several branches, to whom it was communicated, united, by marriage or inheritance, the wealth and titles of the Annian, the Petronian, and the Olybrian houses; and in each generation the number of consulships was multiplied by an hereditary claim.* The Anician family excelled in faith and riches: they were the first of the Roman senate who embraced Christianity; and it is probable that Anicius Julian, who was afterwards consul and prefect of the city, atoned for his attachment to the party of Maxentius, by the readiness with which he accepted the religion of Constantine. Their ample patrimony was increased by the industry of Probus, the chief of the Anician family; who shared with Gratian the honours of the consulship, and exercised, four times, the high office of prætorian prefect.‡ His immense estates were scattered over the wide extent of the Roman world: and though the public might suspect or disapprove the methods by which they had been acquired, the generosity and magnificence of that fortunate statesman deserved the gratitude of his clients and the admiration of strangers.§ Such was the respect entertained for his memory, that the two sons of Probus, in their earliest Fixus in omnes Cognatos procedit honos; quemcumque requiras (Claudian in Prob. et Olyb. Consulat. 12, &c.) The Annii, whose name seems to have merged in the Anician, mark the Fasti with many consulships, from the time of Vespasian to the fourth century. The title of first Christian senator may be justified by the authority of Prudentius (in Symmach. 1. 553), and the dislike of the Pagans to the Anician family. See Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv, p. 183. 5, p. 44. Baron. Annal. A.D. 312, No. 78; A.D. 322, No. 2. + Probus claritudine generis et potentiâ et opûm magnitudine, cognitus Orbi Romano, per quem universum pœne patrimonia sparsa possedit, juste an secus non judicioli est nostri. Ammian. Marcellin. 27. 11. His children and widow erected for him a magnificent tomb in the Vatican, which was demolished in the time of pope Nicholas V. to make room for the new church of St. Peter. Baronius, who laments the ruin of this Christian monument, has diligently preserved the inscriptions and basso-relievos. See Annal. Eccles. A.D. 395, No. 5-17. § Two Persian satraps travelled to Milan and Rome, to hear St. Ambrose and to see Probus. (Paulin. in Vit. Ambros.) Claudian (in Cons. Probin. et Olybr. 30-60) seems at a loss how to express the glory of Probus, VOL. IIZ 2 D 402 WEALTH OF THE [CH. XXXI. youth, and at the request of the senate, were associated in the consular dignity; a memorable distinction, without example in the annals of Rome.* The marbles of the Anician palace were used as a proverbial expression of opulence and splendour;t but the nobles and senators of Rome aspired, in due gradation, to imitate that illustrious family. The accurate description of the city, which was composed in the Theodosian age, enumerates one thousand seven hundred and eighty houses, the residence of wealthy and honourable citizens. Many of these stately mansions might almost excuse the exaggeration of the poet; that Rome contained a multitude of palaces, and that each palace was equal to a city; since it included within its own precincts, everything which could be subservient either to use or luxury; markets, hippodromes, temples, fountains, baths, porticos, shady groves, and artificial aviaries.§ The historian Olympiodorus, who represents the state of Rome when it was besieged by the Goths, continues to observe, that several of the richest senators received from their estates an annual income of four thousand pounds of gold, above one hundred and sixty thousand pounds sterling; without computing the stated provision of corn and wine, which, had they been sold, might have equalled in value one third of the money. Compared to this immoderate wealth, an ordinary revenue of a thousand or fifteen hundred pounds of gold might be considered as no more than adequate to the dignity of the senatorial rank, which required many expenses of a public and ostentatious kind. Several examples are recorded in the age of Honorius, of vain and popular nobles, who celebrated the year of their prætorship by a festival, which lasted * See the poem which Claudian addressed to the two noble youths. + Secundinus the Manichæan, ap. Baron. Annal. Eccles. A.D. 390, No. 34. See Nardini, Roma Antica, p. 89, 498. 500. § Quid loquar inclusas inter laquearia sylvas? Vernula quæ vario carmine ludit avis? Claud. Rutil. Numatian. Itinerar. ver. 111. The poet lived at the time of the Gothic invasion. A moderate palace would have covered Cincinnatus's farm of four acres. (Val. Max. 4. 4.) In laxitatem ruris excurrunt, says Seneca, epist. 114. See a judicious note of Mr. Hume, Essays, vol. i, p. 562, last 8vo. edition. This curious account of Rome, in the reign of Honorius, is found in a fragment of the historian Olympiodorus, ap. Photium, p. 197. seven days, and cost above one hundred thousand pounds sterling.* The estates of the Roman senators, which so far exceeded the proportion of modern wealth, were not confined to the limits of Italy. Their possessions extended far beyond the Ionian and Egean seas, to the most distant provinces; the city of Nicopolis, which Augustus had founded as an eternal monument of the Actian victory, was the property of the devout Paula,† and it is observed by Seneca, that the rivers which had divided hostile nations, now flowed through the lands of private citizens. According to *The sons of Alypius, of Symmachus, and of Maximus, spent, during their respective prætorships, twelve, or twenty, or forty centenaries (or hundred weight of gold.) See Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p. 197. This popular estimation allows some latitude; but it is difficult to explain a law in the Theodosian Code (1. 6, leg. 5), which fixes the expense of the first prætor at twenty-five thousand, of the second at twenty thousand, and of the third at fifteen thousand folles. The name of follis (see Mém. de l'Académie des Inscriptions, tom. xxviii; p. 727) was equally applied to a purse of one hundred and twenty-five pieces of silver, and to a small copper coin of the value of part of that purse. In the former sense, the twenty-five thousand folles would be equal to 150,000l., in the latter, to five or six pounds sterling. The one appears extravagant, the other is ridiculous. There must have existed some third and middle value, which is here understood; but ambiguity is an excusable fault in the language of laws. + Nicopolis.. in Actiaco littore sita possessionis vestræ nunc pars vel maxima est. Jerom. in præfat. Comment. ad Epistol. ad Titum, tom. ix, p. 243. M. de Tillemont supposes, strangely enough, that it was part of Agamemnon's inheritance. Mém. Ecclés. tom. xii, p. 85. Seneca, epist. 89. His language is of the declamatory kind: but declamation could scarcely exaggerate the avarice and luxury of the Romans. The philosopher himself deserved some share of the reproach; if it be true that his rigorous exaction of quadringenties, above three hundred thousand pounds, which he had lent at high interest, provoked a rebellion in Britain. (Dion Cassius, 1. 62, p. 1003). According to the conjecture of Gale (Antoninus's Itinerary in Britain, p. 92) the same Faustinus possessed an estate near Bury, in Suffolk, and another in the kingdom of Naples. [The Villa Faustini is known only as a stage in the fifth Iter of Antoninus. Later antiquarians than Gale, have fixed its site at Dunmow, in Essex. (Gough's Additions to Camden, vol. ii, p. 54. 79.) The name of Bury, which is another form of burg or borough, denotes a Roman station, but it indicates a fortified post, which does not accord with the idea of a private citizen's villa. All that Dion Cassius says of Seneca, must be received very cautiously. Niebuhr, who himself disliked the philosopher, admits (Lectures, vol. iii, p. 186) that the historian's opinion of him is "exaggerated and much too bitter." The loan of above 300,000l. to Britain, is as improbable as that a London capitalist 404 THE ROMAN NOBLES. [CH. XXXI. their temper and circumstances, the estates of the Romans were either cultivated by the labour of their slaves, or granted, for a certain and stipulated rent, to the industrious farmer. The economical writers of antiquity strenuously recommend the former method, wherever it may be practicable; but if the object should be removed by its distance or magnitude, from the immediate eye of the master, they prefer the active care of an old hereditary tenant, attached to the soil, and interested in the produce, to the mercenary administration of a negligent, perhaps an unfaithful steward.* The opulent nobles of an immense capital, who were never excited by the pursuit of military glory, and seldom engaged in the occupations of civil government, naturally resigned their leisure to the business and amusements of private life. At Rome, commerce was always held in contempt; but the senators, from the first age of the republic, increased their patrimony and multiplied their clients by the lucrative practice of usury; and the obsolete laws were eluded or violated by the mutual inclinations and interest of both parties.† A considerable mass of treasure must of the present day should lend money to the Kaffirs. From the time of Julius Cæsar, Britain had been quite neglected, and the war of Claudius was the first step towards forming a Roman province in the island. A few maritime stations may have been occupied, and tribute collected there in the form of portoria, but no inland authority had been organized to promise even a shadow of security such as might have tempted the greedy to lend money even at the most usurious rate of interest. Dion Cassius had also previously given (1. 60, p. 957) a very different account of the expedition undertaken by Claudius. it is there attributed to a man named Vericus, who had been expelled from the island, and implored the emperor to interfere on his behalf. Camden intimates that some had imagined a connection between this man, who in Dion's Greek is written Bericus, and the Anglo-Saxon name Bedericsworth, by which Bury St. Edmunds was not known till more than four hundred years afterwards. He also denies what Gale asserts, that the Faustinus of Britain was the same, whose villa Martial described at Baiæ. There is no authority for it.—ED.] * Volusius, a wealthy senator (Tacit. Annal. 3. 30), always preferred tenants born on the estate. Columella, who received this maxim from him, argues very judiciously on the subject. De Re Rusticâ, 1. 1, c. 7, p. 408, edit. Gesner, Leipsig, 1735. Valesius (ad Ammian. 14. 6) has proved, from Chrysostom and Augustin, that the senators were not allowed to lend money at usury. Yet it appears from the Theodosian Code (see Godefroy, ad 1. 2, tit. 33, tom. i, p. 230-289) that they were permitted to take six per cent. or one half of the legal interest; and, what is more singular, this permission was granted to always have existed at Rome, either in the current coin of the empire, or in the form of gold and silver plate; and there were many sideboards in the time of Pliny, which contained more solid silver than had been transported by Scipio from vanquished Carthage.* The greater part of the nobles, who dissipated their fortunes in profuse luxury, found themselves poor in the midst of wealth; and idle in a constant round of dissipation. Their desires were continually gratified by the labour of a thousand hands; of the numerous train of their domestic slaves who were actuated by the fear of punishment, and of the various professions of artificers and merchants who were more powerfully impelled by the hopes of gain. The ancients were destitute of many of the conveniencies of life, which have been invented or improved by the progress of industry; and the plenty of glass and linen has diffused more real comforts among the modern nations of Europe, than the senators of Rome could derive from all the refinements of pompous or sensual luxury.† the young senators. *Plin. Hist. Natur. 33. 50. He states the silver at only four thousand three hundred and eighty pounds, which is increased by Livy (30. 45) to one hundred thousand and twentythree: the former seems too little for an opulent city, the latter too much for any private sideboard. The learned Arbuthnot (Tables of Ancient Coins, &c. p. 153) has observed, with humour, and I believe with truth, that Augustus had neither glass to his windows nor a shirt to his back. Under the lower empire, the use of linen and glass became somewhat more common. [Both linen and glass were known to the Romans in the days of Augustus; Strabo, who was his contemporary, says (1. 11) that Colchis produced flax abundantly, and was celebrated for the linen, which it manufactured and exported largely to other countries. The same, too, is stated by him (1. 16) of Borsippa, a Chaldean town, on the Roman side of the Euphrates. In Egypt, too, it had been long in use. It is not to be supposed that such commodities had failed to reach the capital of the world. Horace also, when he celebrates the fountain of Blandusia as more transparent than glass, "splendidior vitro," proves that this article was then well known in Rome. Pliny, who was born a very short time after the death of Augustus, speaks of it as in very common use. It had superseded gold and silver for drinking cups (H. N. 36, 67), and medicine was put into "vitreas ampullas" (Ib. 20, 54.) When he says (Ib. 15, 18) that it was usual to protect fruit from cold winds "specularibus," the term is considered by commentators as equivalent to "fenestris vitreis;" and Sidon is named by him as noted for the manufacture of glass; "Sidon artifex vitri." (Ib. 5, 17.) Had it been only recently introduced at Rome, he would not have failed to notice such a fact. These are earlier evidences than the glass vessels found at Pompeii, |