Notarii and Exceptores: An Inquiry Into Role and Significance of Shorthand Writers in the Imperial and Ecclesiastical Bureaucracy of the Roman Empire: from the Early Principate to C. 450 A.D.

Description

In 411 AD an ecclesiastical conference was held in Carthage under the presidency of Flavius Marcellinus, tribunus et notarius. On that occasion exceptores and notarii ecclesiastici acted as shorthand writers. Thus at this conference we meet three species of one genus at different stages of their development: a tribunus et notarius, a high imperial official who, despite his title, probably did not know how to write shorthand; exceptores, minor civil servants working in public offices who were certainly stenographers at the time and notarii ecclesiastici, ecclesiastical bureaucrats whose task at the Carthaginian conference was to assist the exceptores with their work, but who at other times were more like tribuni et notarii. With the situation in 411 AD as a starting point an attempt is made to sketch the role and significance of notarii and exceptores in the Roman Empire, from the Early Principate to circa 450 AD. NOTARII AND EXCEPTORES Copyright CONTENTS PREFACE TECHNICAL POINTS I INTRODUCTION II NOTARII AND EXCEPTORES AND TACHYGRAPHY 1 Notarii and exceptores in Late Antiquity 2 The edict of Flavius MARCELLINUS 3 An exceptor reads aloud ex codice notarwn 4 The work of a notrius III IMPERIAL NOTARII AND TACHYGRAPHY 1 Tribuni et notarii at the beginning of the fifth century 2 Tribuni et notarii: imperial notarii 3 Imperial notarii and tachygraphy in the first half of the fourth century IV TACHYGRAPHERS AND THE EMPEROR 1 Tachygraphy: slave labour? (I) 2 Digression on the meaning of the words notarius and exceptor 3 Tachygraphy: slave labour? (II) 4 Notarii and the emperor: changes in the fourth century V IMPERIAL NOTARII DURING THE PRINCIPATE 1 Slaves and freedmen 2 Litterati milites 3 Tribuni et notarii VI THE 'GOLDEN AGE' OF THE IMPERIAL NOTARII 1 The incipience of the schola notariorum 2 Tribuni et notarii: officiales-with-officer-rank 3 The hierarchy within the schola notariorun 4 The social origins of imperial notarii at the beginning of the fourth century 5 Clarissimi and spectabiles VII EXCEPTORES 1 Exceptores in the officia 2 Hierarchical and other differences 3 Clarissimi 4 Apocryphal exceptores VIII NOTARII ECCLESIASTICI 1 Papal notarii 2 Deacons, presbyters and lectores 3 Militia Christi and Militia Caesaris IX EPILOGUE 1 Notarii and exceptores and tachygraphy 2 An inquiry in 449 X APPENDIX PROSOPOGRAPHICA XI APPENDIX ON THE TERM NOTA NOTES ABBREVIATIONS 1 Original sources 2 General works of reference, collections and periodicals 3 General LIST OF WORKS CONSULTED 1 Original sources 2 Secondary sources INDICES 1 Sources 2 Proper names 3 Fasti a Imperial notarii b Ecclesiastical notarii c Exaeptores 4 Latin terms 5 Greek terms 6 Modern authors