COUNT (Fr. comte; Let. comes). In classical writers, down to the end of the 4th c., the meanings attached to the word comes were comparatively few and simple. At first it signified merely an attendant, and differed from socius chiefly in expressing a less intimate and equal relation to the person accompanied. Suetonius uses it for an attend ant on a magistrate. A little later, in Horace's time, it was applied to those young men of family whom it had become customary to send out as pupils under the eye of a gov ernor of a province, or the commander of an army. Very soon the fashion of having similar attendants at home was introduced, and Horace speaks of this necessity as one of the miseries of a high position. The emperor, of course, had many &mites in this sense; and to these, as he gradually became the center of power, he transferred the various offices of his household, and even of the state. Around his person these comites formed a sort of council of state, very much resembling that instituted by the first Napoleon. The example of the emperors of the west was followed by the emperors of the cast, though at Byzantium the title attached less to the office than to the individ ual. Most of the titles of our own court officials are translations of those belonging to similar officers in the lower empire. The comes sacrarum largitionum was the grand almoner; the comes curia', the grand-master of ceremonies; the comes restiarius, the grand-master of the wardrobe; comes equorum regiorum, the grand equerry, etc. The comes marcal•um, or count of the marches, there can be little doubt, was tt: the marquis of later times. In France, the C. of the palace (comes palatie nostri) was the
highest dignitary in the state after the moire of the palace; and in the 11th c., he had already acquired a rank apart from that of the other counts. He presided in the court of the sovereign in his absence, and possessed sovereign jurisdiction. The habit of 6 institutims counts-palatiue was adopted by Spain and England. Those counts, again, who, at a later period, as rulers of provinces, assumed something approaching to sov ereign power, arrogating to themselves the right of appointing counts-palatine under them—e.g., the counts of Chartres, of Champagne, of Blois, Toulouse, etc.; and the ancient houses of Chartres and of Blois continued to claim in perpetuity the title of count palatine as that of their eldest sons. Counts of this sovereign class owed their origin to the feebleness of the later Carlovingian kings, under whom they contrived gradually to convert the provinces and towns which they had governed as royal officers Into principalities hereditary in their families. It was then that the counts came to be known by the names of their counties. Since the great revolution, the title of C. in France has been purely honorary, and has been used with a license which has almost deprived it even of that character. The title was never used in England, though its Latin equivalent has always been the common translation for earl (q.v.), and the wife of an earl, from a very early period, has been styled countess. For the history of the office in Germany, where it was of great importance, see GRAF.