[404] As the illustrations of the Notitia are not accompanied by any explanation, considerable uncertainty prevails in respect of their point and intention; it appears almost incontestable, however, that the coloured figures were depicted in the codicils as they are seen in the MSS. of the work; otherwise only verbal descriptions of the insignia would be given; cf. Novel xxv, _et seq._; Const. Porph., ii, 52.
[405] Cod. Theod., VI, xxii; a title omitted from the Code.
[406] _Principes Officii_ and _Cornicularii_; Notitia, _passim_; Cod., XII, liii, etc.
[407] Const. Porph., ii, 1, 2; cf. Valesius ad Ammianum, xxii, 7. These early visitations were habitual in the Roman republic, as when the whole Senate waited on the newly-elected consuls on the Calends of January; Dion Cass., lviii, 5, etc.; and especially in the regular matutinal calls of clients on their patrons _re_ the _sportula_; cf. Sidonius Ap. Epist., i, 2. His description of the routine of a court _c. 450_ corresponds closely with the above. It must have been copied from Rome.
[408] Chrysostom, De Perf. Carit., 6 (in Migne, vi, 286); Theophanes, an. 6094, 6291, etc.; cf. Suetonius, in Nero, 25, etc.; Ducange, _sb. eq. alb._
[409] These state carriages, open and closed, painted in gaudy colours, with gilded pilasters, mouldings, and various figures in relief, resembled certain vehicles used in the last century and some circus cars of the present day; see Banduri, ii, pl. 4, _sup. cit._; the work of Panvinius on Triumphs, etc.
[410] Const. Porph., i, 1, and Append., p. 498, with Reiske’s Notes; Dion Cass., lxiii, 4; lxxiv, 1, etc.
[411] Theophanes, an. 6019, 6050, etc.; Menologium Graec., i, p. 67; Cedrenus, i, p. 599; ii, p. 536.
[413] See Reiske _ad_ Const. Porph., p. 434, _et seq._
[414] See Zosimus, ii, 39; Alemannus ad Procop., iii, p. 390; Ducange, _sb. voc._
[415] See Godfrey’s Notitia Dignitatum, _ad calc._ Cod. Theod.; Selden’s Titles of Honour, p. 886; the epilogues to the Novels, etc. Minor dignities, entitled _Perfectissimi_, _Egregii_, are also mentioned, but are obsolete at this date; _Superillustres_ were not unknown; see Ducange, _sb. voc._
[416] Const. Porph., i, 68; see Labarte, _op. cit._, pp. 16, 140, etc.