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Valerius Messalla was appointed the first præfect of Rome, that his reputation might countenance so invidious a measure: but, at the end of a few days, that accomplished citizen 109 resigned his office, declaring with a spirit worthy of the friend of Brutus, that he found himself incapable of exercising a power incompatible with public freedom. 110 As the sense of liberty became less exquisite, the advantages of order were more clearly understood; and the præfect, who seemed to have been designed as a terror only to slaves and vagrants, was permitted to extend his civil and criminal jurisdiction over the equestrian and noble families of Rome. The prætors, annually created as the judges of law and equity, could not long dispute the possession of the Forum with a vigorous and permanent magistrate, who was usually admitted into the confidence of the prince. Their courts were deserted, their number, which had once fluctuated between twelve and eighteen, was gradually reduced to two or three, and their important functions were confined to the expensive obligation 112 of exhibiting games for the amusement of the people. After the office of the Roman consuls had been changed into a vain pageant, which was rarely displayed in the capital, the præfects assumed their vacant place in the senate, and were soon acknowledged as the ordinary presidents of that venerable assembly. They received appeals from the distance of one hundred miles; and it was allowed as a principle of jurisprudence, that all municipal authority was derived from them alone.113 In the discharge of his laborious employment, the

109 The fame of Messalla has been scarcely equal to his merit. In the earliest youth he was recommended by Cicero to the friendship of Brutus. He followed the standard of the republic till it was broken in the fields of Philippi: he then accepted and deserved the favour of the most moderate of the conquerors; and uniformly asserted his freedom and dignity in the court of Augustus. The triumph of Messalla was justified by the conquest of Aquitain. As an orator he disputed the palm of eloquence with Cicero himself. Messalla cultivated every muse, and was the patron of every man of genius. He spent his evenings in philosophic conversation with Horace; assumed his place at table between Delia and Tibullus ; and amused his leisure by encouraging the poetical talents of young Ovid.

110 Incivilem esse potestatem contestans, says the translator of Eusebius. Tacitus expresses the same idea in other words: quasi nescius exercendi.

1 See Lipsius, Excursus D. ad 1 lib. Tacit. Annal.

112 Heineccii Element. Juris Civilis secund. ordinem Pandect. tom. i. p. 70. See likewise Sparheim de Usu Numismatum, tom. ii. dissertat. x. p. 219. In the year 450, Marcian published a law that three citizens should be annually created Prætors of Constantinople by the choice of the senate, but with their own consent. Justinian. 1. i. tit. xxxix. leg. 2.

Cod.

113 Quidquid igitur intra urbem admittitur, ad P. U. videtur pertinere; sed et siquid intra centesimum milliarium. Ulpian in Pandect. 1. i. tit. xiii. n. 1. He proceeds to enumerate the various offices of the præfect, who, in the code of Justinian (1. i. tit. xxxix. leg. 3), is declared to precede and command all city magistrates, sine injuriâ ac detrimento honoris alieni.

governor of Rome was assisted by fifteen officers, some of whom had been originally his equals, or even his superiors. The principal departments were relative to the command of a numerous watch, established as a safeguard against fires, robberies, and nocturnal disorders; the custody and distribution of the public allowance of corn and provisions; the care of the port, of the aqueducts, of the common sewers, and of the navigation and bed of the Tiber; the inspection of the markets, the theatres, and of the private as well as public works. Their vigilance ensured the three principal objects of a regular police, safety, plenty, and cleanliness; and, as a proof of the attention of government to preserve the splendour and ornaments of the capital, a particular inspector was appointed for the statues; the guardian, as it were, of that inanimate people, which, according to the extravagant computation of an old writer, was scarcely inferior in number to the living inhabitants of Rome. About thirty years after the foundation of Constantinople, a (359 A.D similar magistrate was created in that rising metropolis, for the same uses, and with the same powers. A perfect equality was established between the dignity of the two municipal, and that of the four prætorian, præfects.114

suls, vice

Those who, in the Imperial hierarchy, were distinguished by The proconthe title of Respectable, formed an intermediate class between præfects, &c. the illustrious præfects and the honourable magistrates of the provinces. In this class the proconsuls of Asia, Achaia, and Africa claimed a pre-eminence, which was yielded to the remembrance of their ancient dignity; and the appeal from their tribunal to that of the præfects was almost the only mark of their dependence.115 But the civil government of the empire was distributed into thirteen great DIOCESES, each of which equalled the just measure of a powerful kingdom. The first of these dioceses was subject to the jurisdiction of the count of

114 Besides our usual guides, we may observe that Felix Cantelorius has written a separate treatise, De Præfecto Urbis; and that many curious details concerning the police of Rome and Constantinople are contained in the fourteenth book of the Theodosian Code. [E. Léotard, De præf. urbana quarto p. C. sæculo. 1873.]

115 Eunapius affirms that the proconsul of Asia was independent of the præfect; which must, however, be understood with some allowance: the jurisdiction of the vice-præfect he most assuredly disclaimed. Pancirolus, p. 161. [The proconsuls of Asia and Africa had precedence of all the other provincial governors, and were subordinate neither to the vicars of Asia and Africa, nor to the prætorian prefects. (Theodosius I. gave the proconsul of Asia the position of vicar over the Islands and the Hellespont. The proconsul of Achaia was subordinate to the prefect of Illyricum, but not to the vicar of Macedonia, All three were appointed by the emperor without the intervention of the Prætorian Prefect.]

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116

the east; and we may convey some idea of the importance and
variety of his functions, by observing that six hundred apparitors,
who would be styled at present either secretaries, or clerks, or
ushers, or messengers, were employed in his immediate office.1
The place of Augustal præfect of Egypt was no longer filled by
a Roman knight; but the name was retained; and the extra-
ordinary powers which the situation of the country and the
temper of the inhabitants had once made indispensable were
still continued to the governor. The eleven remaining dioceses,
of Asiana, Pontica, and Thrace; of Macedonia, Dacia,1
117 and
Pannonia or Western Illyricum; of Italy and Africa; of Gaul,
Spain, and Britain; were governed by twelve vicars or vice-
præfects,118 whose name sufficiently explains the nature and
dependence of their office. It may be added that the lieuten-
ant-generals of the Roman armies, the military counts and
dukes, who will be hereafter mentioned, were allowed the
rank and title of Respectable.

As the spirit of jealousy and ostentation prevailed in the councils of the emperors, they proceeded with anxious diligence to divide the substance, and to multiply the titles of power. The vast countries which the Roman conquerors had united under the same simple form of administration were imperceptibly crumbled into minute fragments; till at length the whole empire was distributed into one hundred and sixteen provinces, each of which supported an expensive and splendid establishment. Of these, three were governed by proconsuls, thirty-seven by consulars, five by correctors, and seventy-one by presidents. The appellations of these magistrates were different; they ranked in successive order, the ensigns of their dignity

116 The proconsul of Africa had four hundred apparitors; and they all received large salaries, either from the treasury or the province. See Pancirol. p. 26, and Cod. Justinian. 1. xii. tit. lvi. lvii. [The comes orientis seems to be a survival of the diocesan counts who were instituted by Constantine (c. A.D. 327) to control and check the vicarii, of whom they had precedence. The institution seems not to have survived its author, except in the case of Oriens Aegyptus et Mesopotamia, where the vicar appears in 331 A.D. (Cod. Theod. i. 16, 6) with the title of count; perhaps the distinction was due (as Schiller has suggested) to the fact that Egypt was part of his province. Some time between 365 and 386 the administration of Egypt was taken from him, and that country became a separate diocese.]

117[Dacia, from Constantine forward, had no vicar but was directly under the prætorian prefect of Italia et Illyricum, or Illyricum. See App. 15.]

118 In Italy there was likewise the Vicar of Rome. It has been much disputed, whether his jurisdiction measured one hundred miles from the city, or whether it stretched over the ten southern provinces of Italy, [He was vicar of the prætorian prefect of Italy, not of the præfectus urbis, and he administered the ten provinces, of which the revenue went to Rome. The rest of Italy, under the vicarius Italiæ, was distinguished as annonaria.]

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