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XVII.

CHA P. of Phoenicia; which flourished above 'three centuries from the time of Alexander Severus, the author perhaps of an inftitution fo advantageous to his native country. After a regular courfe of education, which lafted five years, the students difperfed themselves through the provinces, in fearch of fortune and honours; nor could they want an inexhaustible supply of bufinefs 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, fixty-four of whom were diftinguished by peculiar privileges, and two were annually chofen with a falary of fixty pounds of gold, to defend the causes of the treafury. The first experiment was made of their judicial talents, by appointing them to act occafionally as affeffors to the magistrates; from thence they were often raised to prefide 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 afcended, by fucceffive fteps, to theilluftrious dignities of the ftate 2. In the practice

121

of

puted to have lafted from the third to the middle of the fixth cen tury. Heinecc. Jur. Rom. Hift. p. 351–356.

121 As in a former period I have traced the civil and military promotion of Pertinax, I shall here infert the civil honours of Mallius Theodorus. 1. He was diftinguished by his eloquence, while he pleaded as an advocate in the court of the Prætorian præfect. 2. He governed one of the provinces of Africa, either as prefident or consular, and deserved, by his administration, the honour of a Wars ftatue. 5. He was appointed vicar, or vice-præfect of Macedonia, 4. Quæftor. 5. Count of the facred largeffes. 6. Prætorian præfect

of

7

of the bar, thefe men had confidered reafon as c HA P.
the inftrument of difpute; they interpreted the XVII.
laws according to the dictates of private interest;
and the fame pernicious habits might ftill adhere
to their characters in the public administration of
the ftate. The honour of a liberal profeffion has
indeed been vindicated by ancient and modern ad-
vocates, who have filled the most important fta-
tions, with pure integrity, and confummate wif-
dom but in the decline of Roman jurifprudence,
the ordinary promotion of lawyers was pregnant
with mischief and difgrace. The noble art, which
had once been preferved as the facred inheritance
of the patricians, was fallen into the hands of
freedmen and plebeians 22, who, with cunning
rather than with skill, exercised a fordid and per-
nicious trade. Some of them procured admit-
tance into families for the purpofe of fomenting
differences, of encouraging fuits, and of prepar-
ing a harvest of gain for themselves or their bre-

of the Gauls; whilf he might yet be reprefented as a young man.
7. After a retreat, perhaps a difgrace, of many years, which Mal-
Jius (confounded by fome critics with the poet Manilius, fee Fa-
bricius Bibliothec. Latin. Edit. Erneft. tom i. c. 18. p. 501.) em-
ployed in the study of the Grecian philofophy, he was named Præ-
torian præfect of Italy, in the year 397. 8. While he ftill exercifed
that great office, he was created, in the year 399, conful for the
Weft; and his name, on account of the infamy of his colleague,
the eunuch Eutropius, often stands alone in the Fafti. 9. In the
year 408, Mallius was appointed a fecond time Prætorian præfect of
Italy. Even in the venal panegyric of Claudian, we may difcover
the merit of Mallius Theodorus, who by a rare felicity, was the
intimate friend both of Symmachus and of St. Auguftin. See
Tillemont, Hift. des Emp. tom. v. p. 1110–1114.

122 Mamertinus in Panegyr. Vet. xi. 20. Aufterius apud Pho-
tium. p. 1500.

E 4

thren.

CHAP. thren. Others, reclufe in their chambers, main-
XVII. tained the dignity of legal profeffors, by furnish-

The mili tary offi.

cers.

ing a rich client with fubtleties to confound the
plaineft truth, and with arguments to colour the
moft unjustifiable pretenfions. The fplendid and
popular clafs was compofed of the advocates,
who filled the Forum with the found of their tur
gid and loquacious rhetoric. Carelefs of fame
and of justice, they are defcribed, for the most
part, as ignorant and rapacious guides, who con-
ducted their clients through a maze of expence, of
delay, and of difappointment; from whence,
after a tedious feries of years, they were at length
difmiffed, when their patience and fortune were
almost exhausted 23.

III. In the fyftem of policy introduced by Au,
guftus, the governors, thofe at least of the impe-
rial provinces, were invefted with the full powers
of the fovereign himfelf. Ministers of
peace and
war, the diftribution of rewards and punishments
depended on them alone, and they fucceffively
appeared on their tribunal in the robes of civil
magistracy, and in complete armour at the head
of the Roman legions 124. The influence of the

123 The curious paffage of Ammianus (1. xxx. c. 4.), in which
he paints the manners of contemporary lawyers, affords a ftrange
mixture of found fenfe, falfe rhetoric, and extravagant fatire.
Godefroy (Prolegom. ad Cod. Theod. c. i. p. 185.) fupports the
hiftorian by fimilar complaints, and authentic facts. In the fourth
century, many camels might have been laden with law books.
Eunapius in Vet. Edefii, p. 72.

124 See a very fplendid example in the Life of Agricola, particu-
larly c. 20, 21.
The lieutenant of Britain was entrusted with the

fame powers which Cicero, proconful of Cilicia, had exercised in

the name of the fenate and people.

1

revenue,

XVII.

revenue, the authority of law, and the command CHA P. of a military force, concurred to render their power fupreme and abfolute; and whenever they were tempted to violate their allegiance, the loyal province which they involved in their rebellion, was scarcely fenfible of any change in its political state. From the time of Commodus to the reign of Conftantine, near one hundred governors might be enumerated, who, with various fuccefs, erected the standard of revolt; and though the innocent were too often facrificed, the guilty might be fometimes prevented, by the fufpicious cruelty of their mafter 125. To fecure his throne and the public tranquillity from these formidable fervants, Conftantine resolved to divide the military from the civil administration; and to eftablish, as a permanent and profeffional distinction,. a practice which had been adopted only as an occafional expedient. The fupreme jurifdiction exercifed 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 thefe illuftrious officers was more peculiarly refponfible for the difcipline of thofe troops which were under his immediate inspection, they both indifferently commanded in the field the feveral bodies, whether of horse or foot, which were united in the

125 The Abbé Dubos, who has examined with accuracy (fee Hift. de la Monarchie Françoise, tom. i. p. 41—100. edit. 1742.) the inftitutions of Auguftus and of Conftantine, obferves, that if Otho had been put to death the day before he executed his confpiracy, Otho would now appear in history as innocent as Corbulo.

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XVII. by the divifion of the caft and weft; and as feparate generals of the fame 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 ftationed in the provinces: three in Britain, fix in Gaul, one in Spain, one in Italy, five on the Upper, and four on the Lower Danube; in Afia eight, three in Egypt, and four in Africa. The titles of counts, and dukes "27, by wihch they were properly diftinguifhed, have obtained in modern languages fo very different a fenfe, that the use of them may occafion fome furprise. But it fhould be recollected, that the fecond of thofe appellations is only a corruption of the Latin word, which was indifcriminately 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

.

126 Zofimus, l. ii. P. 110. Before the end of the reign of Conftantius, the magistri militum were already increased to four. See Valefius ad Ammian. 1. xvi. c. 7.

137 Though the military counts and dukes are frequently mentioned, both in hiftory and the codes, we must have recourfe to the Notitia for the exact knowledge of their number and stations. For the inftitution, rank, privileges, &c. of the counts in general, fee Cod. Theod. 1. vi. tit. xii-xx. with the Commentary of Godefroy.

court

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