Imperii_.

C. 4.--This invaluable work sets forth in detail the whole machinery
of the Imperial Government, its official hierarchy, both civil
and military, in every land, and a summary of the forces under the
authority of each commander. A reference in Claudian would seem
to show that it was compiled by the industry of Celerinus, the
_Primicerius Notariorum_ or Head Clerk of the Treasury. The poet tells
us how this indefatigable statistician--

"Cunctorum tabulas assignat honorum, Regnorum tractat numeros,
constringit in unum Sparsas Imperii vires, cuneosque recenset
Dispositos; quae Sarmaticis custodia ripis, Quae saevis
objecta Getis, quae Saxona frenat Vel Scotum legio; quantae
cinxere cohortes Oceanum, quanto pacatur milite Rhenus."[354]

["Each rank, each office in his lists he shows, Tells every
subject realm, together draws The Empire's scattered force,
recounts the hosts In order meet;--which Legion is on guard By
Danube's banks, which fronts the savage Goth, Which curbs the
Saxon, which the Scot; what bands Begird the Ocean, what keep
watch on Rhine."]

To us the 'Notitia' is only known by the 16th-century copies of a
10th-century MS. which has now disappeared.[355] But these were made
with exceptional care, and are as nearly as may be facsimiles of the
original, even preserving its illuminated illustrations, including the
distinctive insignia of every corps in the Roman Army.

C. 5.--The number of these corps had, we find, grown erormously since
the days of Hadrian, when, as Dion Cassius tells us, there were 19
"Civic Legions" (of which three were quartered in Britain). No fewer
than 132 are now enumerated, together with 108 auxiliary bodies. But
we may be sure that each of these "legions" was not the complete Army
Corps of old,[356] though possibly the 25 of the First Class, the
_Legiones Palatinae_, may have kept something of their ancient
effectiveness. Indeed it is not wholly improbable that these alone
represent the old "civil" army; the Second and Third Class
"legions," with their extraordinary names ("Comitatenses" and
"Pseudo-Comitatenses"), being indeed merely so called by "courtesy,"
or even "sham courtesy."

C. 6.--In Britain we find the two remaining legions of the
old garrison, the Second, now quartered not at Caerleon but at
Richborough, under the Count of the Saxon Shore, and the Sixth under
the "Duke of the Britains," holding the north (with