which there were six in Italy at Concordia, Verona, Mantua, Cremona,
Ticinum, and Lucca) received their orders from the same official. An
anomalous and too widely dispersed range of functions this seems
according to our ideas, including something of the Secretaryship for
Foreign Affairs, something of the Home Secretaryship, and something of
the War Office and the Horse Guards. Yet, as if this were not enough,
there was also transferred to him from the office of the Praetorian
Praefect the superintendence of the Cursus Publicus, that excellent
institution by which facilities for intercourse were provided between
the capital and the most distant Provinces, relays of post-horses
being kept at every town, available for use by those who bore properly
signed 'letters of evection.' Thus to the multifarious duties of the
Master of the Offices was added in effect the duty of
Postmaster-General. It was found however in practice to be an
inconvenient arrangement for the Master of the Offices to have the
control of the services of the 'public horses,' while the Praetorian
Praefect remained responsible for the supply of their food; and the
charge of the _Cursus Publicus_ was accordingly retransferred--at any
rate in the Eastern Empire--to the office of the Praefect, though the
letters of evection still required the counter-signature of the
Master[52].

[Footnote 51: They are 'Scutariorum prima, secunda et tertia,
armaturarum seniorum et gentilium seniorum' (Notitia Occidentis, cap.
ix.).]

[Footnote 52: This is the account of the matter given by Lydus (De
Magistratibus ii. 10); but as the Notitia (Or. xi.) puts the 'Curiosus
Cursus Publici Praesentalis' under the disposition of the Magister
Officiorum, the retransfer had probably not then taken place. It would