Comes
Originally a fellow-traveller; hence it is applied to the members of the retinue of a
magistrate or high official sent into the provinces (cf.
Verr. ii. 10, 27), and
under the emperors the term is used especially of those accompanying the emperor or members of
his family. From this it was a natural transition to apply the term to the courtiers
generally, even when not on a journey; and in later Latin we find it used of the holders of
the various State-offices. About the time of Constantine it became a regular honorary title,
whence the modern
count (French comte),
including various grades, answering to the
comites ordinis primi, secundi,
tertii.
The names of the following officers explain themselves: Comes Orientis (of whom there seem
to have been two, one the superior of the other), comes Aegypti, comes Britanniae, comes
Africae, comes rei militaris, comes portuum, comes stabuli, comes domesticorum equitum, comes
clibanarius, comes linteae vestis or vestiarii (master of the robes). In fact the emperor had
as many
comites as he had functions.
