he various administrative departments. These
ministers were the master of the offices, the quaestor, the count of the
sacred largesses and the count of the private purse. The master of the
offices united in his hands the control of the secretarial bureaus of the
palace, the oversight over the public post, the direction of the
_agentes-in-rebus_, who constituted the imperial secret service, the
command of the scholarians, the supervision of several branches of the
palace administration, and jurisdiction over practically all of the
personal servants of the emperor. As we have seen, in the East he also
exercised certain authority over the _duces_. The quaestor (to be
distinguished from the holders of the urban quaestorships) was a minister
of justice, part of whose duties consisted in the preparation of imperial
legislation. The count of the sacred largesses was the successor to the
_rationalis_, who had been in charge of the imperial fiscus under the
principate. He was charged with the collection and disbursement of the
public revenues which were paid in money, and his title was derived from
the fact that the funds under his control were used for the imperial
donations or largesses. He likewise had the supervision of the imperial
factories engaged in the manufacture of silks, and other textiles. The
count of the private purse was the head of the department of the _res
privata_ and in charge of the revenues from the imperial domains. These
ministers with certain other administrative officials of the court and the
chief officers of the imperial household, such as the grand chamberlain,
were known as the palace dignitaries (_dignitates palatinae_).

Rome and Constantinople were exempt from the authority of the praetorian
prefects, and were each administered by a city prefect. Two consuls were
nominated annually, one at Rome and one at Constantinople, and gave their
names to the official year, but their duties were limited to furnishing
certain entertainments for the populace of the capitals. This was also the
sole function of the praetorship and quaestorship, which were now filled
by imperial appointment upon the recommendation of the city prefects.

*The imperial council of state.* The system of graded subordination, which
placed the lower officials in each department under the orders of those
having wider powers, brought about the ultimate concentration of the civil
and military administration in the hands of about twenty o