[Footnote 166: The [Greek: tachygraphoi] of Lydus.] [Footnote 167: In making this statement I consider the Adjutores to be virtually another class of Exceptores, and I purposely omit the Singularii as not belonging to the _Militia Litterata_, which alone I am now considering.] [Sidenote: Augustales.] [Sidenote: Deputati.] We are informed by Lydus[168], that in his time the Exceptores in the Eastern Empire were divided into two corps, the higher one called _Augustales_, who were limited in number to thirty, and the lower, of indefinite number and composing the rank and file of the profession. The Augustales only could aspire to the rank of Cornicularius; but in order that some prizes might still be left of possible attainment by the larger class, the rank of Primiscrinius was tenable by those who remained 'on the rolls of the Exceptores.' The reason for this change was that the unchecked application of the principle of seniority to so large a body of public servants was throwing all the more important offices in the Courts of Justice into the hands of old men. The principle of 'seniority tempered by selection' was therefore introduced, and the ablest and most learned members of the class of Exceptores were drafted off into this favoured section of Augustales, fifteen of the most experienced of whom were appropriated to the special service of the Emperor, while the other fifteen filled the higher offices (with the exception of the Primiscriniate) in the Praefectoral Courts[169]. The first fifteen were called _Deputati_[170], the others were apparently known simply as Augustales. [Footnote 168: iii. 6, 9.] [Footnote 169: I think this is a fair summary of Lydus iii. 9 and 10, but these paragraphs are very difficult and obscure.] [Footnote 170: We should certainly have expected that the Augustales would be those writers who were specially appropriated to the Emperor's service, but the other conclusion necessarily follows from the language of Lydus (iii. 10): [Greek: hoste kai pentekaideka ex auton ton pepanoteron peira te kai to chrono kreittonon pros hypographen tois basileusin aphoristhenai, ous eti kai nun depoutatous kalousin, hoi tou tagmatos ton Augoustalion proteuousin].] The change thus described by Lydus appears to have been made in the West as well as in the East, since we hear in the 'Variae' of Cassiodorus (xi. 30) of the appointment of a certain Ursus to be Primicerius of the Deputati, and of Beatus to take the same place among the Augustales[171]. [Footnote 171: The form of the word must I think prevent us from applying the Princeps _Augustorum_ of xi. 35 to the same class of officers.] [Sidenote: Adjutores.] (11) The _Adjutores_ of the 'Notitia' were probably a lower class of Exceptores, who may very likely have disappeared when the Augustales were formed out of them by the process of differentiation which has been described above.