Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

The public treafurer.

CHA P. Barbarians, was never introduced to atteft the pubXVII. lic acts of the emperors. 4. The extraordinary title of count of the facred largeffes, was bestowed on the treasurer-general of the revenue, with the intention perhaps of inculcating, that every payment flowed from the voluntary bounty of the monarch. To conceive the almoft infinite detail of the annual and daily expence of the civil and -military administration in every part of a great empire, would exceed the powers of the most vigorous imagination. The actual account employed feveral hundred perfons, distributed into eleven different offices, which were artfully contrived to examine and control their refpective operations. The multitude of these agents had a natural tendency to encreafe; and it was more than once thought expedient to difmifs to their native homes the ufelefs fupernumeraries, who, deferting their honest labours, had preffed with too much eagernefs into the lucrative profeffion of the finances II. Twenty-nine provincial receivers, of whom eighteen were honoured with the title of count, correfponded with the treafurer; and he extended his jurifdiction over the mines from whence the precious metals were extracted, over the mints, in which they were converted into the current coin, and over the public treafuries of the most important cities, where they were depofited for the fervice of the ftate. The foreign trade of the empire was regulated by this minifter, who directed likewife all the linen and

51 Cod. Theod. 1. vi. tit. 30. Cod. Juftinian. l. xii. tit. 24.

woollen

20

XVII.

vate trea

woollen manufactures, in which the fucceffive CHA P.
operations of spinning, weaving, and dying were
executed, chiefly by women of a fervile condition,
for the use of the palace and army. Twenty-fix
of these institutions are enumerated in the west,
where the arts had been more recently introduced,
and a still larger proportion may be allowed for
the industrious provinces of the east 152. 5. Be- The pri-
fides the public revenue, which an abfolute mo- furer.
narch might levy and expend according to his
pleasure, the emperors, in the capacity of opu-
lent citizens, poffeffed a very extenfive property,
which was administered by the count, or treasurer
of the private eftate. Some part had perhaps been
the ancient demefnes of kings and republics;
fome acceffions might be derived from the fa-
milies which were fucceffively invefted with the
purple; but the most confiderable portion flowed
from the impure fource of confifcations and for-
feitures. The Imperial eftates were scattered
through the provinces, from Mauritania to Bri-
tain; but the rich and fertile foil of Cappadocia
tempted the monarch to acquire in that country
his faireft poffeffions 53, and either Constantine
or his fucceffors embraced the occafion of justify-
ing avarice by religious zeal. They fuppreffed

152 In the departments of the two counts of the treasury, the eastern part of the Notitia happens to be very defective. It may be obferved, that we had a treasury cheft in London, and a gyneceum or manufacture at Winchester. But Britain was not thought worthy either of a mint or of an arsenal. Gaul alone poffeffed three of the former, and eight of the latter.

53 Cod. Theod. 1. vi. tit. xxx. leg, 2. and Godefroy ad loc.

the

CHAP. the rich temple of Comana, where the high-prieft of the goddefs of war fupported the dignity of a fovereign prince; and they applied to their pri vate use the confecrated lands, which were inhabited by fix thoufand fubjects or flaves of the deity and her minifters 54. But these were not the valuable inhabitants: the plains that ftretch from the foot of Mount Argæus to the banks of the Sarus, bred a generous race of horfes, renowned above all others in the ancient world, for their majeftic fhape, and incomparable fwiftnefs. Thefe facred animals, deftined for the fervice of the palace and the Imperial games, were protected by the laws from the profanation of a vuigar mafter 155. The demefnes of Cappadocia were important enough to require the infpection of a count 156; officers of an inferior rank were ftationed in the other parts of the empire; and the deputies of the private, as well as thofe of the public, treasurer, were maintained in the exercife of their independent functions, and encouraged to con

[ocr errors]

154 Strabon. Geograph. 1. xii. p. 809. The other temple of Co mana, in Pontus, was a colony from that of Cappadocia, 1. xii. p. 825. The prefident Des Broffes (fee his Salufte, tom. ii. p. 21) Conjectures that the deity adored in both Comanas was Beltis, the Venus of the caft, the godfs of generation; a very different being indeed from the goddefs of war.

155 Cod. Theod. 1. x, tit. vi. de Grege Dominico. Godefroy has collected every circumstance of antiquity relative to the Cappadocian horfes. One of the finest breeds, the Palmatian, was the forfeiture of a rebel, whofe eftate lay about fixteen miles from Tyana, near the great road between Constantinople and Antioch.

156 Juftinian (Novell. 30.) subjected the province of the count of Cappadocia to the immediate authority of the favourite eunuch, wha prefided over the facred bedchamber.

[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]

of the

trol the authority of the provincial magiftrates 157. CHAP.
6, 7. The chofen bands of cavalry and infantry, XVII.
which guarded the perfon of the emperor, were The
under the immediate command of the two counts counts
of the domeftics. The whole number confifted of domef
three thoufand five hundred men, divided into tics.
feven Schools, or troops, of five hundred each ;
and in the east, this honourable fervice was al-
moft entirely appropriated to the Armenians.
Whenever, on public ceremonies, they were
drawn up in the courts and porticoes of the palace,
their lofty ftature, filent order, and splendid arms
of filver and gold, difplayed a martial pomp, not
unworthy of the Roman majefty 158. From the
seven schools two companies of horfe and foot
were felected, of the protectors, whofe advan-
tageous station was the hope and reward of the
most deserving foldiers. They mounted guard in
the interior apartments, and were occafionally dif
patched into the provinces, to execute with cele-
rity and vigour the orders of their mafter '59.
The counts of the domeftics had fucceeded to
the office of the Prætorian præfects; like the præ-
fects, they afpired from the fervice of the palace
to the command of armies.

157 Cod. Theod. 1, vi, tit. xxx. leg. 4, &c.

158 Pancirolus, p. 102. 136. The appearance of these military domeftics is defcribed in the Latin poem of Corippus, de Laudibus Justin, I. iii. 157-179. P. 419, 420, of the Appendix Hilt. Byzantin. Rom. 177.

159 Ammianus Marcellinus, who ferved fo many years, obtained only the rank of a protector. The first ten among these honourable foldiers were Clariffimi.

The

CHAP.

XVII.

Agents or official fpies.

The perpetual intercourfe between the court and the provinces was facilitated by the conftruction of roads and the inftitution of posts. But thefe beneficial establishments were accidentally connected with a pernicious and intolerable abuse. Two or three hundred agents or meffengers were employed, under the jurifdiction of the mafter of the offices, to announce the names of the annual confuls, and the edicts or victories of the emperors. They infenfibly affumed the licence of reporting whatever they could obferve of the conduct either of magiftrates or of private citizens; and were foon confidered as the eyes of the monarch 16, and the fcourge of the people. Under the warm influence of a feeble reign, they multiplied to the incredible number of ten thoufand, difdained the mild though frequent admonitions of the laws, and exercifed in the profitable management of the pofts a rapacious and infolent oppreffion. Thefe official fpies, who regularly correfponded with the palace, were encouraged, by favour and reward, anxioufly to watch the progrefs of every treasonable defign, from the faint and latent fymptoms of difaffection, to the actual preparation of an open revolt. Their careless or criminal violation of truth and justice' was covered by the confecrated mask of zeal; and they might fecurely aim their poisoned arrows at the breast either of the guilty or the innocent, who had pro

[ocr errors]

150 Xenophon. Cyropæd. I. viii. Briffon, de Regno Perfico, 1. i. No 190. p. 264. The emperors adopted with pleasure this Perfian metaphor.

« ZurückWeiter »