Below these four præfects came the vicars of the twelve dioceses of the Oriens, Pontica, Asiana, Thracia, Mœsia, Pannonia, Britanniæ, Galliæ, Viennenses, Italia, Hispaniæ, and Africa. Egypt continued to hold an unique position; its governor was almost independent of the præfect of the Orient, and was always a direct nominee of the Emperor. Then, below the twelve vicars came the governors of the provinces, the number of which constantly tended to increase, but by further subdivision rather than by conquest of new territory. Various names were given to these governors; they were _rectores_ and _correctores_ in some provinces, _præsides_ in many more, _consulares_ in a few of the more important ones, such as Africa and Italia. Each had his own entourage of minor officials, and the hierarchical principle was observed as rigidly on the lowest rungs of the ladder as on the topmost. Autocrats are obliged to rule through a bureaucracy, a broad-based pyramid of officialdom which usually weighs heavily upon the unfortunate taxpayer who has to support the entire structure. [Illustration: AUREUS OF CARAUSIUS.] [Illustration: AUREUS OF ALLECTUS.] [Illustration: SOLIDUS OF HELENA.] [Illustration: SOLIDUS OF GALERIUS.] [Illustration: SOLIDUS OF SEVERUS II.] A similar hierarchy of officials prevailed in the palace and the court, from the grand chamberlain down through a host of Imperial secretaries to the head scullion. The tendency of each was to magnify his office into a department, and to be the master of a set of underlings. And it was the policy of Constantine, as it had been the policy of Augustus, to invent new offices in order to increase the number of officials who looked to the Emperor as their benefactor.[146] ----- Footnote 146: εἰς γὰρ τὸ πλείονας τιμᾶν διαφόρους ἐπενόει βασιλεὺς αξιάς (_De Vita Const._, iv., 1). ----- In the conduct of State affairs the Emperor was assisted by an Imperial council, known as the _consistorium principis_. It included the four Prætorian præfects of whom we have spoken; the quæstor of the palace, a kind of general secretary of state; the master of the offices (_magister officiorum_), one of whose principal duties was to act as minister of police; the grand chamberlain (_præpositus sacri cubiculi_); two ministers of finance, and two ministers for war. One of the finance ministers was dignified with the title of count of the sacred largesses (_comes sacrarum largitionum_); the other was count of the private purse (_comes rerum privatarum_). The distinction was similar to the old one between the _ærarium_ and the _fiscus_, between, that is to say, the State treasury and the Emperor’s privy purse. One of the two ministers for war had supreme charge of the infantry of the Empire; the other was responsible for the cavalry. Both also exercised judicial functions and sat as a court of appeal in all military cases wherein the State was interested, either as plaintiff or defendant.