Officium (ancient Rome)

Officium (plural officia) is a Latin word with various meanings in ancient Rome, including "service", "(sense of) duty", "courtesy", "ceremony" and the like. It also translates the Greek kathekon and was used in later Latin to render more modern offices. However, this article is mainly concerned with the meaning of "an office" (the modern word office derives from it) or "bureau" in the sense of a dignitary's staff of administrative and other collaborators, each of whom was called an officialis (hence the modern official).

The Notitia Dignitatum gives us uniquely detailed information, stemming from the very imperial chanceries, on the composition of the officia of many of the leading court, provincial, military and certain other officials of the two Roman empires c. AD 400. While the details vary somewhat according to rank, from West (Rome) to East (Byzantium) and/or in particular cases, in general the leading staff would be about as follows (the English descriptions and other modern "equivalents" are approximate):

• Princeps officii was the chief of staff, permanent secretary or chef de cabinet
• Cornicularius was a military title, for an administrative deputy of various generals etc.
• Adiutor (literally "helper") seems to have been the chief (general) assistant, or adjutant
• Commentariensis was the keeper of "commentaries", an official diary
• Ab actis was the keeper of records, the archivist
• Numerarius ("accountant") seems to have been the receiver of taxes
• Subadiuva ("under-helper") seems to have been a general assistant
• Cura epistolarum was the curator of correspondence
• Regerendarius may have been a registrar
• Exceptor seem to have been a secretary
• Singularius has been called a notary, but the word can also refer to a bodyguard

Below those "dignities", there were often a few hundred minor officials, often slaves or freedmen, doing the clerical drudgery, not deemed worthy of any more detailed mention. They are only referred to collectively, by various terms in the plural, such as cohortalini (apparently the diminutive of cohortalis, the very term suggesting significant number; see cohors amicorum).

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Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome

In modern historiography, Ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and Roman Empire until the fall of the western empire.

Kathekon

Kathekon

Kathēkon is a Greek concept, forged by the founder of Stoicism, Zeno of Citium. It may be translated as "appropriate behaviour", "befitting actions", or "convenient action for nature", or also "proper function". Kathekon was translated in Latin by Cicero as officium, and by Seneca as convenentia. Kathēkonta are contrasted, in Stoic ethics, with katorthōma, roughly "perfect action"

Official

Official

An official is someone who holds an office in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority. An elected official is a person who is an official by virtue of an election. Officials may also be appointed ex officio. Some official positions may be inherited. A person who currently holds an office is referred to as an incumbent. Something "official" refers to something endowed with governmental or other authoritative recognition or mandate, as in official language, official gazette, or official scorer.

Notitia Dignitatum

Notitia Dignitatum

The Notitia Dignitatum is a document of the late Roman Empire that details the administrative organization of the Western and the Eastern Roman Empire. It is unique as one of very few surviving documents of Roman government, and describes several thousand offices from the imperial court to provincial governments, diplomatic missions, and army units. It is usually considered to be accurate for the Western Roman Empire in the AD 420s and for the Eastern or Byzantine Empire in the AD 390s. However, the text itself is not dated, and omissions complicate ascertaining its date from its content.

Slavery

Slavery

Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labor. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the enslaver. Enslavement is the placement of a person into slavery.

Diminutive

Diminutive

A diminutive is a word obtained by modifying a root word to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A diminutive form is a word-formation device used to express such meanings. In many languages, diminutives are word forms that are formed from the root word by affixation. In most languages, diminutives can also be formed as multi-word constructions such as "Tiny Tim", or "Little Dorrit". Diminutives are often employed as nicknames and pet names when speaking to small children and when expressing extreme tenderness and intimacy to an adult. The opposite of the diminutive form is the augmentative.

Cohors amicorum

Cohors amicorum

Cohors amicorum is a Latin term, literally meaning "cohort of friends". The notion cohort is to be taken not in the strict, military sense, but indicated a fairly large number; accordingly, friend is to be taken in a loose sense, rather as in amicus curiae; compare the Hellenistic aulic title philos [basilikos].