victory, especially after they were no longer controlled by the commissioners of the senate, they exercised the most unbounded despotism. When Pompey commanded in the East, he rewarded his soldiers and allies, dethroned princes, divided kingdoms, founded colonies, and distributed the treasures of Mithridates. On his return to Rome he obtained, by a single act of the senate and people, the universal ratification of all his proceedings. Such was the power over the soldiers, and over the enemies of Rome, which was either granted to or assumed by the generals of the republic. They were at the same time the governors, or rather monarchs, of the conquered provinces, united the civil with the military character, administered justice as well as the finances, and exercised both the executive and legislative power of the state. of the emperor. 9 From what has been already observed in the first chapter of this Lieutenants work, some notion may be formed of the armies and provinces thus intrusted to the ruling hand of Augustus. But, as it was impossible that he could personally command the legions of so many distant frontiers, he was indulged by the senate, as Pompey had already been, in the permission of devolving the execution of his great office on a sufficient number of lieutenants. In rank and authority these officers seemed not inferior to the ancient proconsuls ; but their station was dependent and precarious. They received and held their commissions at the will of a superior, to whose auspicious influence the merit of their action was legally attributed.10 They were the representatives of the emperor. The emperor alone was the general of the republic, and his jurisdiction, civil as well as military, extended over all the conquests of Rome. It was some satisfaction, however, to the senate that he always delegated his power to the members of their body. The imperial lieutenants were of consular or prætorian dignity; the legions were commanded by senators; and the præfecture of Egypt was the only important trust committed to a Roman knight. Within six days after Augustus had been compelled to accept so very liberal a grant he resolved to gratify the pride of the senate by 9 By the lavish but unconstrained suffrages of the people, Pompey had obtained a military command scarcely inferior to that of Augustus. Among the extraordinary acts of power executed by the former, we may remark the foundation of twenty-nine cities, and the distribution of three or four millions sterling to his troops. The ratification of his acts met with some opposition and delays in the senate. See Plutarch, Appian, Dion Cassius, and the first book of the epistles to Atticus. 10 Under the commonwealth, a triumph could only be claimed by the general who was authorised to take the Auspices in the name of the people. By an exact consequence, drawn from this principle of policy and religion, the triumph was reserved to the emperor; and his most successful lieutenants were satisfied with some marks of distinction, which, under the name of triumphal honours, were invented in their favour. pro vinces be emperor and an easy sacrifice. He represented to them that they had enlarged his powers even beyond that degree which might be re- Division of quired by the melancholy condition of the times. They had the not permitted him to refuse the laborious command of the tween the armies and the frontiers; but he must insist on being allowed the senate. to restore the more peaceful and secure provinces to the mild administration of the civil magistrate. In the division of the provinces Augustus provided for his own power and for the dignity of the republic. The proconsuls of the senate, particularly those of Asia, Greece, and Africa, enjoyed a more honourable character than the lieutenants of the emperor, who commanded in Gaul or Syria. The former were attended by lictors, the latter by soldiers. A law was passed, that, wherever the emperor was present, his extraordinary commission should supersede the ordinary jurisdiction of the governor; a custom was introduced, that the new conquests belonged to the imperial portion; and it was soon discovered that the authority of the a A few supplemental remarks, corrective and illustrative, upon the provinces may be of use to the student. I. The Provinces of the Senate.-These were divided into two classes, consular and prætorian. Asia and Africa were the consular provinces; the rest were prætorian (Strab. xvii. p. 840; Dion Cass. liii. 13). The governors of these provinces were appointed in the ancient fashion, by lot, and for a single year (Sueton. Aug. 47; Dion Cass. liii. 13; Tacit. Ann. iii. 58), the two oldest consulars drawing lots for the consular provinces, and the two oldest prætorians for the prætorian provinces. All the governors of the senatorial provinces, whether consulars, or prætorians, had the title of proconsul, but with this distinction in the insignia of their rank, that the proconsuls of Asia and Africa had 12 lictors each, and the remainder only 6 (Dion Cass. liii. 13). They did not, however, possess the military power, and therefore wore the toga, and not the paludamentum with the sword, as in the time of the republic (Dion Cass. 1. c.). Consequently there were no legions in these provinces; but a small body of troops was placed at their disposal for the preservation of order. II. The Provinces of the Cæsar.-These were governed by the emperor himself by means of his Legati. The larger provinces were administered by legati, who bore the title of Legati Augusti pro prætore; but, like the proconsuls of the senatorial provinces, these legati were divided into two classes according to their rank as consulars or prætorians. The Prince, the favourite epithet of Augustus, was the same in every part of the empire. preserves his military command and guards in Rome itself. In return for this imaginary concession, Augustus obtained an The former important privilege, which rendered him master of Rome and Italy. By a dangerous exception to the ancient maxims, he was authorised to preserve his military command, supported by a numerous body of guards, even in time of peace, and in the heart of the capital. His command, indeed, was confined to those citizens who were engaged in the service by the military oath; but such was the propensity of the Romans to servitude, that the oath was voluntarily taken by the magistrates, the senators, and the equestrian order, till the homage of flattery was insensibly converted into an annual and solemn protestation of fidelity. tribunitian Although Augustus considered a military force as the firmest Consular and foundation, he wisely rejected it as a very odious instrupowers. ment, of government. It was more agreeable to his temper, as well as to his policy, to reign under the venerable names of ancient magistracy, and artfully to collect in his own person all the scattered rays of civil jurisdiction. With this view, he permitted the senate to confer upon him, for his life, the powers of the consular and tribunitian offices,12 which were, in the same manner, continued to all 1 Cicero (de Legibus, iii. 3) gives the consular office the name of Regia potestas: and Polybius (1. vi. c. 3) observes three powers in the Roman constitution. The monarchical was represented and exercised by the consuls. 12 As the tribunitian power (distinct from the annual office) was first invented for the dictator Cæsar (Dion, 1. xliv. [c. 5] p. 384), we may easily conceive that it was given as a reward for having so nobly asserted, by arms, the sacred rights of the tribunes and people. See his own Commentaries, de Bell. Civil. 1. i. contains the provinces divided according course of time received the ordinary or- : PROVINCES OF THE CÆSAR. 1. Tarraconensis. 5. Pannonia superior. 10. Dalmatia. 11. Cappadocia, from the Prætorian. 1. Lusitania. 6. Pamphylia et Lycia 7. Cilicia. 8. Commagene. 9. Arabia. 10. Armenia? 12. Assyria? 13. Numidia. time of Vespasian. 11. Mesopotamia? 12. Syria. Procuratorian. 1. Alpes Maritimæ. 5. Noricum. 7. Epirus. 8. Pontus Polemoni acus. 9. Mauretania Tingi tana. 10. Mauretania Cæsar iensis. 11. Judæa. 12. Egyptus, under a præfectus. Marquardt, ut supra, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 239.- S. his successors. The consuls had succeeded to the kings of Rome, and represented the dignity of the state. They superintended the ceremonies of religion, levied and commanded the legions, gave audience to foreign ambassadors, and presided in the assemblies both of the senate and people. The general control of the finances was intrusted to their care; and though they seldom had leisure to administer justice in person, they were considered as the supreme guardians of law, equity, and the public peace. Such was their ordinary jurisdiction; but whenever the senate empowered the first magistrate to consult the safety of the commonwealth, he was raised by that decree above the laws, and exercised, in the defence of liberty, a temporary despotism.13 The character of the tribunes was, in every respect, different from that of the consuls. The appearance of the former was modest and humble; but their persons were sacred and inviolable. Their force was suited rather for opposition than for action. They were instituted to defend the oppressed, to pardon offences, to arraign the enemies of the people, and, when they judged it necessary, to stop, by a single word, the whole machine of government. As long as the republic subsisted, the dangerous influence which either the consul or the tribune might derive from their respective jurisdiction was diminished by several important restrictions. Their authority expired with the year in which they were elected; the former office was divided between two, the latter among ten persons; and, as both in their private and public interest they were adverse to each other, their mutual conflicts contributed, for the most part, to strengthen rather than to destroy the balance of the constitution. But when the consular 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." 13 Augustus exercised nine annual consulships without interruption. He then most artfully refused that magistracy, as well as the dictatorship, absented himself from Rome, and waited till the fatal effects of tumult and faction forced the senate to invest him with a perpetual consulship. Augustus, as well as his successors, affected, however, to conceal so invidious a title. The imperial authority in the city rested chiefly upon the tribunitia potestas, which corresponded to the jus tribunitium of the republic. The tribunitia potestas secured to the emperor the inviolability of his person, the right of intercession against the resolutions of the senate and the people, and the right of summoning the senate and the people: this power moreover was possessed by the emperor in all parts of the empire, and was not confined, as in the republican period, to the city and a mile's distance from it (Comp. Dion Cass. li. 19; Sueton. Tib. c. 11). The emperors never called themselves tribunes, and, indeed, they could not be, as they were always patricians; but the importance they attached to the tribunitia potestas is shown by their adding it to their names to mark the years of their reigns. Marquardt, ut supra, vol. ii. pt. iii. p. 297; Höck, Römische Geschichte, vol. i. p. 337.-S. Imperial To these accumulated honours the policy of Augustus soon added the splendid as well as important diguities of supreme pontiff prerogatives. 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 authorised 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, and agreeable to the majesty of things private or public, human or divine.14 The magistrates. 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 15 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, 14 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. ccxlii.b 15 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. i.) I have not mentioned the Ediles 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. xvi. 26). In the time of Trajan, it was doubtful whether the tribuneship was an office or a name (Plin. Epist. i. 23).o Augustus never took the title of censor, but he possessed all the powers of the office, and discharged its duties, under the title of præfectus morum. (Sueton. Aug. 27.)-S. b It is also in the edition of Tacitus by Ernesti (Excurs. ad lib. iv. 6), and in the Monumenta Legum by Haubold, p. 223.-S. But even as late as A.D. 218 the tribunes on one occasion summoned the senate in the absence of the consuls and prætors. (Dion Cass. lxxviii. 37.) The office continued to exist long after the time of Constantine, and is mentioned even as late as A.D. 423, in the time of Honorius and Theodosius. (Cod. Theodos. ii. tit. 1, 1. 12; iv. tit. 11, 1. 2.)-S. |