XXII. Jan. 1. dem: but he absolutely used the title of Do- CHAP. minus or Lord, a word which was grown so familiar to the ears of the Romans, that they no longer remembered its servile and humiliating origin. The office, or rather the name, of consul, was cherished by a prince who contemplated with reverence the ruins of the republic; and the same behaviour which had been assumed by the prudence of Augustus, was adopted by Julian from choice and inclination. On the calends A. D. 363, of January, at break of day, the new consuls, Mamertinus and Nevitta, hastened to the palace to salute the emperor. As soon as he was informed of their approach, he leaped from his throne, eagerly advanced to meet them, and compelled the blushing magistrates to receive the demonstrations of his affected humility. From the palace they proceeded to the senate. The emperor, on foot, marched before their litters; and the gazing multitude admired the image of ancient times, or secretly blamed a conduct, which, in their eyes, degraded the majesty of the pur c Libanius. (Orat. c. 95, p. 320), who mentions the wish and design of Julian, insinuates, in mysterious language (Jɛwv T∞ YVOVTOV . . αλλ' ην αμείνων ὁ κωλύων), that the emperor was restrained by some particular revelation. ... d Julian in Misopogon, p. 343. As he never abolished, by any pub'ic law, the proud appellations of Despot, or Dominus, they are still extant on his models, (Ducange, Fam. Byzantin. p. 38, 39); and the private displeasure which he affected to express, only gave a different tone to the servility of the court. The Abbe de la Bleterie (Hist. de Jovien, tom. ii, p. 99-102) has curiously traced the origin and progress of the word Dominus under the imperial govern ment. XXII. CHAP. ple. But the behaviour of Julian was uniformly supported. During the games of the Circus, he had, imprudently or designedly, performed the manumission of a slave in the presence of the consul. The moment he was reminded that he had trespassed on the jurisdiction of another magistrate, he condemned himself to pay a fine of ten pounds of gold; and embraced this public occasion of declaring to the world, that he was subject, like the rest of his fellowcitizens, to the laws, and even to the forms, of the republic. The spirit of his administration, and his regard for the place of his nativity, induced Julian to confer on the senate of Constantinople, the same honours, privileges, and authority, which were still enjoyed by the senate of ancient Rome. A legal fiction was introduced, and gradually established, that one half of the national council had migrated into the East; and the despotic successors of Julian, accepting the title of Senators, acknowledged themselves the members of a respectable body, which * Ammian. xxii, 7. The consul Mamertinus (in Panegyr. Vet. xi, 28, 29, 30) celebrates the auspicious day, like an eloquent slave, astonished and intoxicated by the condescension of his master. f Personal satire was condemned by the laws of the twelve tables : Si male condiderit in quem quis carmina, jus est Julian (in Misopogon, p. 337) owns himself subject to the law; and the Abbe de la Bleterie (Hist. de Jovien, tom. ii. p. 92) has eagerly embraced a declaration so agreeable to his own system, and indeed to the true spirit, of the imperial constitution. B Zosimus, 1. iii. p. 158. XXII. was permitted to represent the majesty of the CHAP Roman name. From Constantinople, the atten-.......... tion of the monarch was extended to the municipal senates of the provinces. He abolished, by repeated edicts, the unjust and pernicious exemptions, which had withdrawn so many idle citizens from the service of their country; and, by imposing an equal distribution of public duties, he restored the strength, the splendour, or, according to the glowing expression of Libanius," the soul of the expiring cities of his empire. The venerable age of Greece excited the His care most tender compassion in the mind of Julian ; Grecian which kindled into rapture when he recollected cities» the gods, the heroes, and the men superior to heroes and to gods, who had bequeathed to the latest posterity the monuments of their genius,. or the examples of their virtues. He relieved the distress, and restored the beauty, of the cities of Epirus and Peloponnesus.1 Athens acknowledged him for her benefactor; Argos, for her deliverer. The pride of Corinth, again rising from her ruins with the honours of a Ro * Η της βουλης ισχυς ψυχη πόλεως εςιν. See Libanius, (Orat. Parent. e. 71, p. 296); Ammianus, (xxii, 9); and the Theodosian Code, (1. xii, tit. i, leg. 50-55), with Godefroy's Commentary,, (tom. iv. p. 390-402). Yet the whole subject of the Curiæ, notwithstanding very ample materials, still remains the most obscure in the legal history of the empire. i Quæ paulo ante arida et siti anhelantia visebantur, ea nunc perlui, mundari, madere; Fora, Deambulacra, Gymnasia, lætis et gaudentibus populis frequentari; dies festos, et celebrari veteres, et novos in honorem principis consecrari, (Mamertin. xi, 9). He particularly restored the city of Nicopolis, and the Actiac games, which had been instituted by Augustus. of the XXII. CHAP. man colony, exacted a tribute from the adjacent republics, for the purpose of defraying the games of the isthmus, which were celebrated in the amphitheatre with the hunting of bears and panthers. From this tribute the cities of Elis, of Delphi, and of Argos, which had inherited from their remote ancestors the sacred office of perpetuating the Olympic, the Pythian, and the Nemean games, claimed a just exemption. The immunity of Elis and Delphi was respected by the Corinthians; but the poverty of Argos tempted the insolence of oppression; and the feeble complaints of its deputies were silenced by the decree of a provincial magistrate, who seems to have consulted only the interest of the capital in which he resided. Seven years after this sentence, Julian* allowed the cause to be referred to a superior tribunal; and his eloquence was interposed, most probably with success, in the defence of a city, which had been the royal seat of Agamemnon,' and had given to Macedonia a race of kings and conquerors." Julian, Epist. xxxv, p. 407-411. This epistle, which illustrates the declining age of Greece, is omitted by the Abbe de la Bleterie; and strangely disfigured by the Latin translator, who, by rendering areλua, tributum, and wrai, populus, directly contradicts the sense of the original. He reigned in Mycenae, at the distance of fifty stadia, or six miles, from Argos: but those cities, which alternately flourished, are confounded by the Greek poets. Strabo, 1. viii, p. 579, edit. Amstel. 1707. m Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 421. nus and Hercules may be suspicious; This pedigree from Teme yet it was allowed, after a strict inquiry by the judges of the Olympic games, (Herodot. 1. v. c. 22), XXII. orator and The laborious administration of inilitary and CHAP civil affairs, which were multiplied in proportion to the extent of the empire, exercised the abili- Julian, an ties of Julian; but he frequently assumed the a judge. two characters of orator" and of judge," which are almost unknown to the modern sovereigns of Europe. The arts of persuasion, so diligently cultivated by the first Cæsars, were neglected by the military ignorance and Asiatic pride of their successors; and if they condescended to harangue the soldiers, whom they feared, they treated with silent disdain the senators, whom they despised. The assemblies of the senate, which Constantius had avoided, were considered by Julian as the place where he could exhibit, with the most propriety, the maxims of a republican and the talents of a rhetorician. He alter c. 22), at a time when 'the Macedonian kings were obscure and unpopular in Greece. When the Achæan league declared against Philip, it was thought decent that the deputies of Argos should retire, (T. Liv. xxxii, 22). "His eloquence is celebrated by Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c. 75, 76, p. 300, 301), who distinctly mentions the orators of Homer.Socrates (1. iii. c. 1), has rashly asserted that Julian was the only prince, since Julius Cæsar, who harangued the senate. All the predecessors of Nero, (Tacit. Annal. xiii, 3), and many of his successors, possessed the faculty of speaking in public; and it might be proved, by various examples, that they frequently exercised it in the senate. • Ammianus (xxii, 10) has impartially stated the merits and defects of his judicial proceedings. Libanius (Orat, Parent. c. 90, 91, p. 315, &c.) has seen only the fair side, and his picture, if it flatters the person, expresses at least the duties, of the judge. Gregory Nazianzen, (Orat. iv, p. 120), who suppresses the virtues, and exaggerates even the venial faults, of the apostate, triumphantly asks, Whether such a judge was fit to be seated between Minos and Rhadamanthus in the Elysian fields? |