304 HIERARCHY OF THE STATE. CHAP. XVII. curiosity, the transient intrigues of a court, or the accidental event of a battle. Hierarchy The manly pride of the Romans, content with substantial power, had left to the vanity of the East the forms and ceremonies of the state. 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 instruments 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. 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 Eminence, your sublime and wonderful Magnitude, your illustrious 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 74 73 Scilicet externæ superbiæ sueto, non inerat notitia nostri (perhaps nostræ);a apud quos vis Imperii valet, inania transmittuntur. Tacit. Annal. xv. 31. The gradation from the style of freedom and simplicity 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 Valen tinian, the father of his Divinity, thus continues: Siquis igitur indebitum sibi locum usurpaverit, nullâ se ignoratione defendat; sitque plane sacrilegii reus, qui dirina 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. 316. Nostræ is an unhappy specimen of emendation.-S. b Constantin, qui remplaça le grand Patriciat par une noblesse titrée, et qui changea avec d'autres institutions la nature de la société Latine, est le véritable fondateur de la royauté moderne, dans ce qu'elle conserva de Romain. Chateaubriand, Etud. Histor. Preface, i. 151. Manso (Leben Constantins des Grossen, p. 153, &c.) has given a lucid view of the dignities and duties of the officers in the Imperial court.-M. 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 ranks three classes-1. The Illustrious; 2. The Spectabiles, or of honour. Respectable; and, 3. The Clarissimi, whom we may translate by the word Honourable. In the times of Roman simplicity, the lastmentioned 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," 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 afterwards 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 communicated only, I. To the consuls and patricians; II. To the Prætorian præfects, with the præfects of Rome and Constantinople; III. To the masters general of the cavalry and the infantry; and, IV. To the seven ministers of the palace, who exercised their sacred functions about the person of the emperor.78 Among those illustrious magistrates who were esteemed co-ordinate with each other, the seniority of appointment gave place to the union of dignities. 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 impatient courtiers.80 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 refgns 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. Theodos. 1. vi. tit. xxii. VOL. II. X 306 THE CONSULS. CHAP. XVII. I. As long as the Roman consuls were the first magistrates of a free state, they derived their right to power from the choice The consuls. 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 Diocletian 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. Their solemn inauguration was performed at the place of the Imperial residence; and during a period of one hundred and twenty years Rome was constantly deprived of the presence of her ancient magistrates. 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 81 Ausonius (in Gratiarum Actione) basely expatiates on this unworthy topic, which is managed by Mamertinus (Panegyr. Vet. xi. [x.] 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, Per proceres et vulgus eant. Claud. de Cons. Stilichon. iii. 346. Montfaucon has represented some of these tablets or dypticks [diptychs, dira.-S.]; see Supplément à l'Antiquité expliquée, tom. iii. p. 220. 84 Consule lætatur post plurima sæcula viso Claud. 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. "It appears, however, from other authorities, that the appointment of the consuls was, at least nominally, made by the senate and ratified by the emperor. See Symmach. Ep. v. 15, x. 66. Laudes 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 palaces 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. The public festival was continued during several days in all 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 cost four thousand pounds of gold, (about) one hundred and sixty thousand pounds 88 90 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 restis palmata, or robe of state, in which the figure of the emperor Constantius was embroidered. 66 Cernis ut armorum proceres legumque potentes 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. strictasque procul radiare secures. 67 See Valesius ad Ammian. Marcellin. 1. xxii. c. 7. In Cons. Prob. 231. 68 Auspice mox lætum sonuit clamore tribunal, Claud. in iv. Cons. Honorii, 611. 69 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 [p. 715, ed. Amst. 1671]. 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. "Not 4000 pounds of gold, but 2000. Procopius says 20 centenaria, which are equal to 144,000 solidi; and from the time of Constantine there were 72 solidi to the pound. Supposing the solidus to be worth 108. English (see note on p. 338), the sum expended on this occasion would have been 72,000l. The emperor Justinian curtailed this prodigious expense. See Novell. cv. As the exhibition of these games was the sole duty of the consuls, the words izarile and consulatus came to 308 THE PATRICIANS. CHAP. XVII. 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."1 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 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 patricians. 93 The proudest and most perfect separation which can be found in The 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, 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. The Patrician 91 Procopius in Hist. Arcana, c. 26. 94 92 In Consulatu honos sine labore suscipitur. (Mamertin. in Panegyr. Vet. xi. [x.] 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 Bléterie (Mémoires de l'Académie, 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 picture 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 signify the money expended upon these occasions. See Marquardt, ut supra, vol. ii. pt. iii. p. 245.-S. a At a still later time it is said of Theodoric, "factus est consul ordinarius, quod summum bonum primumque in mundo decus edicitur." Jornandes de Reb. Get. c. 57.-S. |