rt(h)erius is promoted to the office of REGERENDARIUS
(Secretary of the Post-Office), in the hope that this promotion will
render him yet more earnest in the discharge of his Praetorian
labours.

In Letter 30 Ursus is appointed PRIMICERIUS DEPUTATORUM, and Beatus
(probably the Cancellarius addressed in Letter 10) is made PRIMICERIUS
AUGUSTALIUM.

In Letter 31 Urbicus, on vacating the post of PRIMICERIUS
SINGULARIORUM (Chief of the King's Messengers), is placed among the
Body-guards (Domestici et Protectores), where he may adore the Royal
Purple, that, being made illustrious by gazing on the Sovereign, he
may rejoice in his liberation from official harassment.

[As the Singularii did not form part of the learned staff (Militia
Litterata), their chief on retiring receives a guardsman's place, but
still one which gives him access to royalty.]

In Letter 32 Pierius receives the post of PRIMICERIUS SINGULARIORUM
which is thus vacated.

[Sidenote: Delegatoria.]

In Letter 33 Cassiodorus, expanding the proverb 'Bis dat qui cito
dat,' agrees that the _Delegatoria_[778] (or Delegatiorius), the
letter conferring on the receiver the right to receive the increase of
rations due to his promotion, should not be long delayed.

[Footnote 778: We get this sense of Delegatio in Cod. Theod. vii. 4.
35: '_Annonas omnes_, quae universis officiis atque Sacri Palatii
Ministeriis et Sacris Scriniis ceterisque cunctarum adminiculis
dignitatum adsolent _delegari_.']

In Letter 34 Antianus, the retired Cornicularius of Letter 18,
receives a somewhat evasive answer to a petition which apparently
affected the rights of those below him in the official hierarchy[779].

[Footnote 779: In this letter occurs a sentence of tantalising
obscurity: 'Sola nos Alpha complectitur ubi ea littera non timetur.']

In Letter 35 we have an example of the _Delegatoria_ alluded to in
Letter 33. It is concerned with a PRINCEPS, apparently the Princeps of
the AGENTES IN REBUS; and, after extolling the zeal and alacrity of
those officers, who are constantly intent on enforcing obedience to
the Imperial decrees and reverence for the authority of the Praetorian
Praefect, he observes that it would be impiety to delay the reward of
such labour.

'Therefore let your Experience[780] pay, out of the third instalment
of land-tax[781] from such and such a Province, those monies which the
wisdom of Antiquity directed should be paid to the Princeps
Augustorum[782]. L