ABSTRACT
In a society in which official titles of rank counted for so much, it is inevitable that this criterion should govern any description of the social classification of the empire. It has, however, two disadvantages. Official rank did not always coincide with social status. There were always some who had no titles but ranked high; thus the great bishops came to be social equals of senators. On the other hand some relatively humble persons earned official rank. In the second place, there was a great inflation of honours in the later Roman empire, and titles which had been very select became widely diffused and sank in value. Under Diocletian to be clarissimus meant to belong to that very exclusive body, the Roman senate, which comprised perhaps the 500 best families of the empire. By the reign of Justinian there were many thousands of clarissimi and the title carried few privileges and not much prestige. In the time of Diocletian praetorian prefects were normally not senators and bore the highest equestrian title, eminentissimus, while the next equestrian grade, perfectissimus, was accorded to the ministers of the court, vicars, duces and provincial governors. By the latter part of the fourth century the perfectissimate was being granted to the financial chief clerks (numerarii) of provincial governors and to the quartermasters (actuarii) of regiments after five years blameless service, while the ranks of ducenarius and centenarius survived only for middle-grade clerks in the largitiones, and egregius, the lowest equestrian rank, is never mentioned after 324.
