Ab epistulis

Ab epistulis was the chancellor's office in the Roman Empire with responsibility for the emperor's correspondence.[1] The office sent mandata (instructions) to provincial governors and other officials.[2][3]

Ab epistulis wrote in Latin (ab epistulis latinis) and in Greek (ab epistulis graecis), and composed the short responses to petitions on behalf of the emperor.[4] Holders of the position usually had a particular vocation for literary matters.[5][4]

Notable Ab epistulis

One of the leading rhetoricians of this time, "Alexander Peloplaton", was Marcus Aurelius's ab epistulis in the 170s.[4] Marcus was impressed by the orator Hadrian of Tyre, so he offered him the job ab epistulis to recognise his excellence.[4] Aspasius of Ravenna was a Greek orator, who between AD 211 and 216 served as ab epistulis.[4] Aelius Antipater was the ab epistulis of the emperor Caracalla, who defined him "my friend and teacher, entrusted with the composition of Greek letters".[4] Marcius Agrippa was a cognitionibus and ab epistulis of Caracalla.[6]

Augustus punished Thallus "for divulging the contents of a letter".[7] Caligula dictated a letter to an ab epistulis.[8] Narcissus apparently worked as ab epistulis, because he was in charge of the grammata of Claudius against Agrippina.[8] Beryllus was the ab epistulis graecis of Nero.[8]

gollark: > Collectivization will take place naturally as soon as state coercion is over, the workers themselveswill own their workplaces as the capitalists will no longer have any control over them. This iswhat happened during the Spanish Revolution of 1936, during which workers and farmers seized andmanaged the means of production collectively. For those capitalists who had a good attitude towardsworkers before the revolution, there was also a place - they joined the horizontal labor collectivesUm. This seems optimistic.
gollark: > "Legally anyone can start their own business. Just launch a company!”. These words oftenmentioned by the fans of capitalism are very easy to counter, because they have a huge flaw. Namely,if everyone started a company, who would work for all these companiesThis is a bizarre objection. At the somewhat extreme end, stuff *could* probably still work fine if the majority of people were contracted out for work instead of acting as employees directly.
gollark: The hierarchical direct democracy thing it describes doesn't seem like a very complete or effective coordination mechanism, and it seems like it could easily create unfreedom.
gollark: I disagree with this PDF, for purposes.
gollark: There was that fun time when someone renamed themselves "all active players".

References
  1. Lara Peinado, Federico; Cabrero Piquero, Javier; Cordente Vaquero, Félix; Pino Cano, Juan Antonio (2009). Diccionario de instituciones de la Antigüedad (in Spanish) (1ª ed.). Fuenlabrada (Madrid): Ediciones Cátedra (Grupo Anaya, Sociedad Anónima). p. 13. ISBN 9788437626123. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  2. "Constitutiones principum". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved Aug 30, 2018.
  3. Statius, Silvae 5, 1, 86-87
  4. Potter, David Stone (2004). The Roman Empire at Bay, AD 180-395. Psychology Press. pp. 77–78. ISBN 0-415-10057-7. Retrieved Aug 31, 2018.
  5. Birley, Anthony Richard (1987). Marcus Aurelius: A Biography (rev. ed.). London: Routledge. p. 122f. ISBN 0-7607-1186-0.
  6. Millar 2005, p. 17.
  7. Suetonius, Div. Aug., 67
  8. Millar 2005, p. 15.

Bibliography


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