e which in other cases would be considered matter for
accusation[431].

[Footnote 430: 'Ingressus palatium nostra consuetudine frequenter
adoratur.' We know from Lydus (De Mag. ii. 9) that the highest
officers of the army _knelt_ at the entrance of the Praetorian
Praefect. Perhaps we need not infer from this passage that Oriental
_prostration_ was used either towards Theodoric or his Praefect.]

[Footnote 431: 'Et tale officium morem videtur solvere, quod alios
potuit accusare.']

'In power, no dignity is his equal. He judges everywhere as the
representative of the Sovereign[432]. No soldier marks out to him the
limits of his jurisdiction, except the official of the Master of the
Soldiery. I suppose that the ancients wished [even the Praefect] to
yield something to those who were to engage in war on behalf of the
Republic.

[Footnote 432: 'Vice sacra ubique judicat.']

'He punishes with stripes even the Curials, who are called in the laws
a Lesser Senate.

'In his own official staff (officium) he is invested with peculiar
privileges; since all men can see that he lays his commands on men of
such high quality that not even the Judges of Provinces may presume to
look down upon them. The staff is therefore composed of men of the
highest education, energetic, strong-minded[433], intent on prompt
obedience to the orders of their head, and not tolerating obstruction
from others. To those who have served their time in his office, he
grants the rank of Tribunes and Notaries, thus making his attendants
equal to those who, mingled with the chiefs of the State, wait upon
our own presence.

[Footnote 433: 'Officium plane geniatum, efficax, instructum et tota
animi firmitate praevalidum.']

'We joyfully accomplish that which he arranges, since our reverence
for his office constrains us to give immediate effect to his decrees.
He deserves this at our hands, since his forethought nourishes the
Palace, procures the daily rations of our servants, provides the
salaries even of the Judges themselves[434]. By his arrangements he
satiates the hungry appetites of the ambassadors of the [barbarous]
nations[435]. And though other dignities have their specially defined
prerogatives, by him everything that comes within the scope of our
wisely-tempered sway is governed.

[Footnote 434: 'Humanitates quoque judicibus ipsis facit.']

[Footnote 435: 'Legatos gentium voraces explet ordinationibus suis.'
_Voraces_ seems to give a better s