nd after the _Admissionales_, whom we must look upon as
the Ushers of the Court, comes the entry,

Cancellarii:

their very number not stated, the office being too obscure to make a
few less or more a matter of importance.

[Footnote 173: Occidentis ix. 15.]

After the compilation of the 'Notitia' the office of Cancellarius
apparently rose somewhat in importance, and was introduced into other
departments besides that of the Master of the Offices.

One Cancellarius appears attached to the Court of Cassiodorus as
Praetorian Praefect, and from the admonitions addressed to him by his
master[174], we see that he had it in his power considerably to aid
the administration of justice by his integrity, or to hinder it by
showing himself accessible to bribes.

[Footnote 174: In Var. xi. 6, which see.]

In describing the Cancellarius, as in almost every other part of his
treatise, Lydus has to tell a dismal story of ruin and decay[175]:

[Footnote 175: iii. 36, 37.]

'Now the Scriniarii [subordinates of the Magister Officiorum] are made
Cancellarii and Logothetes and purveyors of the Imperial table,
whereas in old time the Cancellarius was chosen only from the ranks of
Augustales and Exceptores who had served with credit. In those days
the Judgment Hall [of the Praefect] recognised only two Cancellarii,
who received an _aureus_ apiece[176] per day from the Treasury. There
was aforetime in the Court of Justice a fence separating the
Magistrate from his subordinates, and this fence, being made of long
splinters of wood placed diagonally, was called _cancellus_, from its
likeness to network, the regular Latin word for a net being casses,
and the diminutive cancellus[177]. At this latticed barrier then stood
two _Cancellarii_, by whom, since no one was allowed to approach the
judgment-seat, paper was brought to the members of the staff and
needful messages were delivered. But now that the office owing to the
number of its holders[178] has fallen into disrepute, and that the
Treasury no longer makes a special provision for their maintenance,
almost all the hangers-on of the Courts of Law call themselves
Cancellarii; and, not only in the capital but in the Provinces, they
give themselves this title in order that they may be able more
effectually to plunder the wealthy.'

[Footnote 176: About twelve shillings.]

[Footnote 177: This derivation from casses is, of course, absurd.]

[Footnote 178: Can this be the meaning