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vinces which they governed; CHAP. andards of the troops whom e of these official ensigns eir hall of audience; others march whenever they apvery circumstance of their heir ornaments, and their spire a deep reverence for eme majesty. By a philo

m of the Roman governtaken for a splendid theaevery character and deguage, and imitated the model.

of honour.

ficient importance to find Three ranks e of the empire were acclasses. 1. The Illustrir Respectable: And, 3. e may translate by the times of Roman simplithet was used only as a -, till it became at length 1 title of all who were consequently of all who, were selected to govern f those who, from their a superior distinction l order, was long afterappellation of Respectus was always reserved ho were obeyed or reinate classes. It was consuls and patricians; ts, with the præfects III. To the masters fantry; and, IV. To lace, who exercised

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CHAP. their sacred functions about the person of the em peror. 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.

The consuls.

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 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. In the epistles which the emperor addressed to the two consuls elect, it was declared, that they were created by his sole authority. 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

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ary, the consuls assumed the ensigns of CHAP. -. Their dress was a robe of purple,

in silk and gold, and sometimes ornacostly gems. On this solemn occasion tended by the most eminent officers of army, in the habit of senators; and sces, armed with the once formidable orne before them by the lictors. The ved from the palace to the Forum, or are of the city; where the consuls r tribunal, and seated themselves in hairs, which were framed after the cient times. They immediately exerjurisdiction, by the manumission of a s brought before them for that purceremony was intended to represent action of the elder Brutus, the author of the consulship, when he admitted ow-citizens the faithful Vindex, who he conspiracy of the Tarquins. The vas continued during several days in I cities; in Rome, from custom; in from imitation; in Carthage, Anxandria, from the love of pleasure uity of wealth. In the two capitals e annual games of the theatre, the è amphitheatre, cost four thousand (about) one hundred and sixty thouerling: and if so heavy an expense culties or the inclination of the maves, the sum was supplied from the 7. As soon as the consuls had disstomary duties, they were at liberty shade of private life, and to enjoy, inder of the year, the undisturbed f their own greatness. They no

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CHAP. 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.

The patricians.

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, 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 families, on the other hand, whose original, number was never recruited till the end of the common

1

er failed in the ordinary course of na-
re extinguished in so many foreign and
rs, or, through a want of merit or for-
sibly mingled with the mass of the peo-
few remained who could derive their
enuine origin from the infancy of the
from that of the republic, when Cæsar
is, Claudius and Vespasian, created from
the senate a competent number of new
milies, in the hope of perpetuating an
was still considered as honourable and
these artificial supplies (in which the
se was always included) were rapidly
y the rage of tyrants, by frequent revo-
he change of manners, and by the in-
7 nations. Little more was left when
scended the throne than a vague and
dition, that the Patricians had once
I of the Romans. To form a body of
influence may restrain, while it se-
ority of the monarch, would have been
ent with the character and policy of
but had he seriously entertained such
ight have exceeded the measure of his
7, by an arbitrary edict, an institution
pect the sanction of time and of opinion.
ndeed, the title of PATRICIANS, but
as a personal, not as an hereditary
They yielded only to the transient
he annual consuls; but they enjoyed
ce over all the great officers of state,
familiar access to the person of the
honourable rank was bestowed on
and as they were usually favourites,
who had grown old in the Imperial
etymology of the word was perverted
and flattery; and the Patricians of

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