to
that of the Illustrious Praefect, was _Spectabilis Vicarius_.

But the Praefect and the Vicar controlled only the civil government of
the territories over which they respectively bore sway. The military
command of the Diocese was vested in a _Spectabilis Comes_, who was
under the orders of the Illustrious Magister Militum. Subordinate in
some way to the Comes was the _Dux_, who was also a Spectabilis, but
whose precise relation to his superior the Comes is, to me at least,
not yet clear[115].

[Footnote 115: I think the usual account of the matter is that which I
have given elsewhere (Italy and her Invaders, i. 227), that the Comes
had military command in the Diocese and the Dux in the Province. But
on closer examination I cannot find that the Notitia altogether bears
out this view. It gives us for the Western Empire eight Comites and
twelve Duces. The former pretty nearly correspond to the Dioceses, but
the latter are far too few for the