as the establishment of the public post as a means of intercourse
throughout all the provinces. It was possibly with the object of supplying
the necessary officials to undertake these new tasks that Hadrian created
the office of the advocate of the _fiscus_ as an alternative for the
preliminary military career of the procurators.

Septimius Severus, as we have seen, opened the posts of the civil
administration to veteran officers upon the completion of a long period of
military service. Thus, although a purely civil career was established,
which led ultimately to the highest prefectures, nevertheless, during the
principate the civil administrative offices were never completely
separated from the traditional preliminary military service. It was
Septimius Severus also who made the praetorian prefect, as the
representative of the princeps, the head of the civil as well as of the
military administration.

*The salary and titles of the equestrian officials.* The ordinary career
of an official in the imperial civil service included a considerable
number of procuratorships in various branches of the administration, both
in Rome, Italy and the provinces. Although from the time of Augustus a
definite salary was attached to each of these offices, it was not until
after the reforms of Hadrian that four distinct classes of procurators
were recognized on the basis of the relative importance of their offices
expressed in terms of pay. These four classes of procurators were the
_tercenarii_, _ducenarii_, _centenarii_ and _sexagenarii_, who received
respectively an annual salary of 300,000, 200,000, 100,000 and 60,000
sesterces; this classification remained unchanged until the close of the
third century. At that time the highest class included the imperial
secretaries of state, whose title was now that of _magister_, or master.
The salary of the four chief prefectures was probably higher still.

Following the example of the senatorial order, the equestrians also
acquired titles of honor, which depended upon their official rank. From
the time of Hadrian the title _vir eminentissimus_ (most eminent) was the
prerogative of the praetorian prefects. Under Marcus Aurelius appear two
other equestrian titles, _vir perfectissimus_ and _vir egregius_. In the
third century the latter was borne by all the imperial procurators, while
the former was reserved for the higher prefectures (apart from the
praetorian), the chief officials of the treasury