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XVII,

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84

CHAP. ple". Their folemn inauguration was performed at the place of the Imperial refidence; and during a period of one hundred and twenty years, Rome was conftantly deprived of the prefence of her ancient magiftrates ". On the morning of the first of January, the confuls affumed the enfigns, of their dignity. Their drefs was a robe of purple, embroidered in filk and gold, and fometimes ornamented with coftly gems ". On this folemn occafion they were attended by the most eminent officers of the state and army, in the habit of fenators; and the ufelefs fafces, armed with the once formidable axes, were borne before them by the lictors". The proceffion moved from the palace to the Forum, or principal square of the city; where the confuls afcended their tribunal, and feated themselves in the curule chairs, which were framed after the fashion of ancient times. They immediately exercised an act of jurifdiction, by the manumiffion of a slave, who was brought before them for that purpofe; and the ceremony was intended to represent the celebrated action of the elder Brutus, the author of liberty and of the confulship, when he admitted among his fellow-citizens the faithful Vindex, who had revealed the confpiracy of the Tarquins ". The public festival was continued during feveral days in all the principal cities; in Rome, from cuftom; in Conftantinople, from imitation; in Carthage, Antioch, and Alexandria, from the love of pleafure and the fuperfluity of wealth". In the two. capitals of the empire the annual games of the

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coft СНАР.

theatre, the circus, and the amphitheatre
four thousand pounds of gold, (about) one hundred
and fixty thousand pounds fterling: and if fo hea-
vy an expence furpaffed the faculties or the incli-
nation of the magiftrates themselves, the fum was
fupplied from the Imperial treafury ". As soon as
the confuls had difcharged these customary duties,
they were at liberty to retire into the shade of
private life, and to enoy, during the remainder
of the year, the undisturbed contemplation of
their own greatnefs. They no longer prefided in
the national councils; they no longer executed
the refolutions of peace or war. Their abilities
(unless they were employed in more effective offi-
ces were of little moment; and their names
ferved only as the legal date of the year in which
they had filled the chair of Marius and of Cicero.
Yet it was ftill felt and acknowledged, in the
laft period of Roman fervitude, that this empty
name might be compared, and even preferred, to
the poffeffion of fubftantial power. The title of
conful was ftill the moft fplendid object of am-
bition, the nobleft reward of virtue and loyalty.
The emperors themselves, who difdained the
faint shadow of the republic, were conscious that
they acquired an additional splendour and majesty
as often as they affumed the annual honours of the
confular dignity ".

XVII.

The Fa

The proudest and most perfect feparation which can be found in any age or country, between the tricians. nobles and the people, is perhaps that of the Patricians and the Plebeians, as it was established

XVII.

93

CHAP. in the firft age of the Roman republic. Wealth and honours the offices of the state and the ceremonies of religion, were almost exclusively poffeffed by the former; who preferving the purity of their blood with the most insulting jealousy held their clients in a condition of fpecious vaffalage. But these diftinctions, fo incompatible with the spirit of a free people, were removed, after a long struggle, by the perfevering efforts of the Tribunes. The moft active and fuccessful of the Plebeians accumulated wealth, aspired to honours, deserved triumphs, contracted alliances, and, after fome generations, affumed the pride of ancient nobility". The Patrician families, on the other hand, whofe original number was never recruited till the end of the commonwealth, either failed in the ordinary courfe of nature, or were extinguished in fo many foreign and domeftic wars, or, through a want of merit or fortune infenfibly mingled with the mass of the people Very few remained who could derive their pure and genuine origin from the infancy of the city, or even from that of the republic, when Cæfar and Auguftus, Claudius and Vefpafian, created from the body of the fenate a competent number of new Patrician families, in the hope of perpetuating an order, which was ftill confidered as honourable and facred ". But these artificial fupplies (in which the reigning houfe was always included) were rapidly fwept away by the rage, of tyrants, by frequent revolutions, by the change of manners, and by the intermixture of nations ", Little more was left,

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when Conftantine afcended the throne, than a
vague and imperfect tradition, that the Patricians
had once been the firft of the Romans. To form
a body of nobles, whose influence may restrain,
while it fecures the authority of the monarch,
would have been very inconfiftent with the cha-
racter and policy of Conftantine; but had he ferious-
ly entertained fuch a defign, it might have exceeded
the measure of his power to ratify, by an arbitrary
edict, an inftitution which muft expect the fanc-
tion of time and of opinion. He revived, indeed,
the title of PATRICIANS, but he revived it as a
perfonal, not as an hereditary diftinction. They
yielded only to the tranfient fuperiority of the
annual confuls; but they enjoyed the pre-eminence
over all the great officers of ftate, with the most
familiar access to the perfon of the prince. This
honourable rank was bestowed on them for life;
and as they were usually favourites, and minifters
who had grown old in the Imperial court, the
true etymology of the word was perverted by
ignorance and flattery; and the Patricians of Con-
ftantine were reverenced as the adopted Fathers of
the emperor and the republic ".

CHAP.

XVII.

The Pra

fects.

II. The fortunes of the Prætorian præfects were effentially different from thefe of the confuls and torian præpatricians. The latter faw their ancient greatness evaporate in a vain title. The former, rifing by degrees from the most humble condition, were invested with the civil and military administration of the Roman world. From the reign of Severus to that of Diocletian, the guards and the palace,

XVII.

CHAP. the laws and the finances, the armies and the provinces, were intrusted to their fuperintending care; and, like the Vizirs of the Eaft, they held with one hand the feal, and with the other the ftandard, of the empire. The ambition of the præfects, always formidable, and fometimes fatal to the mafters whom they ferved, was fupported by the ftrength of the Prætorian bands; but after thofe haugh'y troops had been weakened by Diocletian, and finally fuppreffed by Conftantine, the præfects, who furvived their fall, were reduced without difficulty to the ftation of useful and obedient minifters. When they were no longer responsible for the fafety of the emperor's perfon, they refigned the jurifdiction which they had hitherto claimed and exercifed over all the departments of the palace. They were deprived by Conftantine of all military command, as soon as they had ceased to lead into the field, under their immediate orders, the flower of the Roman troops; and at length, by a fingular revolution, the captains of the guards were transformed into the civil magiftrates of the provinces. According to the plan of government inftituted by Diocletian, the four princes had each their Prætorian præfect; and, after the monarchy was once more united in the perfon of Conftantine, he ftill continued to create the fame number of FOUR PREFECTS, and entrufted to their care the fame provinces which they already administered. 1. The præfect of the Eaft ftretched his ample jurifdiction into the three parts of the globe which were fubjects to the

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