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ferred, to the poffeffion of fubftantial power. CHA P. The title of conful was ftill the moft fplendid ob- XVII. ject of ambition, the noblest reward of virtue and loyalty. The emperors themselves, who difdained the faint fhadow of the republic, were confcious that they acquired an additional splendour and majesty as often as they affumed the annual honours of the confular dignity 22.

92

tricians.

The proudest and most perfect feparation which The pacan 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 ftate, and the ceremonies of religion, were almoft exclufively poffeffed by the former; who preferving the purity of their blood with the most infulting jealoufy 93, held their clients in a condition of fpecious vaffalage. But these distinctions, fo incompatible with the fpirit of a free people, were removed, after a long struggle, by the perfevering efforts of the Tribunes. The most active and fuccessful of the Plebeians accumulated wealth, aspired to ho

92 In Confulatu honos fine labore fufcipitur. (Mamertin in Panegyr. Vet. xi. 2.) This exalted idea of the confulship is borrowed from an Oration (iii. p. 107.) pronounced by Julian in the fervile court of Conftantius. See the Abbé de la Bleterie (Memoires de l'Academie, tom. xxiv. p. 289.), who delights to pursue the veftiges of the old conftitution, and who fometimes 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 atteft that the custom furvived the law. See in Livy (iv. 1—6.), the pride of family urged by the conful, and the rights of mankind afferted by the tribune Canuleius.

D 4

nours,

CHAP. nours, deferved triumphs, contracted alliances, XVII. and, after fome generations, affumed the pride of ancient nobility 94. The Patrician families, on the other hand, whofe original number was never recruited till the end of the commonwealth, either failed in the ordinary course of nature, or were extinguished in fo many foreign and domestic wars, or, through a want of merit or fortune, infenfibly mingled with the mafs of the people ". Very few remained who could derive their pure and ge nuine origin from the infancy of the city, or even from that of the republic, when Cæfar and Auguftus, Claudius and Vefpafian, created from the body of the fenate a competent number of new Patrician families, in the hope of perpetuating an order, which was ftill confidered as honourable and facred ". But thefe artificial But thefe artificial fupplies

(in

94 See the animated pictures drawn by Salluft, in the Jugurthine war, of the pride of the nobles, and even of the virtuous Metellus, who was unable to brook the idea that the honour of the confulship fhould be bestowed on the obfcure merit of his lieutenant Marius (c. 64.). Two hundred years before, the race of the Metelli themselves were confounded among the Plebeians of Rome; and from the etymology of their name of Cacilius, there is reafon to believe that thofe haughty pobles derived their origin from a futler.

95 In the year of Rome 800, very few remained, not only of the old Patrician families, but even of those which had been created by Cæfar and Auguftus. (Tacit. Annal. xi. 25.) The family of Scaurus (a branch of the Patrician Emilii) was degraded fo low that his father, who exercised the trade of a charcoal merchant, left him only ten faves, and fomewhat less than three hundred pounds fterling. (Valerius Maximus, I. iv. c. 4. n. 11., Aurel. Victor in Scauro.) The family was faved from oblivion by the merit of the fon.

96 Tacit. Annal. xi. 25. Dion Caffius, 1. iii. p. 693. The vir tues of Agricola, who was created a Patrician by the emperor Ve

fpafian,

1

mans.

(in which the reigning houfe was always included) CHA P were rapidly swept away by the rage of tyrants, XVII. by frequent revolutions, by the change of manners, and by the intermixture of nations 97. Little more was left when Conftantine afcended the throne, than a vague and imperfect tradition, that the Patricians had once been the first of the RoTo form a body of nobles, whofe influence may restrain, while it fecures the authority of the monarch, would have been very incon fiftent with the character and policy of Conftantine; but had he seriously entertained fuch a defign, it might have exceeded the meafure of his power to ratify, by an arbitrary edict, an inftitu tion which must expect the fanction of time and of opinion. He revived, indeed, the title of PATRICIANS, but he revived it as a perfonal, not as an hereditary diftinction. They yielded only to the tranfient superiority of the annual confuls; but they enjoyed the pre-eminence over all the great officers of ftate, with the moft familiar accefs to the perfon of the prince. This honourable rank was bestowed on them for life; and as they were usually favourites, and minifters who had grown old in the Imperial court, the true

fpafian, reflected honour on that ancient order; but his ancestors had not any claim beyond an Equestrian nobility.

97 This failure would have been almoft impoffible if it were true, as Cafaubon compels Aurelius Victor to affirm (ad Sueton. in Cæfar. C. 42. See Hift. Auguft. p. 203. and Cafaubon Comment. p. 220.), that Vefpafian created at once a thousand Patrician families. But this extravagant number is too much even for the whole Senatorial order, unless we should include all the Roman knights who were diftin. guished by the permiffion of wearing the laticlave.

etymology

XVII.

CHA P. etymology of the word was perverted by igno rance and flattery; and the Patricians of Constantine were reverenced as the adopted Fathers of the emperor and the republic 9.

The Præpræfects.

torian

II. The fortunes of the Prætorian præfects were effentially different from thofe of the confuls and patricians. The latter faw their ancient greatness evaporate in a vain title. The former, rifing by degrees from the most humble condition, were invested with the civil and military adminiftration of the Roman world. From the reign of Severus to that of Diocletian, the guards and the palace, the laws and the finances, the armies and the provinces, were entrusted to their fuperintending care; and, like the Vizirs of the East, they held with one hand the feal, and with the other the standard, of the empire. The ambition of the præfects, always formidable, and fometimes fatal to the mafters whom they ferved, was fupported by the ftrength of the Prætorian bands; but after those haughty troops had been weakened by Diocletian, and finally fuppreffed by Conftantine, the præfects, who furvived their fall, were reduced without difficulty to the ftation of useful and obedient minifters. When they were no longer refponfible for the fafety of the emperor's person, they refigned the jurifdiction which they had hitherto claimed and exercised over all the departments of the palace. They were deprived by Conftantine of all military command, as foon as they had ceased to lead into the

98 Zofimus, 1. ii. p. 118.; and Godefroy ad Cod. Theodos, I. vi. tit. vi.

field, under their immediate orders, the flower of CHA P. the Roman troops; and at length, by a fingular XVII. revolution, the captains of the guards were tranfformed into the civil magiftrates of the provinces. According to the plan of government instituted by Diocletian, the four princes had each their Prætorian præfect; and,. after the monarchy was once more united in the perfon of Conftantine, he ftill continued to create the fame number of FOUR PRÆFECTS, and entrusted to their care the fame provinces which they already administered. 1. The præfect of the East stretched his ample juris diction into the three parts of the globe which were fubject to the Romans, from the cataracts of the Nile to the banks of the Phafis, and from the mountains of Thrace to the frontiers of Perfia. 2. The important provinces of Pannonia, Dacia, Macedonia, and Greece, once acknowledged the authority of the præfect of Illyricum. 3. The power of the præfect of Italy was not confined to the country from whence he derived his title; it extended over the additional territory of Rhætia as far as the banks of the Danube, over the dependent islands of the Mediterranean, and over that part of the continent of Africa which lies between the confines of Cyrene and thofe of Tingitania. 4. The præfect of the Gauls com, prehended under that plural denomination the kindred provinces of Britain and Spain, and his authority was obeyed from the wall of Antoninus to the foot of Mount Atlas 99.

After

99 Zofimus, 1. ii. p. 109, 110. If we had not fortunately poffeffed this fatisfactory account of the divifion of the power and pro

vinces

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