[Footnote 116: Probably, from the order in which they are mentioned by
the Notitia.]

It appears to me that the epithet _Sublimis_ (which is almost unknown
to the Theodosian Code), when it occurs in the 'Variae' is used as
synonymous with Spectabilis[117].

[Footnote 117: Sublimis occurs in the superscription of the following
letters: i. 2; iv. 17; v. 25, 30, and 36; ix. 11 and 14; xii. 5.]

[Sidenote: Clarissimi.]

III. The _Clarissimi_ were the third rank in the official hierarchy.
To our minds it may appear strange that the 'most renowned' should
come below 'the respectable,' but such was the Imperial pleasure. The
title 'Clarissimus' had moreover its own value, for from the time of
Constantine onwards it was conferred on all the members of the Senate,
and was in fact identical with Senator[118]; and this was doubtless,
as Usener points out[119], the reason why the letters Cl. were still
appended to a Roman nobleman's name after he had risen higher in the
official scale and was entitled to be called Spectabilis or
Illustris. The _Consulares_ or _Correctores_, who administered the
Provinces under the Vicarii, were called Clarissimi; and we shall
observe in the collection before us many other cases in which the
title is given to men in high, but not the highest, positions in the
Civil Service of the State.

[Footnote 118: See Emil Kühn's Verfassung des Römischen Reichs i. 182,
and the passages quoted there.]