The rank and duties of the Praetorian Praefect of Italy, the Master of
the Offices, and the Quaestor have already been described in the first
chapter. It will be well to say a few words as to the four remaining
civil dignitaries, the Praefect of the City, the Grand Chamberlain,
the Count of Sacred Largesses, and the Count of the Private Domains.

[Sidenote: Praefect of the City.]

(_a_) The _Praefectus Urbis Romae_ was by virtue of his office head of
the Senate. He had the care of the Annona or corn-largesses to the
people, the command of the City-watch, and the duty of keeping the
aqueducts in proper repair. The shores and channel of the Tiber, the
vast _cloacae_ which carried off the refuse of the City, the quays and
warehouses of Portus at the river's mouth were also under his
authority. The officer who was charged with taking the census, the
officers charged with levying the duties on wine, the masters of the
markets, the superintendents of the granaries, the curators of the
statues, baths, theatres, and the other public buildings with which
the City was adorned, all owned the supreme control of the Urban
Praefect. At the beginning of the Fifth Century the _Vicarius Urbis_
(whom it is difficult not to think of as in some sort subject to the
_Praefectus Urbis_), had jurisdiction over all central and southern
Italy and Sicily. But if this was the arrangement then, it must have
been altered before the time of Cassiodorus, who certainly appears as
Praetorian Praefect to have wielded authority over the greater part of
Italy. He states, however[113], that the Urban Praefect had, by an
ancient law, jurisdiction, not only over Rome itself, but over all the
district within 100 miles of the capital.

[Footnote 113: Var. vi. 4.]