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Officium (pl.:officia) is aLatin word with various meanings inancient Rome, including "service", "(sense of) duty", "courtesy", "ceremony" and the like. It commonly also referred to theoffice of a magistrate andhis sometimes numerous staff, each of whom was called anofficialis (hence the modernofficial).
TheNotitia Dignitatum gives us uniquely detailed information, stemming from the very imperial chanceries, on the composition of theofficia of many of the leading court, provincial, military and certain other officials of the two Roman empiresc. 400 AD. While the details vary somewhat according to rank, from West (Rome) to East (Byzantium) and/or in particular cases, in general the leading staff would be about as follows (the English descriptions and other modern "equivalents" are approximate):
Below those "dignities", there were often several hundred subordinate staff, sometimesslaves or freedmen, performing day-to-day administrative duties, not deemed worthy of any more detailed mention. They are only referred to collectively, by various terms in the plural, such ascohortalini (apparently thediminutive ofcohortalis, the term suggesting a large number; seecohors amicorum).