Note 163 — Chapter IV

This is Bethmann Hollweg's interpretation of the words of Lydus, 'οι τας μεν επι τοις δημοσιοις φοιτωσας ψηφους γραφουσι μονον, το λοιπον καταφρονουμενοι (iii. 21). In another passage (iii. 4, 5) Lydus appears to assign a reason for the fact that the Praefectus Urbis Constantinopolitanae, the Magister Militum, and the Magister Officiorum had no Cura Epistolarum on their staff; but the paragraph is to me hopelessly obscure. Curiously enough, too, while he avers that every department of the State (perhaps every diocese) had, as a rule, its own Curae Epistolarum, he limits the two in the Praetorian Praefect's office to the diocese of Pontica (κουρα επιστολαρουμ Ποντικης δυο).