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Acorrector (English pluralcorrectors, Latin pluralcorrectores) is a person or object practicingcorrection, usually by removing or rectifying errors.
The word is originally a Roman title,corrector, derived from the Latin verbcorrigere, meaning "to make straight, set right, bring into order."
Apart from the general sense of anyone who corrects mistakes, it has been used as, or part of (some commonly shortened again to Corrector), various specific titles and offices, sometimes quite distant from the original meaning.
The office ofcorrector first appears during thePrincipate in the reign ofTrajan (r. 98–117), for extraordinary officials ofsenatorial rank, who were tasked with investigating and reforming the administration in theprovinces. To this end, they were entrusted with fullimperium maius, which extended also to territories normally exempt from the authority of the Emperor's provincial governors: thefree cities of theGreek East, thesenatorial provinces, as well asItaly herself.[1] The full title of these officials, from their institution to the end of the 3rd century, was inLatinlegatus Augusti pro praetore [missus] ad corrigendum [ordinandum] statum, inGreek rendered as πρεσβευτὴς καἰ ἀντιστράτηγος Σεβαστοῦ διορθωτὴς [or ἐπανορθωτὴς] (presbeutes kaiantistrategosSebastou diorthotes/epanorthotes). From the late 3rd century on, the title was increasingly, and afterwards exclusively, simplified ascorrector in Latin and διορθωτὴς (or ἐπανορθωτὴς) in Greek.[1]
The sending ofcorrectores to the Greek free cities, as well as to Italy, which as a metropolitan territory formally enjoyed a status different from the provinces, began a process of slow degradation of their distinct legal status and their gradual assimilation to the "ordinary" provinces, a process completed with the reforms ofDiocletian (r. 284–305).[1] Thus, at the start of the 4th century, all Italian districts (andSicily) had acorrector as governor, although by the middle of the century most were replaced by governors with the rank ofconsularis.[1] In the administrative division as preserved in theNotitia Dignitatum, thecorrectores held the senatorial rank ofvir clarissimus. Those of theWest Roman Empire ranked between theconsulares and the ordinarypraesides, while in theEast Roman Empire, they ranked below thepraesides.[1]
According to theNotitia Dignitatum, ca. 400 the following provinces were undercorrectores:
Thecorrector's staff (officium) is also specified:princeps officii,cornicularius, twotabularii,commentariensis,adiutor,ab actis,subadiuva; finally unspecifiedexceptores and 'other'cohortalini, i.e. menial staff.[4]
Two famous but extraordinarycorrectores wereOdaenathus and his sonVaballathus, who rose to prominence after EmperorValerian was defeated and captured by theSassanid Persians in 260.[5] Odaenathus not only defended the frontier in the East, but succeeded in creating an almost independent state (known as thePalmyrene Empire, after its capitalPalmyra), though it nominally remained within the Roman Empire.[5] For his efforts, he gained the title ofcorrector totius orientis, "Corrector of the Whole East". When he died, his son requested and obtained, after some years, the same title, but later styled himselfAugustus; EmperorAurelian marched East to quash this open rebellion, defeating and capturing Vaballathus as well as his mother (andde facto ruler) QueenZenobia.
In variousmunicipia,corrector became the title of a permanent singlechief magistrate (traditionally there had been collegial systems, e.g. twoconsules orduumviri), as a Byzantine 7th-century source attests for thirteen cities in the Egyptian provinceAugustamnica Prima.
Furthermore, the word Corrector was used as the title of several publications, some of which are quite famous, such as the 19th book, also known asMedicus, of the Ancientcanons.
The derived termcorrectorium has been used for revisions of the text of theVulgate Bible, begun in 1236 by the Dominicans under the French CardinalHugh of St. Cher.
In thepublishing of literature or other information,editors assume the correctional roles ofproofreaders andcopy editors in the editing cycle.
The term is used for various devices used to correct another, as with a ship's compass or artillery.
