East, and the last the Augustal Praefect, whilst the rulers of the remaining four are entitled Vicars.[1] When I add that the Orient, the most extensive of these divisions, comprised in fifteen provinces the whole of Palestine and Syria as well as the southern tract of Asia Minor, from the Tigris to the Mediterranean, and the island of Cyprus, the limits of the other dioceses may be conjectured from their names with sufficient accuracy for our present purpose.[2] By a final partition the dominions of the Byzantine Emperor were assigned, but very unequally, to two officers of the highest or Illustrious rank, viz.: the Praetorian Praefects of the East and of Illyricum. Dacia and Macedonia fell to the rule of the latter, whilst the remaining five dioceses were consolidated under the control of the former minister.[3] The Praefect of the East is in general to be regarded as the subject in closest proximity to the throne, in fact, the first minister of the crown.[4] The Imperial capital, as being outside all these subordinate arrangements, was treated as a microcosm in itself; and with its Court in permanent residence, its bureaus of central administration, and its special Praefect of Illustrious rank, may almost be considered as a third of the prime divisions of the Empire. Here, as a rule, through the long series of Byzantine annals, by the voice of the populace and the army, or by the intrigues of the Court, emperors were made or unmade.
- ↑ On the roll of precedence the Vicars and Proconsuls were Spectabiles, the ordinary governors Clarissimi. The intendant of the Long Walls was also called a Vicar; Novel., viii.
- ↑ See the Notitia.
- ↑ The independence of proconsular Asia has already been mentioned.
- ↑ "Yielding only to the sceptre"; Jn. Lydus, De Magistr., ii, 5. On the roll of precedence, however, he came after consuls and patricians, but he was usually an ex-consul and patrician as well; see Godefroy ad Cod. Theod., VI, vi.
