XIV.

CHAP. the præfects or their deputies, with the administration of justice and the finances in their respective districts. The ponderous volumes of the Codes and Pandects would furnish ample materials for a minute inquiry into the system of provincial government, as in the space of six centuries it was improved by the wisdom of the Roman statesmen and lawyers. It may be sufficient for the historian to select two singular and salutary provisions intended to restrain the abuse of authority. 1. For the preservation of peace and order, the governors of the provinces were armed with the sword of justice. They inflicted corporal punishments, and they exercised, in capital offences, the power of life and death. But they were not authorised to indulge the condemned criminal with the choice of his own execution, or to pronounce a sentence of the mildest and most honourable kind of exile. These prerogatives were reserved to the præfects, who alone could impose the heavy fine of fifty pounds of gold: their vicegerents were confined to the trifling weight of a few ounces. This distinction, which seems to grant the larger, while it denies the smaller degree of authority, was founded on a very rational motive. The smaller degree was infinitely more liable to abuse. The passions of a provincial magistrate might frequently provoke him into acts of oppression, which affected only the freedom or the fortunes of the subject; though, from a principle of prudence, perhaps of humanity, he might still be terrified by the guilt of innocent blood. It may likewise be considered, that exile, considerable fines, or the choice of an easy death, relate more particularly to the rich and the noble; and the persons the most exposed to the avarice or resentment of a provincial magistrate were thus removed from his obscure persecution to the more august and impartial tribunal of the Prætorian præ

1

XIV.

As it was reasonably apprehended that the CHAP.
f the judge might be biassed, if his in-
oncerned, or his affections were engaged;
t regulations were established to exclude
without the special dispensation of the
om the government of the province where
1; and to prohibit the governor or his
ntracting marriage with a native or an in-
r from purchasing slaves, lands, or houses,
xtent of his jurisdiction. Notwithstand-
igorous precautions, the emperor Con-
er a reign of twenty-five years, still de-
wenal and oppressive administration of
expresses the warmest indignation that
of the judge, his despatch of business,
e delays, and his final sentence, were
either by himself or by the officers of
The continuance, and perhaps the im-
ese crimes, is attested by the repetition
aws, and ineffectual menaces.
ivil magistrates were drawn from the The profes-
the law. The celebrated Institutes of law.
addressed to the youth of his dominions,
oted themselves to the study of Roman
; and the sovereign condescends to
diligence, by the assurance that their
lity would in time be rewarded by an
e in the government of the republic.
ts of this lucrative science were taught
siderable cities of the east and west;
famous school was that of Berytus, on
hoenicia; which flourished above three

the time of Alexander Severus, the s of an institution so advantageous to ntry. After a regular course of edulasted five years, the students diselves through the provinces, in search

sion of the

XIV.

CHAP. of fortune and honours; nor could they want an inexhaustible supply of business in a great empire, already corrupted by the multiplicity of laws, of arts, and of vices. The court of the Prætorian præfect of the east could alone furnish employment for one hundred and fifty advocates, sixty-four of whom were distinguished by peculiar privileges, and two were annually chosen with a salary of sixty pounds of gold, to defend the causes of the treasury. The first experiment was made of their judicial talents, by appointing them to act occasionally as assessors to the magistrates; from thence they were often raised to preside in the tribunals before which they had pleaded. They obtained the government of a province; and, by the aid of merit, of reputation, or of favour, they ascended, by successive steps, to the illustrious dignities of the state. In the prac

tice of the bar, these men had considered reason as the instrument of dispute; they interpreted the laws according to the dictates of private interest; and the same pernicious habits might still adhere to their characters in the public administration of the state. The honour of a liberal profession has indeed been vindicated by ancient and modern advocates, who have filled the most important stations, with pure integrity, and consummate wisdom: but in the decline of Roman jurisprudence, the ordinary promotion of lawyers was pregnant with mischief and disgrace. The noble art, which had once been preserved as the sacred inheritance of the patricians, was fallen into the hands of freedmen and plebeians, who, with cunning rather than with skill, exercised a sordid and pernicious trade. Some of them procured admittance into families for the purpose of fomenting differences, of encouraging suits, and of preparing a harvest of gain for themselves or their brethren. Others, recluse in their chambers, main

XIV.

lignity of legal professors, by furnishing a CHAP.
with subtleties to confound the plainest
with arguments to colour the most un-
retensions. The splendid and popular
mposed of the advocates, who filled the
the sound of their turgid and loquacious
"areless of fame and of justice, they are
or the most part, as ignorant and rapa-
who conducted their clients through a
ense, of delay, and of disappointment;
, after a tedious series of years, they
ch dismissed, when their patience and
almost exhausted.

tary officers.

e system of policy introduced by Au- The mili
overnors, those at least of the imperial
re invested with the full powers of the
self. Ministers of peace and war, the
f rewards and punishments depended
e, and they successively appeared on
in the robes of civil magistracy, and
mour at the head of the Roman le-
fluence of the revenue, the authority
e command of a military force, con-
er their power supreme and absolute;
they were tempted to violate their
loyal province which they involved
on was scarcely sensible of any change
tate. From the time of Commodus
Constantine, near one hundred go-
be enumerated, who, with various
the standard of revolt; and though
ere too often sacrificed, the guilty
times prevented, by the suspicious
- master. To secure his throne and
illity from these formidable servants,
lved to divide the military from the
on; and to establish, as a perma-

Ꭰ

XIV.

CHAP. nent and professional distinction, a practice which had been adopted only as an occasional expedient. The supreme jurisdiction exercised by the Prætorian præfects over the armies of the empire, was transferred to the two masters general whom he instituted, the one for the cavalry, the other for the infantry; and though each of these illustrious officers was more peculiarly responsible for the discipline of those troops which were under his immediate inspection, they both indifferently commanded in the field the several bodies, whether of horse or foot, which were united in the same army. Their number was soon doubled by the division of the east and west; and as separate generals of the same rank and title were appointed on the four important frontiers of the Rhine, of the Upper and the Lower Danube, and of the Euphrates, the defence of the Roman empire was at length committed to eight masters general of the cavalry and infantry. Under their orders, thirty-five military commanders were stationed in the provinces: three in Britain, six in Gaul, one in Spain, one in Italy, five on the Upper, and four on the Lower Danube; in Asia eight, three in Egypt, and four in Africa. The titles of counts, and dukes, by which they were properly distinguished, have obtained in modern languages so very different a sense, that the use of them may occasion some surprise. But it should be recollected, that the second of those appellations is only a corruption of the Latin word, which was indiscriminately applied to any military chief. All these provincial generals were therefore dukes; but no more than ten among them were dignified with the rank of counts or companions, a title of honour, or rather of favour, which had been recently invented in the court of Constantine. A gold belt was the ensign which distinguished the office of the counts and