XVII. berlain. gated authority over the provinces and armies, c HAP. the emperor conferred the rank of Illuftrious on feven of his more immediate fervants, to whose fidelity he entrusted his fafety, or his counfels, or his treasures. 1. The private apartments of the palace were governed by a favourite eunuch, who, in the language of that age, was ftyled the prapo- The chamfitus or præfect of the facred bed-chamber. His duty was to attend the emperor in his hours of state, or in thofe of amufement, and to perform about his perfon all thofe menial fervices, which can only derive their fplendor from the influence of royalty. Under a prince who deferved to reign, the great chamberlain (for fuch we may call him) was an useful and humble domeftic; but an artful domeftic, who improves every occafion of unguarded confidence, will infenfibly acquire over a feeble mind that afcendant which harfh wisdom and uncomplying virtue can seldom obtain. The degenerate grandfons of Theodofius, who were invifible to their fubjects, and contemptible to their enemies, exalted the præfects of their bed-chamber above the heads of all the minifters of the palace 142; and even his deputy, the first of the fplendid train of flaves who waited in the prefence, was thought worthy to rank before the respectable proconfuls of Greece or Asia. The jurifdiction of the chamberlain was acknow. ledged by the counts, or fuperintendants, who regulated the two important provinces, of the magnificence of the wardrobe, and of the luxury of the CHAP. Imperial The maf. ter of the offices. table 13. 144 table 143. 2. The principal administraXVII. tion of public affairs was committed to the diligence and abilities of the master of the offices He was the fupreme magiftrate of the palace, infpected the difcipline of the civil and military Schools, and received appeals from all parts of the empire; in the causes which related to that numerous army of privileged perfons, who, as the fervants of the court, had obtained, for them, felves and families, a right to decline the autho rity of the ordinary judges, The correfpondence between the prince and his fubjects was managed by the four fcrinia, or offices of this minifter of ftate. The first was appropriated to memorials, the second to epiftles, the third to petitions, and the fourth to papers and orders of a mifcellaneous kind. Each of these was directed by an inferior master of refpectable dignity, and the whole bufiness was dispatched by an hundred and forty-eight secretaries, chofen for the most part from the profeffion of the law, on account of the variety of abstracts of reports and references which fre 143 By a very fingular metaphor, borrowed from the military character of the firft emperors, the fteward of their household was ftyled the count of their camp (comes caftrenfis). Caffiodorius very feriously reprefents to him, that his own faine, and that of the em pire, muft depend on the opinion which foreign ambaffadors may conceive of the plenty and magnificence of the royal table. (Variar, 1. vi. epistol. 9.) 144 Gutherius (de Officiis Domûs Augustæ, L. ii. c. 20. l. iii. ) has very accurately explained the functions of the mafter of the offices, and the conftitution of his fubordinate fcrinia. But he vainly attempts, on the most doubtful authority, to deduce from the time of the Antonines, or even of Nero, the origin of a magiftrate who cannot be found in hiftory before the reign of Conftanline. quently XVII. quently occurred in the exercife of their feveral C H A P. functions. From a condefcenfion which in former ages would have been efteemed unworthy of the Roman majefty, a particular fecretary was allowed for the Greek language; and interpreters were appointed to receive the ambaffadors of the Barbarians: but the department of foreign affairs, which conftitutes fo effential a part of modern policy, feldom diverted the attention of the master of the offices. His mind was more feriously engaged by the general direction of the posts and arfenals of the empire. There were thirty-four cities, fifteen in the east, and nineteen in the west in which regular companies of workmen were perpetually employed in fabricating defenfive armour, offenfive weapons of all forts, and military engines, which were depofited in the arsenals, and occafionally delivered for the fervice of the troops. 3. In the courfe of nine centuries, the office of The quæ quæftor had experienced a very fingular revolu tion. In the infancy of Rome, two inferior magiftrates were annually elected by the people, to relieve the confuls from the invidious management of the public treasure 45; a fimilar affiftant was granted to every proconful, and to every prætor, who exercised a military or provincial command; with the extent of conqueft, the two quæftors were gradually multiplied to the number of four, 145 Tacitus (Annal. xi. 22.) fays, that the first quæitors were elected by the people, fixty four years after the foundation of the republic; but he is of opinion, that they had, long before that . period, been annually appointed by the confuls, and even by the kings. But this obfcure point of antiquity is contefted by other writers, ftor. CHAP. of eight, of twenty, and, for a fhort time, per- tiously folicited an office which gave them a feat tions, 146 Tacitus (Annal. xi. 22.) seems to confider twenty as the highest number of quæftors; and Dion. (1. xliii. p. 374.) infinuates that if the dictator Cæfar once created forty, it was only to facilitate the payment of an immenfe debt of gratitude. Yet the augmentation which he made of prætors fubfifted under the fucceeding reigns. 147 Sueton. in Auguft. c. 65. and Torrent. ad loc. Dion. Caf. P. 755. Dion. 148 The youth and inexperience of the quæftors, who entered on that important office in their twenty-fifth year (Lipf. Excurf, ad Tacit. 1. iii. D,), engaged Auguftus to remove them from the ma. nagement of the treafuny; and though they were reftored by Clau dius, they feem to have been finally difmiffed by Nero. (Tacit. Annal. xxii. 29. Sueton. in Aug. c. 36. in Claud. c. 24. p. 696.961, &c. Plin. Epiftol. x. zo. & alibi.) In the provinces of the Imperial divifion, the place of the quæftors was more ably supplied by the procurators (Dion. Caf. p. 707. Tacit. in Vit. Agricol. c. 15.); or, as they were afterwards called, rationales. (Hift. Auguft. p. 30). But in the provinces of the fenate we may still difcover a feries of quæftors till the reign of Marcus Antonius. (See the In fcriptions tions, which he compofed in the name of the em- CHAP. peror 149, acquired the force, and, at length, the XVII. form of abfolute edicts, he was confidered as the reprefentative of the legislative power, the oracle of the council, and the original fource of the civil jurifprudence. He was fometimes invited to take his feat in the fupreme judicature of the Imperial confiftory, with the Prætorian præfects, and the master of the offices; and he was frequently requested to resolve the doubts of inferior judges: but as he was not oppreffed with a variety of subordinate business, his leifure and talents were employed to cultivate that dignified style of eloquence, which, in the corruption of tafte and language, ftill preferves the majefty of the Roman laws 150. In fome refpects, the office of the Imperial quæftor may be compared with that of a modern chancellor; but the use of a great feal, which feems to have been adopted by the illiterate fcriptions of Gruter, the epiftles of Pliny, and a decifive fact in the Auguftan Hiflory, p. 64.). From Ulpian we may learn, (Pânde&t. 1. i. tit. 13.) that under the government of the house of Severus, their provincial administration was abolished; and in the fubsequent trou bles, the annual or triennial elections of quæltors must have naturally ceafed. 149 Cum patris nomine et epiftolas ipfe dictaret, et edista confcriberet, orationefque in fenatu recitaret, etiam quæfloris vice. Sueton. in Tit. c. 6. The office must have acquired new dignity, which was occasionally executed by the heir apparent of the empire. Trajan entrusted the same care to Hadrian his quæftor and coufin. See Dodwell Prælection. Cambden. x. xi. p. 362-394. 150 -Terris edicta daturus; Supplicibus refponfa.—Oracula regis Eloquio cravere tuo; nec dignius unquam Claudian in Confulat. Mall. Theodor. 33. See likewife Symmachus Barbarians, |