ABSTRACT
All forms of the service of the state were known as militia, but there was a sharp distinction between the higher posts, the dignitates, honores or administrationes, and militia officialis, the subordinate jobs of the clerks, accountants, orderlies and messengers. A dignitas was conferred by a codicil signed by the emperor himself and was held during the emperor’s pleasure, usually for a brief term of a year or two; only in very exceptional cases did a man hold a dignitas for as much as five or ten years. An ambitious man might hold a series of dignitates increasing in importance and rank, but he rarely held more than half a dozen posts in a lifetime and often fewer, quite often one or two only, and his term of office was not necessarily or usually continuous. A militia on the other hand was conferred by a simple administrative document, a probatoria, issued from the imperial secretariat, and was held continuously until retirement, often for twenty or thirty years.
