side, were advanced into the sea, might alone have composed a very consi derable city.(57)

The frequent and regular distributions of wine and oil, of corn or bread, of money or provisions, had almost exempted the poorer citizens of Rome from the necessity of labour. The magnificence of the first Cesars was in some measure imitated by the founder of Constantinople :(58) but his liberality, however it might excite the applause of the people, has incurred the censure of posterity. A nation of legislators and conquerors might assert their claim to the harvests of Africa, which had been purchased with their blood; and it was artfully contrived by Augustus, that, in the enjoyment of plenty, the Romans should lose the memory of freedom. But the prodigality of Constantine could not be excused by any consideration, either of public or private interest; and the annual tribute of corn imposed upon Egypt for the benefit of his new capital was applied to feed a lazy and indolent populace, at the expense of the husbandmen of an industrious province. (59) Some other regulations of this emperor are less liable to blame, but they are less deserving of notice. He divided Constantinople into fourteen legions or quarters, (60) dignified the public council with the appellation of Senate, (61) communicated to the citizens the privileges of Italy,(62) and bestowed on the rising city the title of Colony, the first and most favoured daughter of ancient Rome. The venerable parent still maintained the legal and acknowledged supremacy, which was due to her age, to her dignity, and to the remembrance of her former greatness. (63)

As Constantine urged the progress of the work with the impatience of a lover, the walls, the porticoes, and the principal edifices were completed in a few years, or, according to another account, in a few months :(64) but this extraordinary diligence should excite the less admiration, since many of the buildings were finished in so hasty and imperfect a manner, that, under the succeeding reign, they were preserved with difficulty from impending ruin.(65)

(57) The passages of Zosimus, of Eunapius, of Sozomen, and of Agathias, which relate to the increase of buildings and inhabitants at Constantinople, are collected and connected by Gyllius de Byzant. I. i. c. 3 Sidonius Apollinaris (in Panegyr. Anthem. 56, p. 290, edit. Sirmond) describes the moles that were pushed forward into the sea; they consisted of the famous Puzzolan sand, which hardens in the water.

(58) Sozomen, l. ii. c. 3. Philostorg. l. ii. c. 9. Codin. Antiquitat. Const. p. 8. It appears by Socrates (1. ii. c. 13), that the daily allowances of the city consisted of eight myriads of ours, which we may either translate with Valesius by the words modii of corn, or consider as expressive of the number of loaves of bread.*

(59) See Cod. Theodos. 1. xii. and xiv. and Cod. Justinian. Edict xii. tom, ii. p. 648, edit. Genev. See the beautiful complaint of Rome in the poem of Claudian de Bell. Gildonico. ver. 46-64:

Cum subit par Roma mihi, divisaque sumsit
Equales aurora togas; Ægyptia rura

In partem cessere novam.

(60) The regions of Constantinople are mentioned in the code of Justinian, and particularly described in the Notitia of the younger Theodosius; but as the four last of them are not included within the wall of Constantine, it may be doubted whether this division of the city should be referred to the founder.

(61) Senatum constituit secundi ordinis; Claros vocavit. Anonym. Valesian. p. 715. The senators of old Rome were styled Clarissimi. See a curious note of Valesius and Ammian. Marcellin. xxii. 9. From the eleventh epistle of Julian, it should seem that the place of Senator was considered as a burthen rather than as an honour: but the Abbé de la Bleterie Vie de Jovien (tom. ii. p. 371) has shown that this epistle could not relate to Constantinople. Might we not read, instead of the celebrated name of Bugavriois, the obscure but more probable word Bioavonois? Bisanthe or Rhodostus, now Rhodosto, was a small maritime city of Thrace. See Stephan. Byz. de Urbibus, p. 225, and Cellar. Geograph. tom. i. p. 849. (62) Cod. Theodos. I. xiv. 13. The commentary of Godefroy (tom. v. p. 220) is long, but perplexed; nor indeed is it easy to ascertain in what the Jus Italicum could consist, after the freedom of the city had been communicated to the whole empire.‡

(63) Julian (Orat. i. p. 8) celebrates Constantinople as not less superior to all other cities, than she was inferior to Rome itself. His learned commentator (Spanheim, p. 75, 76) justifies this language by several parallel and contemporary instances. Zosimus, as well as Socrates and Sozomen, flourished after the division of the empire between the two sons of Theodosius, which established a perfect equality between the old and the new capital.

(64) Codinus (Antiquitat. p. 8) affirms that the foundations of Constantinople were laid in the year of the world 5837, (A. D. 329,) on the 26th of September; and that the city was dedicated the 11th of May, 5838 (A. D. 330). He connects these dates with several characteristic epochs, but they contradict each other; the authority of Codinus is of little weight, and the space which he assigns must appear insufficient. The term of ten years is given us by Julian (Orat. i. p. 8), and Spanheim labours to establish the truth of it (p. 69-75) by the help of two passages from Themistius (Orat. iv. p. 58) and of Philostorgius (1. ii. c. 9), which form a period from the year 324 to the year 334. Modern critics are divided concerning. this point of chronology, and their different sentiments are very accurately discussed by Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 619-625.

(65) Themistius, Orat. iii. p. 47. Zosim. I. ii. p. 108. Constantine himself in one of his laws (Cod Theod. I xv. tit. i.) betrays his impatience.

But while they displayed the vigour and freshness of youth, the founder prepared to celebrate the dedication of his city.(66) The games and largesses which crowned the pomp of this memorable festival may easily be supposed: but there is one circumstance of a more singular and permanent nature, which ought not entirely to be overlooked. As often as the birthday of the city returned, the statue of Constantine, framed, by his order, of gift wood, and bearing in his right hand a small image of the genius of the place, was erected on a triumphal car. The guards, carrying white tapers, and clothed in their richest apparel, accompanied the solemn procession as it moved through the Hippodrome. When it was opposite the throne of the reigning emperor, he rose from his seat, and with grateful reverence adored the memory of his predecessor.(67) At the festival of his dedication, an edict, engraved on a column of marble, bestowed the title of SECOND Or NEW ROME on the city of Constantine.(68) But the name of Constantinople (69) has prevailed over the bonourable epithet; and, after the revolution of fourteen centuries, still perpetuates the fame of its author.(70)

The foundation of a new capital is naturally connected with the establishment of a new form of civil and military administration. The distinct view of the complicated system of policy, introduced by Dioclesian, improved by Constantine, and completed by his immediate successors, may not only amuse the fancy by the singular picture of a great empire, but will tend to illustrate the secret and internal cause of its rapid decay. In the pursuit of any remarkable institution, we may be frequently led into the more early or the more recent times of the Roman history: but the proper limits of this inquiry will be included within a period of about one hundred and thirty years, from the accession of Constantine to the publication of the Theodosian code;(71) from which, as well as from the Notitia of the east and west,(72) we derive the most copious and authentic information of the state of the empire. This variety of objects will suspend, for some time, the course of the narrative; but the interruption will be censured only by those readers who are insensible to the importance of laws and manners, while they peruse, with eager curiosity, the transient intrigues of a court, or the accidental event of a battle.

The manly pride of the Romans, content with substantial power, had left to the vanity of the east the forms and ceremonies of ostentatious greatness.(73) But when they lost even the semblance of those virtues which were derived from their ancient freedom, the simplicity of Roman manners was insensibly corrupted by the stately affectation of the courts of Asia. The distinctions of personal merit and influence, so conspicuous in a republic, so feeble and obscure under a monarchy, were abolished by the despotism of the emperors; who substituted in their room a severe subordination of rank and office, from the titled slaves who were seated on the steps of the throne to the meanest instru

(66) Cedrenus and Zonaras, faithful to the mode of superstition which prevailed in their own times, assure us, that Constantinople was consecrated to the Virgin Mother of God.

(67) The earliest and most complete account of this extraordinary ceremony may be found in the Alexandrian Chronicle, p. 285. Tillemont, and the other friends of Constantine, who are offended with the air of Paganism which seems unworthy of a Christian prince, had a right to consider it as doubtful, but they were not authorized to omit the mention of it.

(68) Sozomen, 1. ii. c. 2. Ducange, C. P. 1. i. c. 6. Velut ipsius Romæ filiam, is the expression of Augustin de Civitat. Dei, l. v. c. 25.

(69) Eutropius, 1. x. c. 8. Julian Orat. i. p. 8. Ducange, C. P. l. i. c. 5. The name of Constantinople is extant on the medals of Constantine.

(70) The lively Fontenelle (Dialogues des Morts, xii.) affects to deride the vanity of human ambition and seems to triumph in the disappointment of Constantine, whose immortal name is now lost in the vulgar appellation of Istambol, a Turkish corruption of as my wolv. Yet the original name is still preserved, 1. By the nations of Europe. 2. By the modern Greeks. 3. By the Arabs, whose writings are diffused over the wide extent of their conquests in Asia and Africa. See d'Herbelot Bibliothèque Örientale, p. 275. 4. By the more learned Turks, and by the emperor himself in his public mandates. Cantemir's History of the Othman Empire, p. 51

(71) The Theodosian code was promulgated, A. D. 438. See the Prolegomena of Godefroy, c. i. p. 185 (72) Pancirolus, in his elaborate Commentary, assigns to the Notitia a date almost similar to that of the Theodosian code; but his proofs, or rather conjectures, are extremely feeble. I should be rather inclined to place this useful work between the final division of the empire (A. D. 395) and the successful invasion of Gaul by the barbarians (A. D. 407). See Histoire des Anciens Peuples de l'Europe, tom, vii. p. 40

(73) Scilicet externæ superbiæ sueto, non inerat notitia nostri (perhaps nostræ); apud quos vis Imperii

ments of arbitrary power. This multitude of abject dependents was interested in the support of the actual government, from the dread of a revolution, which might at once confound their hopes, and intercept the reward of their services. In this divine hierarchy (for such it is frequently styled,) every rank was marked with the most scrupulous exactness, and its dignity was displayed in a variety of trifling and solemn ceremonies, which it was a study to learn, and a sacrilege to neglect.(74) The purity of the Latin language was debased, by adopting, in the intercourse of pride and flattery, a profusion of epithets, which Tully would scarcely have understood, and which Augustus would have rejected with indignation. The principal officers of the empire were saluted, even by the Sovereign himself, with the deceitful titles of your Sincerity, your Gravity, your Excellency, your Eminency, your sublime and wonderful Magnitude, your illus trious and magnificent Highness.(75) The codicils or patents of their office were curiously emblazoned with such emblems as were best adapted to explain its nature and high dignity; the image or portrait of the reigning emperors; a triumphal car; the book of mandates placed on a table, covered with a rich carpet, and illuminated by four tapers; the allegorical figures of the provinces which they governed; or the appellations and standards of the troops whom they commanded. Some of these official ensigns were really exhibited in their hall of audience; others preceded their pompous march whenever they appeared in public; and every circumstance of their demeanour, their dress, their ornaments, and their train, was calculated to inspire a deep reverence for the representatives of supreme majesty. By a philosophic observer, the system of the Roman government might have been mistaken for a splendid theatre, filled with players of every character and degree, who repeated the language, and imitated the passions of their original model.(76)

All the magistrates of sufficient importance to find a place in the general state of the empire, were accurately divided into three classes. 1. The Illustrious. 2. The Spectabiles, or Respectable: And, 3. The Clarissimi; whom we may translate by the word Honourable. In the times of Roman simplicity, the last-mentioned epithet was used only as a vague expression of deference, till it became at length the peculiar and appropriated title of all who were members of the senate,(77) and consequently of all who, from that venerable body, were selected to govern the provinces. The vanity of those who, from their rank and office, might claim a superior distinction above the rest of the senatorial order, was long afterward indulged with the new appellation of Respectable; but the title of Illustrious was always reserved to some eminent_personages who were obeyed or reverenced by the two subordinate classes. It was com municated only, I. To the consuls and patricians; II. To the prætorian præ fects, with the præfects of Rome and Constantinople; III. To the masters general of the cavalry and infantry; and IV. To the seven ministers of the palace, who exercised their sacred functions about the person of the empe ror.(78) Among those illustrious magistrates who were esteemed co-ordinate with each other, the seniority of appointment gave place to the union of dignities.(79) By the expedient of honorary codicils, the emperors, who were fond of multiplying their favours, might sometimes gratify the vanity, though not the ambition, of 'mpatient courtiers.(80)

valet, inania transmittuntur. Tacit. Annal. xv. 31. The gradation from the style of freedom and sim plicity, to that of form and servitude, may be traced in the epistles of Cicero, of Pliny, and of Symmachus. (74) The emperor Gratian, after confirming a law of precedency published by Valentinian, the father of his divinity, thus continues: Siquis igitur indebitum sibi locum usurpaverit, nulla se ignorations defendat; sitque plane sacrilegii reus, qui divina præcepta neglexerit. Cod. Theod. 1. vi. tit. v. leg. 2. (75) Consult the Notitia Dignitatum, at the end of the Theodosian Code, tom. vi. p. 315.*

(76) Pancirolus ad Notitiam utriusque Imperii, p. 39. But his explanations are obscure, and he does not sufficiently distinguish the painted emblems from the effective ensigns of office.

(77) In the Pandects, which may be referred to the reigns of the Antonines, Clarissimus is the ordinary and legal title of a senator.

(78) Pancirol. p. 12-17. I have not taken any notice of the two inferior ranks, Perfectissimus and Egregius, which were given to many persons, who were not raised to the senatorial dignity.

(79) Cod. Theodos. 1. vi. tit. vi. The rules of precedency are ascertained with the most minute accuracy by the emperors, and illustrated with equal prolixity by their learned interpreter. (80) Cod. Theod. 1. vi. tit. xIL

I. As long as the Roman consuls were the first magistrates of a free state, they derived their right to power from the choice of the people. As long as the emperors condescended to disguise the servitude which they imposed, the consuls were still elected by the real or apparent suffrage of the senate. From the reign of Dioclesian, even these vestiges of liberty were abolished, and the successful candidates who were invested with the annual honours of the consulship, affected to deplore the humiliating condition of their predecessors. The Scipios and the Catos had been reduced to solicit the votes of plebeians to pass through the tedious and expensive forms of a popular election, and to expose their dignity to the shame of a public refusal; while their own happier fate had reserved them for an age and government in which the rewards of virtue were assigned by the unerring wisdom of a gracious sovereign.(81) In the epistles which the emperor addressed to the two consuls elect it was declared, that they were created by his sole authority.(82) Their names and portraits, engraved on gilt tablets of ivory, were dispersed over the empire as presents to the provinces, the cities, the magistrates, the senate, and the people.(83) Their solemn inauguration was performed at the place of the Imperial resi dence; and during a period of one hundred and twenty years, Rome was constantly deprived of the presence of her ancient magistrates.(84) On the morning of the first of January, the consuls assumed the ensigns of their dignity. Their dress was a robe of purple, embroidered in silk and gold, and sometimes ornamented with costly gems. (85) On this solemn occasion they were attended by the most eminent officers of the state and army, in the habit of senators; and the useless fasces, armed with the once formidable axes, were borne before them by the lictors. (86) The procession moved from the palace(87) to the forum, or principal square of the city; where the consuls ascended their tribunal, and seated themselves in the curule chairs, which were framed after the fashion of ancient times. They immediately exercised an act of jurisdiction, by the manumission of a slave, who was brought before them for that purpose; and the ceremony was intended to represent the celebrated action of the elder Brutus, the author of liberty and of the consulship, when he admitted among his fellow-citizens the faithful Vindex, who had revealed the conspiracy of the Tarquins. (88) The public festival was continued during several days in all

(81) Ausonius (in Gratiarum Actione) basely expatiates on this unworthy topic, which is managed by Mamertinus (Panegyr. Vet. xi. 16. 19,) with somewhat more freedom and ingenuity.

(82) Cum de Consulibus in annum creandis, solus mecum volutarem-te Consulem et designavi, et declaravi, et priorem nuncupavi: are some of the expressions employed by the emperor Gratian to his preceptor the poet Ausonius.

(83) Immanesque

dentes

Qui secti ferro in tabulas auroque micantes,

Inscripti rutilum cœlato Consule nomem

Per proceres et vulgus eant.

Claud. in il. Cons. Stilichon. 456.

Montfaucon has represented some of these tablets or dypticks; see Supplement a l'Antiquité expliquée, tom. iii. p. 220.

(84) Consule lætatur post plurima sæcula viso

Pallanteus apex: agnoscunt rostra curules
Auditas quondam proavis: desuetaque cingit
Regius auratis Fora fascibus Ulpia lictor.-

Claudian in vi. Cons. Honorii. 643.

From the reign of Carus to the sixth consulship of Honorius, there was an interval of one hundred and twenty years, during which the emperors were always absent from Rome on the first day of January See the Chronologie de Tillemont, tom. iii. iv. and v.

(85) See Claudian in Cons. Prob. et Olybrii 178, &c. and in iv. Cons. Honorii, 585, &c.; though in the latter it is not easy to separate the ornaments of the emperor from those of the consul. Ausonius received, from the liberality of Gratian, a vestis palmata, or robe of state, in which the figure of the em peror Constantius was embroidered.

(86) Cernis et armorum proceres legumque portentes:

Patricios sumunt habitus; et more Gabino
Discolor incedit legio, positisque parumper
Bellorum signis, sequitur vexilla Quirini.
Lictori cedunt aquila, ridetque togatus
Miles, et in mediis effulget curia castris.

Claud. in iv. Cons. Honorii. 5

the principal cities; in Rome, from custom; in Constantinople, from imitation; in Carthage, Antioch, and Alexandria, from the love of pleasure and the superfluity of wealth.(89) In the two capitals of the empire the annual games of the theatre, the circus, and the amphitheatre,(90) cost four thousand pounds of gold, (about) one hundred and sixty thousand pounds sterling and if so heavy an expense surpassed the faculties or the inclination of the magistrates themselves, the sum was supplied from the Imperial treasury.(91) As soon as the consuls had discharged these customary duties they were at liberty to retire into the shade of private life, and to enjoy, during the remainder of the year, the undisturbed contemplation of their own greatness. They no longer presided in the national councils; they no longer executed the resolutions of peace or war. Their abilities (unless they were employed in more effective offices) were of little moment; and their names served only as the legal date of the year in which they had filled the chair of Marius and of Cicero. Yet it was still felt and acknowledged, in the last period of the Roman servitude, that this empty name might be compared, and even preferred, to the possession of substantial power. The title of consul was still the most splendid object of ambition, the noblest reward of virtue and loyalty. The emperors themselves, who disdained the faint shadow of the republic, were conscious that they acquired an additional splendour and majesty as often as they assumed the annual honours of the consular dignity.(92)

The proudest and most perfect separation which can be found in any age or country, between the nobles and the people, is perhaps that of the Patricians and the Plebeians, as it was established in the first age of the Roman republic. Wealth and honours, the offices of the state, and the ceremonies of religion, were almost exclusively possessed by the former; who, preserving the purity of their blood with the most insulting jealousy,(93) held their clients in a condition of specious vassalage. But these distinctions, so incompatible with the spirit of a free people, were removed, after a long struggle, by the persevering efforts of the Tribunes. The most active and successful of the Plebeians accumulated wealth, aspired to honours, deserved triumphs, contracted alliances, and after some generations, assumed the pride of ancient nobility.(94) The Patrician families, on the other hand, whose original number was never recruited till the end of the commonwealth, either failed in the ordinary course of nature, or were extinguished in so many foreign and domestic wars, or through a want of merit or fortune, insensibly mingled with the mass of the people.(95) 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

Omnia libertas; deductum vindice morem
Lex servat, famulusque jugo laxatus herili
Ducitur, et grato remeat securior ictu.

Claudian in iv. Cons. Honorii, 611.

(89) Celebrant quidem solemnes istos dies, omnes ubique urbes quæ sub legibus agunt; et Roma de more, et Constantinopolis de imitatione, et Antiochia pro luxu, et discincta Carthago, et domus fluminis Alexandria, sed Treviri Principis beneficio. Ausonius in Grat. Actione.

(90) Claudian (in Cons. Mall. Theodori. 279-331,) describes in a lively and fanciful manner, the various games of the circus, the theatre, and the amphitheatre, exhibited by the new consul. The sanguinary combats of gladiators had already been prohibited.

(91) Procopius in Hist. Arcana, c. 26.

(92) In Consulatu honos sine labore suscipitur. (Mamertin in Panegyr. Vet. xi. 2.) This exalted idea of the consulship is borrowed from an Oration (iii. p. 107,) pronounced by Julian in the servile court of Constantius. See the Abbé de la Bieterie (Memoires de l'Academie, tom. xxiv. p. 289), who delights to pursue the vestiges of the old constitution, and who sometimes finds them in his copious fancy. (93) Intermarriages between the Patricians and Plebeians were prohibited by the laws of the XII. Tables; and the uniform operations of human nature may attest that the custom survived the law See in Livy (iv. 1-6,) the pride of family urged by the consul, and the rights of mankind asserted by the

tribune Canuleius.

(94) See the animated pictures drawn by Sallust, in the Jugurthine war, of the pride of the nobles, and even of the virtuous Metellus, who was unable to brook the idea that the honour of the consulship should be bestowed on the obscure merit of his lieutenant Marius (c. 64). Two hundred years before, the race of the Metelli themselves were confounded among the Plebeians of Rome; and from the etymology of their name of Cacilius, there is reason to believe that those haughty nobles derived their origin from a sutler.

(95) In the year of Rome 800, very few remained, not only of the old Patrician families, but even of those which had been created by Cesar and Augustus. (Tacit. Annal. xi. 25.) The family of Scaurus (a branch of the Patrician Æmilii) was degraded so low that his father, who exercised the trade of a