sular and tribunitian powers were united, when they were vested for life in a single person, when the general of the army was, at the same time, the minister of the senate and the representative of the Roman people, it was impossible to resist the exercise, nor was it easy to define the limits, of his imperial prerogative. To these accumulated honours, the policy of Augustus soon added the splendid as well ag important dignities of supreme pontiff, and of censor. By the former he acquired the management of the religion, and by the latter a legal inspection over the manners and fortunes, of the Roman people. If so many distinct and independent powers did not exactly unite with each other, the complaisance of the senate was prepared to supply every deficiency, by the most ample and extraordinary concessions. The emperors, as the first ministers of the republic, were exempted from the obligation and penalty of many inconvenient laws; they were authorized to convoke the senate, to make several motions in the same day, to recommend candidates for the honours of the state, to enlarge the bounds of the city, to employ the revenue at their discretion, to declare peace and war, to ratify treaties; and, by a most comprehensive clause, they were empowered to execute whatsoever they should judge advantageous to the empire, the resolutions of the assemblies, they pretended that the omens were unfavourable, and under this pretext, or others of the same kind, dissolved them. And the tribunes, when they had succeeded so far as to effect an union among themselves, were thus obliged to submit to the pungent mortification of seeing those projects which they had pursued with infinite labour, and even through the greatest dangers, irrecoverably defeated by the most despicable artifices." (Constitution of England, book 2, c. 7, p. 262.) Valerius Maximus records a memorable instance of the influence which the higher orders exercised over the people, in spite of the tribunes, and in opposition to their wishes. In a time of scarcity these officers had proposed some arrangements respecting supplies of corn. Scipio Nasica over-ruled the assembly, by these few words: "Tacete, quæso, Quirites; plus enim ego quam vos, quid reipublicæ expediat, intelligo." ("Romans, pray be silent; for I know better than you what is good for the republic.") "Qua voce audita," continues the historian, "omnes pleno venerationis silentio, majorem ejus auctoritatis quam suorum alimentorum curam egerunt." Such was this influence, that the tribunes were often sacrificed in the struggles which they engaged in with the senate, even when they were advocating the true interests of the people. This was the fate of the Gracchi, so unjustly calumniated by the great, and so hasely abandoned by the people, whose cause they were defending.—GUIZOT. Ĭ 88 THE MAGISTRATES. [CH. III. and agreeable to the majesty of things, private or public, human or divine. When all the various powers of executive government were committed to the imperial magistrate, the ordinary magistrates of the commonwealth languished in obscurity, without vigour, and almost without business. The names and forms of the ancient administration were preserved, by Augustus, with the most anxious care. The usual number of consuls, prætors, and tribunes,† were annually invested with their respective ensigns of office, and continued to discharge some of their least important functions. Those honours still attracted the vain ambition of the Romans; and the emperors themselves, though invested for life with the powers of the consulship, frequently aspired to the title of that annual dignity, which they condescended to share with the most illustrious of their fellow-citizens.‡ In the election of these magistrates, the people, during the reign of Augustus, were permitted to expose all the inconveniences of a wild democracy. That artful prince, instead of discovering the least symptom of impatience, humbly solicited their suffrages for himself or his friends, and scrupulously practised all the duties of an ordinary candidate.§ But we may venture to ascribe to his councils, * See a fragment of a decree of the senate, conferring on the emperor Vespasian all the powers granted to his predecessors, Augustus, Tiberius, and Claudius. This curious and important monument is published in Gruter's Inscriptions, No. 242. [This fragment, taken from Gruter, may be seen also in Ryck's Tacitus (Animad. p. 420, 421); and in Ernesti (Excurs. ad. lib. 5, c. 6); but it is so irregular, both in substance and form, that its authenticity is questionable.-WENCK.] Two consuls were created on the calends of January; but, in the course of the year, others were substituted in their places, till the annual number seems to have amounted to no less than twelve. The prætors were usually sixteen or eighteen. (Lipsius in Excurs. D. ad Tacit. Annal. 1. 1.) I have not mentioned the ædiles or quæstors. Officers of the police or revenue easily adapt themselves to any form of government. In the time of Nero, the tribunes legally possessed the right of intercession, though it might be dangerous to exercise it. (Tacit. Annal. 16, 26.) In the time of Trajan, it was doubtful whether the tribuneship was an office or a name. (Plin. Epist. 1, 23.) The tyrants themselves were ambitious of the consulship. The virtuous princes were moderate in the pursuit, and exact in the discharge of it. Trajan revived the ancient oath, and swore before the consul's tribunal that ne would observe the laws. (Plin. Panegyric, c. 64.) § Quoties magistratuum comitiis interesset. Tribus cum candidatis suis circui the first measure of the succeeding reign, by which the elections were transferred to the senate.* The assemblies of the people were for ever abolished, and the emperors were delivered from a dangerous multitude, who, without restoring liberty, might have disturbed, and perhaps endangered, the established government. By declaring themselves the protectors of the people, Marius and Cæsar had subverted the constitution of their country. But as soon as the senate had been humbled and disarmed, such an assembly, consisting of five or six hundred persons, was found a much more tractable and useful instrument of dominion. It was on the dignity of the senate, that Augustus and his successors founded their new empire; and they affected, on every occasion, to adopt the language and principles of patricians. In the administra tion of their own powers, they frequently consulted the great national council, and seemed to refer to its decision the most important concerns of peace and war. Rome, Italy, and the internal provinces, were subject to the immediate jurisdiction of the senate. With regard to civil objects, it was the supreme Court of Appeal; with regard to criminal matters, a tribunal, constituted for the trial of all offences that were committed by men in any public station, or that affected the peace and majesty of the Roman people. The exercise of the judicial power became the most frequent and serious occupation of the senate; and the important causes that were pleaded before them, afforded a last refuge to the spirit of ancient eloquence. As a council of state, and as a court of justice, the senate possessed very considerable prerogatives; but in its legislative capacity, in which it was supposed virtually to represent the people, the rights of Sovereignty were acknowledged to reside in that assembly Every power was derived from their authority, every law was ratified by their sanction. Their regular meetings were bat: supplicabatque more solemni. Ferebat et ipse suffragium in tribubus, ut unus e populo. Suetonius in August. c. 56. primum comitia e campo ad patres translata sunt. Tacit. Annal, 1. 15. The word primum seems to allude to some faint and unsuccessful efforts, which were made towards restoring them to the people. [Caiigula feebly made the attempt; he restored the Comitia to the people, and then took them away again. (Sueton. in Caio. c. 16. Dion Cassius, lib. 59, 9. 20.) But in Dion's time a shadow of these assemblies wi still preserved.—WENCK.] (See Note, ch. 44.—ED.) *Tum 90 COURT OF THE EMPERORS. [CH. IIL held on three stated days in every month, the calends, the nones, and the ides. The debates were conducted with decent freedom; and the emperors themselves, who gloried in the name of senators, sat, voted, and divided, with their equals. To resume, in a few words, the system of the imperial government, as it was instituted by Augustus, and maintained by those princes who understood their own interest and that of the people, it may be defined an absolute monarchy disguised by the forms of a commonwealth. The masters of the Roman world surrounded their throne with darkness, concealed their irresistible strength, and humbly professed themselves the accountable ministers of the senate, whose supreme decrees they dictated and obeyed.* The face of the court corresponded with the forms of the administration. The emperors, if we except those tyrants whose capricious folly violated every law of nature and decency, disdained that pomp and ceremony which might offend their countrymen, but could add nothing to their real power. In all the offices of life, they affected to confound themselves with their subjects, and maintained with them an equal intercourse of visits and entertainments. Their habit, their palace, their table, were suited only to the rank of an opulent senator. Their family, however numerous or splendid, was composed entirely of their domestic slaves and freedmen. Augustus or Trajan would have blushed at employ. ing the meanest of the Romans in those menial offices, which, in the household and bedchamber of a limited monarch, are so eagerly solicited by the proudest nobles of Britain. The deification of the emperorst is the only instance in Dion Cassius (1. 53, p. 703-714) has given a very loose and partial sketch of the imperial system. To illustrate, and often to correct him, I have meditated Tacitus, examined Suetonius, and consulted the following moderns: the Abbé de la Bleterie, in the Memoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions, tom19, 21, 24, 25, 27. Beaufort, République. Romaine, tom. 1, p. 255–275. The Dissertations of Noodt and Gronovius, de lege Regia, printed at Leyden, in the year 1731. Gravina de Imperio Romano, p. 479-544, of his Opuscula. Maffei Verona Illustrata, p. i. p. 245, &c. A weak prince will always be governed by his domestics. The power of slaves aggravated the shame of the Romans; and the senate paid court to a Pallas or a Narcissus. There is a chance that a modern favourite may be a gentleman. See a treatise of Vandale de Consecratione Principium. It would be easier for me to copy, than it has been to verify, the quotations of that learned Dutchman. which they departed from their accustomed prudence and modesty. The Asiatic Greeks were the first inventors, the successors of Alexander the first objects, of this servile and impious mode of adulation. It was easily transferred from the kings to the governors of Asia; and the Roman magistrates very frequently were adored as provincial deities, with the pomp of altars and temples, of festivals and sacrifices.* It was natural that the emperors should not refuse what the proconsuls had accepted; and the divine honours which both the one and the other received from the provinces, attested rather the despotism than the servitude of Rome. But the conquerors soon imitated the vanquished nations in the arts of flattery; and the imperious spirit of the first Cæsar too easily consented to assume, during his lifetime, a place among the tutelar deities of Rome. The milder temper of his successor declined so dangerous an ambition, which was never afterwards revived, except by the madness of Caligula and Domitian. Augustus permitted indeed some of the provincial cities to erect temples to his honour, on condition that they should associate the worship of Rome with that of the sovereign; he tolerated private superstition, of which he might be the object;† but he contented himself with *See a dissertation of the Abbé Mongault, in the first volume of the Academy of Inscriptions. + Jurandasque tuum per nomen ponimus aras, says Horace to the emperor himself; and Horace was well acquainted with the court of Augustus. [It may be questioned whether this line ought not to be taken rather as a figurative expression of confidence and gratitude, than as describing a positive fact. Compare with it Odes 3, 5, and 25, in his third book. Neither the wildest enthusiasm nor the most abject adulation could there have represented Augustus, during his lifetime, as actually drinking nectar, wielding the thunder, and sitting in council with the gods in heaven. Such passages were only poetical ascriptions to him of the qualities that fitted him for such exaltation, and prognosticated that "hac arte" his future apotheOsis was prepared. However, after making due allowance for the language of poetic fervour or of flattery, we may believe that Augustus, in the character of an ayatos dav had occasionally a share of reverential libations. Horat. Carm. iv. 5, 31, sqq. It may also be doubted whether Horace was so "well acquainted with the court of Augustus, as Gibbon says, and deserved the character of "poëte courtisan," which M Guizot gives him. The scenery and repose of the country, the simplicity and quiet of rural life, the anxious cares of the rich, and the happiness of a humble station, are ever the burden of his song. He contemned and satirized the manners and pomp of the city. His nvitations to patron, friend, or mistress, are always to the peaceful |