to the Count of Sacred Largesses. Let there be no
extortion from the cultivator, no dishonest surrender of our rights.'

23. FORMULA OF THE VICARIUS OF PORTUS.

[Sidenote: Vicarius Portus.]

'Great prudence is necessary in your office, since discords easily
arise between two nationalities. Therefore you must use skill to
soothe those [the Greek merchants and sailors from the Levant] whose
characters are unstable as the winds, and who, unless you bring their
minds into a state of calm, will, with their natural quickness of
temper, fly out into the extremity of insolence.'

24. FORMULA OF THE PRINCEPS OF DALMATIA.

[Sidenote: Princeps Dalmatiarum.]

[The Princeps, as observed on p. 96, seems to have practically
disappeared from the Officium of the Praefectus Praetorio. Here,
however, we find a Provincial Princeps whose rank and functions are
not a little perplexing. It seems probable that, while still nominally
only the chief of a staff of subordinates, he may, owing to the
character of the superior under whom he served, have practically
assumed more important functions. That superior in this case was a
Comes, whose military character is indicated by the first letter of
this book. The Princeps was therefore virtually the Civil Assessor of
this officer.

The Comes under Theodoric would generally be a Goth; the Princeps must
be a Roman and a Jurisconsult. The business of the former was war and
administration; that of the latter, judgment, though his decisions
were apparently pronounced by the mouth of the Comes, his superior in
rank.]

'Whosoever serves while bearing the title of Princeps has high
pre-eminence among his colleagues. To the Consul of the Provinces
power is given, but to you the Judge himself is entrusted. Without you
there is no access to the Secretarium, nor is the ceremony of
salutation[478] [by subordinate officers] performed. You hold the
vine-rod[479] which menaces the wicked; you have the right, withheld
from the Governor himself, of punishing the insolence of an orator
pleading in his Court. The records of the whole suit have to be signed
by you, and for this your consent is sought after the will of the
Judge has been explained.'

[Footnote 478: 'Pompa osculationis.' Another reading is 'Pompa
postulationis.']

[Footnote 479: 'Tu vitem tenes improbis minantem.' The allusion is to
the vine-bough, which was used in scourging. The alternative reading,
_vitam_, does not seem to give so goo