{{For|other meanings of Cancelli|Cancello (disambiguation)}} {{Redirect|Cancellus|the hermit crab|Cancellus (crustacean)}} [[File:Kreuzlingen. Cancellata del coro della chiesa del monastero.jpg|thumb|''Cancelli'' at a church in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland]] '''Cancelli''' are lattice-work, placed before a window, a door-way, the tribunal of a judge, the chancel of a church, or any other similar place.<ref name=Smith>{{cite encyclopedia|title=A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities|editor-last=Smith|editor-first=William|publisher=John Murray|location=London|year=1875|page=236|article=Cancelli|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Cancelli.html|accessdate=2020-02-18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Cancelli|volume=5|page=175}}</ref>
This led to the occupation of '''cancellarius''', which originally signified a porter who stood at the latticed or grated door of the emperor's palace. According to the ''Historia Augusta'', the emperor Carinus (reigned 283–285) gave great dissatisfaction by promoting one of these cancellarii to city prefect, although the veracity of this account is disputed.{{efn|A large amount of the ''Historia Augusta'' is recognised by historians to be inaccurate or false (see {{section link|Historia Augusta|Historical value}}). The lack of any recorded mention of a cancellarius prior to the fifth century led the historian Otto Seeck to believe that the Historia Augusta was a fifth-century forgery.<ref>{{cite book|title=Historia Augusta|year=1932|editor-last=Ballou|editor-first=Susan H.|publisher=Heinemann|series=Loeb Classical Library|page=441|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Carus_et_al*.html#note38|accessdate=2020-02-18}}</ref> }}
Other cancellarii were legal scribes or secretaries who sat within the lattice-work which protected the tribunals of the judges from the crowd. The chief scribe in Constantinople was eventually invested with judicial power, and from this office came the modern "chancellor".<ref name=Smith/>
== See also == * Glossary of architecture
==Notes== {{Notelist}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
Category:Ancient Roman occupations Category:Historical legal occupations
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