Cohors amicorum is a Latin term, literally meaning "cohort of friends". The notion cohort is to be taken not in the strict, military sense (primarily the constitutive unit of a Roman legion; circa battalion), but indicated a fairly large number; accordingly, friend is to be taken in a loose sense, rather as in amicus curiae

Amicus curiae

An amicus curiae is someone, not a party to a case, who volunteers to offer information to assist a court in deciding a matter before it...

, compare the Hellenistic Aulic title philos (basilikos).

Roman history

• Originally, since the Roman republic proper (i.e. before the Principate
  Principate
  The Principate is the first period of the Roman Empire, extending from the beginning of the reign of Caesar Augustus to the Crisis of the Third Century, after which it was replaced with the Dominate. The Principate is characterized by a concerted effort on the part of the Emperors to preserve the...
  
  ), the cohors amicorum was synonymous with the cohors praetoria (so called after the praetorium
  Praetorium
  - Etemology :The praetorium, also spelled prœtorium or pretorium, was originally used to identify the general’s tent within a Roman Castra, Castellum, or encampment. The word originates from the name of the chief Roman magistrate, known as Praetor...
  
  , the tent -in the field- or more permanent dwelling of a Roman commanding general, military headquarters but also site of his other actions, e.g. as a judge, possibly on an adjoining podium called tribunal) : the military (including or annexing various logistic, domestic, financial and administrative) staff company functioning as suite and bodyguard of a high Roman official, such as a Roman governor
  Roman governor
  A Roman governor was an official either elected or appointed to be the chief administrator of Roman law throughout one or more of the many provinces constituting the Roman Empire...
  
   (who brought a trusted staff of most kinds with him to his post), especially in command of one or more legions.
• In the Principate, high administrative offices tended to be separated from military command (transferred to imperial legate
  Legatus
  A legatus was a general in the Roman army, equivalent to a modern general officer. Being of senatorial rank, his immediate superior was the dux, and he outranked all military tribunes...
  
  s), but the various not strictly military functions still had to be acquitted, so there was a mainly civilian 'company' of clerks, advisors, retainers etcetera, still referred to be such terms as cohors (amicorum), amici (possibly specified by the pivotal personality, e.g. Amici principis around the Emperor). In fact, the administration was to be streamlined in a rather typical officium
  Officium
  Officium is a Latin word with various meanings in Ancient Rome, including "service", " duty", "courtesy", "ceremony" and the like...
  
  (see that article) with ever more detailed rules on competences, career etcetera.

The 'company' remained at least as a social notion, if now very informal, and seems to have existed with other persons of high rank, such as imperial princes.

• its members were termed cohortalis (plural cohortales); the diminutive cohortalinus became a generic term (like apparitor
  Apparitor
  In ancient Rome, an apparitor was a civil servant whose salary was paid from the public treasury. The apparitores assisted the magistrates. There were four occupational grades among them...
  
  ) for non-cadre clerks in a high dignitary's officium
  Officium
  Officium is a Latin word with various meanings in Ancient Rome, including "service", " duty", "courtesy", "ceremony" and the like...
  
  (mainly administrative staff)

See also

• For an interestingly alternative, highly formalised evolution of and from the originally parallel notion comitatus (also 'company'), see the article Comes
  Comes
  Comes , plural comites , is the Latin word for companion, either individually or as a member of a collective known as comitatus, especially the suite of a magnate, in some cases large and/or formal enough to have a specific name, such as a cohors amicorum. The word comes derives from com- "with" +...
  
  
• From this sense of cohors derives the Italian corte '(a princely etc.) court' and hence corteggio 'cortège', which again came to mean a train of attendants or retinue
  Retinue
  A retinue is a body of persons "retained" in the service of a noble or royal personage, a suite of "retainers".-Etymology:...
  
  , a similarly elastic notion
• the modern military also knows special units performing various services to a command and its headquarters, by such terms as staff company or staff battalion

Sources and references

• Pauly-Wissowa
  Pauly-Wissowa
  The Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, commonly called the Pauly–Wissowa or simply RE, is a German encyclopedia of classical scholarship. With its supplements it comprises over eighty volumes....
  
  (German-language encyclopaedia on nearly everything relevant to Classical Antiquity)
• EtymologyOnLine