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.