4. After lamenting the progress of the eunuchs in the Roman
palace, and defining their proper functions, Claudian adds,
----A fronte recedant Imperii.
In Eutrop. i. 422.
Yet it does not appear that the eunuch had assumed any of
the efficient offices of the empire, and he is styled only
Praepositus sacri cubiculi in the edict of his banishment.
See Cod. Theod. l. ix. tit. xl. leg. 17.