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 equestrian nobility (equestris nobilitas), and we have seen that titles were finally devised to express the differences in procuratorial rank. The civil service now became closely connected with the army, and the occupants of civil posts were mainly retired officers, men who had held at least one of the three positions in the equestrian service, and who, after the second century, had generally filled every grade before they took the procuratorship. This militarising of the administrative service is one of the most curious features of the Principate. It gave that service its precision, its rigidity, its tendency to work as a smooth machine almost independently of personal control. This tendency was a blessing in so far as it was calculated to diminish the influence due to the idiosyncrasies of the Princeps, or of any individual holder of office; but one cannot help suspecting that a great deal of the administrative tyranny, which darkened the closing years of the Principate and weakened the Empire, was due to the ineradicable habits of routine inspired by a military life, and that the Greek or Graeco-Asiatic freedman, although a more corrupt, was, on the whole, a more capable administrator. The military supply was not, however, altogether sufficient, and from the time of Hadrian a civil career was also open, which gave a chance to the aspiring lawyer.

Theoretically the procurator's duties were those of mere agency, and he had little discretionary authority and no general official power. Tiberius' emphatic statement that his procurator's business was merely to manage the Emperor's slaves and personal property is echoed in the language of the Digest, which tells us that the duties of these servants of the Emperor were strictly defined, that they were accountable to their master for the use made of the finances or property under their care, that they could not give, sell, or transfer it, and that "careful management" was the limit of their power. It was only when they kept within these bounds that their acts had all the authority