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CHAP.
XVII.

Three ranks of honour.

All the magiftrates of fufficient importance to find a place in the general state of the empire, were accurately divided into three claffes.

1. The

Illuftrious. 2. The Spectabiles, or Refpectable: And, 3. The Clariffimi; whom we may translate by the word Honourable. In the times of Roman fimplicity, the laft-mentioned epithet was used only as a vague expreffion of deference, till it became at length the peculiar and appropriated title of all who were members of the fenate 77; and confequently of all who, from that venerable body, were felected to govern the provinces. The vanity of those who, from their rank and office, might claim a fuperior diftinction above the rest of the fenatorial order, was long afterwards indulged with the new appellation of Respectable : but the title of Illuftrious was always referved to fome eminent perfonages who were obeyed or reverenced by the two fubordinate claffes. It was communicated only, I. To the confuls and patricians; II. To the prætorian præfects, with the præfects of Rome and Conftantinople; III. To the masters general of the cavalry and the infantry; and, IV. To the feven minifters of the palace, who exercised their facred functions about the perfon of the emperor 78. Among those illuftrious magiftrates who were esteemed co-ordinate with each other, the feniority of appointment

77 In the Pandects, which may be referred to the reigns of the Antonines, Clariffimus is the ordinary and legal title of a fenator.

78 Pancirol. p. 12—17. I have not taken any notice of the two inferior ranks, Perfectiffimus, and Egregius, which were given to many perfons, who were not raised to the fenatorial dignity.

gave

gave place to the union of dignities". By the CHA P. expedient of honorary codicils, the emperors, who XVII. were fond of multiplying their favours, might fometimes gratify the vanity, though not the ambition, of impatient courtiers "0.

80

fuls.

I. As long as the Roman confuls were the first The conmagistrates of a free state, they derived their right to power from the choice of the people. As long as the emperors condefcended to disguise the fervitude which they impofed, the confuls were still elected by the real or apparent fuffrage of the fenate. From the reign of Diocletian, even these vestiges of liberty were abolished, and the fuccefsful candidates who were invested with the annual honours of the confulfhip, affected to deplore the humiliating condition of their predeceffors. The Scipios and the Catos had been reduced to folicit the votes of plebeians, to pafs through the tedious and expenfive forms of a popular election, and to expofe their dignity to the fhame of a public refufal; while their own happier fate had reserved them for an age and government in which the rewards of virtue were affigned by the unerring wisdom of a gracious fovereign "1. In the epistles which the emperor addreffed to the two confuls elect, it was declared, that they were

81

79 Cod. Theodof. 1. vi. tit. vi. The rules of precedency are afcertained with the most minute accuracy by the emperors, and illuftrated with equal prolixity by their learned interpreter.

80 Cod. Theodof. 1. vi, tit. xxii.

81 Aufonius (in Gratiarum Actione) basely expatiates on this unworthy topic, which is managed by Mamertinus (Panegyr. Vet. xi. 16. 19.) with fomewhat more freedom and ingenuity.

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82

CHA P. created by his fole authority 2. Their names and XVII. portraits, engraved on gilt tablets of ivory, were

dispersed over the empire as presents to the provinces, the cities, the magistrates, the fenate, and the people $3. Their folemn inauguration was performed at the place of the Imperial residence; and, during a period of one hundred and twenty years, Rome was conftantly deprived of the prefence of her ancient magiftrates 84. On the morning of the first of January, the confuls affumed the enfigns of their dignity. Their dress was a robe of purple, embroidered in filk and gold, and fometimes ornamented with coftly gems 5.

85

32 Cum de Confulibus in annum creandis, folus mecum voluta. rem... te Consulem et defignavi, et declaravi, et priorem nun. cupavi; are some of the expressions employed by the emperor Gratian to his preceptor the poet Aufonius.

83 Immanefque....dentes

Qui fecti ferro in tabulas auroque micantes,
Infcripti rutilum coelato Confule nomen

Per proceres et vulgus eant,

Claud, in ų Conf. Stilichon.456.

Montfaucon has represented some of these tablets or dypticks; see
Supplement à l'Antiquité expliquée, tom, iii. p. 220.

84 Confule lætatur poft plurima fæcula vifo
Pallanteus apex: agnofcunt roftra curules
Auditas quondam proavis: defuetaque cingit
Regius auratis Fora fafcibus Ulpia lictor.

Claudian in vi Cons. Honorii, 643. From the reign of Carus to the fixth confulship of Honorius, there was an interval of one hundred and twenty years, during which the emperors were always abfent from Rome on the first day of January. See the Chronologie de Tillemont, tem. iii. iv, and v.

85 See Claudian in Conf. Prob. et Olybrii 178, &c. ; and in iv Conf. Honorii, 585, &c.; though in the latter it is not easy to separate the ornaments of the emperor from thofe of the conful. Aufonius received, from the liberality of Gratian, a veftis palmata, or robe of state, in which the figure of the emperor Conftantius was embroidered.

On

XVII.

On this folemn occafion they were attended by CHAP.
the most eminent officers of the ftate and army,
in the habit of fenators; and the useless fafces,
armed with the once formidable axes, were borne
before them by the lictors". The proceffion
moved from the palace 7 to the Forum, or prin-
cipal fquare of the city; where the confuls
afcended their tribunal, and feated themselves in
the curule chairs, which were framed after the
fafhion of ancient times. They immediately ex-
ercifed an act of jurisdiction, by the manumiffion
of a flave, who was brought before them for that
purpose; and the ceremony was intended to re-
prefent the celebrated action of the elder Brutus,
the author of liberty and of the confulfhip, when
he admitted among his fellow-citizens the faith-
ful Vindex, who had revealed the confpiracy of
the Tarquins". The puplic feftival was con-
tinued during feveral days in all the principal
cities; in Rome, from custom; in Conftanti-

86 Cernis et armorum proceres legumque potentes:
Patricios fumunt habitus; et more Gabino
Difcolor incedit legio, pofitifque parumper
Bellorum fignis, fequitur vexilla Quirini.
Lictori cedunt aquila, ridetque togatus
Miles, et in mediis effulget curia caftris.

Claud. in iv Conf. Honorii, 5.

fritafque procul radiare fecures.

In Conf. Prob. 229.

87 See Valefius ad Ammian. Marcellin. 1. xxii. c. 7.

35 Aufpice mox læto fonuit clamore tribunal;
Te faftos ineunte quater; folemnia ludit
Omnia libertas: deductum vindice morem
Lex fervat, famulufque jugo laxatis herili.
Ducitur, et grato remeat fecurior ictu.

Claudian in iv Conf. Honorii, 611.

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CHA P. nople, from imitation; in Carthage, Antioch, XVII. and Alexandria, from the love of pleasure and

the fuperfluity of wealth". In the two capitals of the empire the annual games of the theatre, the circus, and the amphitheatre, coft four thousand pounds of gold, (about) one hundred and fixty thousand pounds fterling: and if fo heavy an expence furpaffed the faculties or the inclination of the magiftrates themselves, the fum was fupplied from the Imperial treasury". As foon as the confuls had discharged thefe cuftomary duties, they were at liberty to retire into the fhade of private life, and to enjoy during the remainder of the year, the undisturbed contemplation of their own greatnefs. They no longer prefided 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 ferved only as the legal date of the year in which they had filled the chair of Marius and of Cicero. Yet it was ftill felt and acknowledged, in the last period of Roman fervitude, that this empty name might be compared, and even pre

89 Celebrant quidem folemnes iftos dies, omnes ubique urbes quæ fub legibus agunt; et Roma de more, et Conftantinopolis de imitatione, et Antiochia pro luxu, et difcinda Carthago, et domus Aluminis Alexandria, fed Treviri Principis beneficio. Aufonius in Grat. Actione.

90 Claudian (in Conf. Mall. Theodori, 279–331.) describes, in a lively and fanciful manner, the various games of the circus, the theatre, and the amphitheatre, exhibited by the new conful. The fanguinary combats of gladiators had already been prohibited.

9 Procopius in Hift. Arcana, c. 26.

ferred,

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