82 THE DECLINE AND FALL the civil adiTiinistration ; and he was assisted, in due subordina- tion, by the eparch or praefect of the city, the first secretary, and the keepers of the jn'ivy seal, the archives, and the red or purple ink which was resei'ved for the sacred siijnature of the emperor alone. ^^ The introductor and interpreter of foreign ambassadors were the ijreat Chinuss*'^ and the T)rct"om(ui,'^^ two names of Turkish origin, and Avhich are still familiar to the Sublime Porte. 3. From the humble style and service of guards, the Dnwc.stics insensibly rose to the station of generals ; the military themes of the East and West, the legions of Europe and Asia, were often divided, till the great Domestic was finally invested with the imiversal and absolute command of the land forces.^" The Prn- tostrator, in his original functions, was the assistant of the em- peror when he mounted on horseback ; he gradually became the lieutenant of the great Domestic in the field; and his jurisdic- tion extended over the stables, the cavalry, and the royal train of hunting and hawking. The Stratnpedarch was the great judge of the camp; the Prolo.spat/iaire '^^ comnvAuded the guards; the Coiistdhle,^'^ the great Mteriarch/"^ and the Acoh/fh ^^ were the (to ytiaKoi/ = the Exchequer. For the history of the financial bureaux, compare Bury, Later Roman Empire, ii. p. 324, note). But there were other Losothetes : the Logothete of the military chest (tov tTTpaTu„TiKnv) ; the Logothete of the Dromos or Imperial post — a name which first occurs in the 8th century ; the Logothete of the pastures (tmv aye^dv, " of the flocks ").] ■"From Leo I. (a.D. 470) the Imperial ink, which is still visible on some original acts, was a mixture of vermillion and cinnabar or purple. The Emperor's guardians, who shared in this prerogative, always marked in green ink the indiction and the month. See the Dictionnaire Diplomatique (torn. i. p. 511, 513), a valuable abridgment. ■*-'The Sultan sent a Siaovs to Alexius (Anna Comnena, 1. vi. p. 170 [c. 9] ; Ducange nd lor.), and Pachymer often speaks of the ineya? TtTnoi;; (1. vii. c. i, 1. xii. c. 30, ]. xiii. c. 22). The Chiaoush basha is now at the head of 700 officers (Rycaut's Ottoman Empire, p. 349, octavo edition). ■*•■ Tagerman is the Arabic name of an interpreter (d'Herbelot, p. 854, 855); TTpiTjTOi; T<oi' iDu.-t]viiiiv ov? jcoirio^ Qro/ia^nncri Spayo/iai'ou?. SayS Codinus (c. V. No. 70, p. 67). See Villehardouin (No. 96), Busbequius (Epist. iv. p. 338), and Ducange (Observations sur Villehardouin and Gloss. Graec. et Latin).' ^'^ [There were various offices (7 in the loth century) with the title Domestic. The three chief were the Domestic of the .Schools, the Domestic of the Excubiti, and the Domestic of the Imperials. Cp. Philotheus apud Const. Porph. i. p. 713.]
- '^ [The npa)Too-n-a0apio9 twv fiamKLKo'v. But protospathafios was also a rank, not
a title ; it was the rank below that of patrician and above that of spatharocandi- datus (which in turn was superior to that of spa/Aarios).]
- ^ Kovna-Tavo<;. or Koi'TotrrauAo?, a Corruption from the Latin Comes stabuli, or
the French ConniJtable. In a military sense, it was used by the Greeks in the xith century, at least as early as in France. ^ [6 traipftapxij?, cp. above, vol. V. p. 208, note 45.]
- ' [aKoKovOos, and if anglicized should be acohith. aKoKoveCa meant a ceremony.]
