Comes

Several of the major departments of the Imperial Curia ("Court") and household had a principal official who was styled "comes" and assisted by an "officium" ("staff") very similar to that of a Roman governor.

Further, the principal officials of some less important governmental departments who were under the authority of otherwise styled, high ranking, territorial officials could be titled "comes", e. g. under the praefectus urbi of Rome, himself a vir illustris, was a comes formarum, comes riparum et alvei Tiberis et Cloacarum ("Count of the Coast of the Tiber and the Canalisation"), and comes Portus ("Count of the Port").

The title "comes consistorianus" or "comes consistorialis" indicated specially appointed members to the consistorium, the council of the Roman emperor's closest advisors.

The Goths that ruled Spain and Italy followed the Roman tradition of granting the title of "comes" to the various principals of the departments of their royal households, including but not limited to the: The Frankish kings of the Merovingian dynasty retained much of Roman administration, including the office and title of "comes", the original meaning of which they preserved, i. e., a companion of the king and a royal servant of high dignity.

For administrative purposes, the Merovingian kingdoms were still divided into small Roman districts denominated "pagi" (hence the French "pays"), or similarly sized new creations "Gaue".

The essential competences of the comes were comprehensive in his pagus: martial, judicial, and executive; and in documents he is often described as the "agens publicus" ("public agent") of the King or "judex publicus/fiscalis"[3] ("royal judge").

As the delegate of the executive power, he had the right to exercise the "bannis regis" ("royal ban"), which gave him the right to command his military in the name of the King and to act as necessary to preserve the peace.

He enjoyed a triple "wergeld", but had no definite salary, being remunerated by receipt of specific revenues, which system contained the germs of discord, on account of the confusion of his public and private obligations.

Thus, "comes" has been used as the Latin equivalent, or part of it, of all titles of comital office, whether containing "count" or some other word etymologically derived from "comes" or "graf".

Similarly, it is part of the rendering, not always exclusive, of derived inferior titles containing such words, notably "vicecomes" for "viscount" and "burgicomes" and "burgravio" for "burgrave".