.

was always included) were rapidly swept away CHAP. by the rage of tyrants, by frequent revolutions, XVII. by the change of manners, and by the intermixture of nations. Little more was left when Constantine ascended the throne, than a vagueand imperfect tradition, that the patricians had once been the first of the Romans. To form a body of nobles, whose influence may restrain, while it secures the authority of the monarch, would have been very inconsistent with the cha racter and policy of Constantine; but had he seriously entertained such a design, it might have exceeded the measure of his power to ratify, by an arbitrary edict, an institution which must expect the sanction of time and of opinion. He revived; indeed, the title of patricians, but he revived it as a personal, not as an hereditary distinction. They yielded only to the transient superiority of the annual consuls; but they enjoyed the pre-eminence over all the great officers of state, with the most familiar access to the person of the prince. This honourable rank was bestowed on them for life and as they were usually favourites, and ministers who had grown old in the imperial court, the true etymo

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

1

This failure would have been almost impossible, if it were true, as Casaubon compels Aurelius Victor to affirm (ad Sueton. in Cæsar, c. 42. See Hist. August., p, 203, and Casaubon Comment. p. 220), that Vespasian 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 dis tinguished by the permission of wearing the laticlave.

CHAP. logy of the word was perverted by ignorance XVII. and flattery; and the patricians of Constantine were reverenced as the adopted fathers of the emperor and the republic."

The præto

II. The fortunes of the prætorian præfects fin præ- were essentially different from those of the con

rian

fects.

suls and patricians. The latter saw their ancient greatness evaporate in a vain title. The former, rising by degrees from the most humble condition, were invested with the civil and military administration 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 superintending care; and, like the vizirs of the East, they held with one hand the seal, and with the other the standard of the empire. The ambition of the prefects, always formidable, and sometimes fatal, to the masters whom they served, was supported by the strength of the prætorian bands; but after those haughty troops had been weakened by Diocletian, and finally suppressed by Constantine, the præfects, who survived their fall, were reduced without difficulty to the station of useful and obedient ministers. When they were no longer responsible for the safety of the emperor's person, they resigned the jurisdiction which they had hitherto claimed and exercised over all the departments of the palace. They were deprived by Constantine of all military command, as soon as they had ceased to lead into the

© Zosimus, l. ii, p. 118; and Godefroy ad Cod. Theodos. 1. vi, tit. vi.

XVIL

field, under their immediate orders, the flower of CHAP the Roman troops; and at length, by a singular revolution, the captains of the guards were transformed into the civil magistrates 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 person of Constantine, he still continued to create the same number of four præfects, and entrusted to their care the same provinces which they already administered. 1, The præfect of the East stretched his ample jurisdiction into the three parts of the globe which were subject to the Romans, from the cataracts of the Nile to the banks of the Phasis, and from the mountains of Thrace to the frontiers of Persia: 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 those of Tingitania: 4, The præfect of the Gauls comprehended 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.*

e Zosimus, 1. it, p. 109-110. If we had not fortunately pos sessed this satisfactory account of the division of the power and pro

vinces

СНАР.
XVII.

After the prætorian præfects had been dismissed from all military command, the civil functions which they were ordained to exercise over so many subject nations, were adequate to the ambition and abilities of the most consummate ministers. To their wisdom was committed the supreme administration of justice and of the finances, the two objects which, in a state of peace, comprehend almost all the respective duties of the sovereign and of the people; of the former, to protect the citizens who are obedient to the laws; of the latter, to contribute the share of their property which is required for the expences of the state. The coin, the highways, the posts, the granaries, the manufactures, whatever could interest the public prosperity, was moderated by the authority of the prætorian præfects. As the immediate representatives of the imperial majesty, they were empowered to explain, to enforce, and on some occasions to modify, the general edicts by their discrétionary proclamations. They watched over the conduct of the provincial governors, removed the negligent, and inflicted punishments on the guilty. From all the inferior jurisdictions, an appeal in every matter of importance, either civil or criminal, might be brought before the tribunal of the præfect; but his sentence was final and absolute; and the emperors themselves refused to admit any complaints against the judgment or the integrity of a magi

vinces of the prætorian præfects, we should frequently have been perplexed amid the copious details of the Code, and the circumstan ial minuteness of the Notitia.

strate whom they honoured with such unbound- CHAP. ed confidence. His appointments were suitable XVII. to his dignity; and if avarice was his ruling

g

passion, he enjoyed frequent opportunities of collecting a rich harvest of fees, of presents, and of perquisites. Though the emperors no longer dreaded the ambition of their præfects, they were attentive to counterbalance the power of this great office by the uncertainty and shortness of its duration.h

fects of

nople.

From their superior importance and dignity, The preRome and Constantinople were alone excepted Rome and from the jurisdiction of the prætorian præfects. Constanti The immense size of the city, and the experience of the tardy, ineffectual operation of the laws, had furnished the policy of Augustus with a specious pretence for introducing a new magistrate, who alone could restrain a servile and turbulent populace by the strong arm of arbi

See a law of Constantine himself. A præfectis autem præto rio provocare, non sinimus. Cod. Justinian, 1. vii, tit. lxii, leg. 19. Charisius, a lawyer of the time of Constantine (Heinec. Hist. Juris Romani, p. 349), who admits this law as a fundamental principle of jurisprudence, compares the prætorian præfects to the masters of the horse of the ancient dictators. Pandect. 1. i, tit. xi.

When Justinian, in the exhausted condition of the empire, instituted a prætorian præfect for Africa, he allowed him a salary of one hundred pounds of gold. Cod. Justinian, 1. i, tit. xxvii, leg. 1.

For this, and the other dignities of the empire, it may be sufficient to refer to the ample commentaries of Pancirolus and Godefroy, who have diligently collected and accurately digested in their proper order all the legal and historical materials. From those authors, Dr. Howell (History of the World, vol. ii, p. 24-77) had deduced a very distinct abridgement of the state of the Roman empire.