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 title 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
'Notitia'[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
Cassiodorus[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 passages of the
Theodosian Code which relate to this class 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 classes of judges[161], were degraded
into _Tabularii_, a name which had previously indicated the cashiers
of a municipality 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 Illyricum. 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;'