Cornicularius.
(2) The Cornicularius. As to this officer we have a good many details in the pages of Joannes Lydus. The antiquarian and etymological part of his information must generally be received with caution; but as to the actual privileges of the office in the days of Justinian we may very safely speak after him, since it was an office which he himself held, and whose curtailed gains and privileges caused him bitter disappointment.
'The foremost in rank,' says he[124], 'of the Emperor's assistants (Adjutores) is even to this day called Cornicularius, that is to say horned (κεραιτης), or fighting in the front rank. For the place of the monarch or the Caesar was in the middle of the army, where he alone might direct the stress of battle. This being the Emperor's place, according to Frontinus, on the left wing was posted the Praefect or Master of the Horse, and on the right the Praetors or Legati, the latter being the officers left in charge of the army when their year of office was drawing to a close, to hold the command till the new Consul should come out to take it from them.
'Of the whole Legion then, amounting to 6,000 men, exclusive of cavalry and auxiliaries, as I before said, the Cornicularius took the foremost place; and for that reason he still presides over the whole [civil] service, now that the Praefect, for reasons before stated, no longer goes forth to battle.
'Since, then, all the rest of the staff are called assistants (Adjutores), the Praefect gives an intimation under his own hand to him who is entering the service in what department (καταλογος) he is ordered to take up his station[125]. And the following are the names of all the departments of the service. First the Cornicularius, resplendent in all the dignity of a so-called Count (κομης; comes; companion), but having not yet laid aside his belt of office, nor received the honour of admission to the palace, or what they call brevet-rank (codicilli vacantes), which honour at the end of his term of service is given to him, and to none of the other chiefs of departments[126].
'And after the Cornicularius follow:—
'2 Primiscrinii,
'2 Commentarisii,
'2 Regendarii,
'2 Curae Epistolarum,
'15 Scholae of Exceptores,
and then the "unlearned service" of the Singularii[127].'
Again, further on[128], Lydus, who delights to 'magnify his office,' gives us this further information as to the rank and functions of the Cornicularius:
'Now that, if I am not mistaken, we have described all the various official grades, it is meet to set forth the history of the Cornicularius, the venerable head of the Civil Service, the man who, as beginning and ending, sums up in himself the complete history of the whole official order. The mere antiquity of his office is sufficient to establish his credit, seeing that he was the leader of his troop for 1,300 years, and made his appearance in the world at the same time with the sacred City of Rome itself: for the Cornicularius was, from the first, attendant on the Master of the Horse, and the Master of the Horse on the King, and thus the Cornicularius, if he retained nothing of his office but the name, would still be connected with the very beginnings of the Roman State.