by the majesty of the Imperial purple. The several branches to whom it was communicated united, by marriage or inheritance, the wealth and titles of the Annian, the Petronian, and the Olybrian houses; and in each generation the number of consulships was multiplied by an hereditary claim.18 The Anician family excelled in faith and in riches: they were the first of the Roman senate who embraced Christianity; and it is probable that Anicius Julian, who was afterwards consul and præfect of the city, atoned for his attachment to the party of Maxentius by the readiness with which he accepted the religion of Constantine.1 Their ample patrimony was increased by the industry of Probus, the chief of the Anician family, who shared with Gratian the honours of the consulship, and exercised four times the high office of Prætorian præfect. 20 His immense estates were scattered over the wide extent of the Roman world; and though the public might suspect or disapprove the methods by which they had been acquired, the generosity and magnificence of that fortunate statesman deserved the gratitude of his clients and the admiration of strangers.21 Such was the respect entertained for his memory, that the two sons of Probus, in their earliest youth and at the request of the senate, were associated in the consular dignity: a memorable distinction, without example in the annals of Rome.22 "The marbles of the Anician palace" were used as a proverbial expression of opulence and splendour;23 but the nobles and Wealth of senators of Rome aspired in due gradation to imitate that nobles. the Roman 17 In the sixth century the nobility of the Anician name is mentioned (Cassiodor. Variar. 1. x. Ep. 11, 12) with singular respect by the minister of a Gothic king of Italy. 18 Fixus in omnes Cognatos procedit honos; quemcumque requiras (Claudian in Prob. et Olyb. Consulat. 12, &c.) The Annii, whose name seems to have merged in the Anician, mark the Fasti with many consulships from the time of Vespasian to the fourth century. 19 The title of first Christian senator may be justified by the authority of Prudentius (in Symmach. i. 553) and the dislike of the Pagans to the Anician family. See Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 183, v. p. 44. Baron. Annal. A.D. 312, No. 78; A.D. 322, No. 2. 20 Probus .... claritudine generis et potentiâ et opûm amplitudine cognitus Orbi Romano, per quem universum pone patrimonia sparsa possedit, juste an secus non judicioli est nostri. Ammian, Marcellin. xxvii. 11. His children and widow erected for him a magnificent tomb in the Vatican, which was demolished in the time of pope Nicholas V. to make room for the new church of St. Peter. Baronius, who laments the ruin of this Christian monument, has diligently preserved the inscriptions and basso-relievos. See Annal. Eccles. A.D. 395, No. 5-17. 21 Two Persian satraps travelled to Milan and Rome to hear St. Ambrose and to see Probus. (Paulin. in Vit. Ambros.) Claudian (in Cons. Probin, et Olybr. 30-60) seems at a loss how to express the glory of Probus. 22 See the poem which Claudian addressed to the two noble youths. 23 Secundinus, the Manichæan, ap. Baron. Annal. Eccles. A.D. 390, No. 34. illustrious family. The accurate description of the city, which was composed in the Theodosian age, enumerates one thousand seven hundred and eighty houses, the residence of wealthy and honourable citizens.24 Many of these stately mansions might almost excuse the exaggeration of the poet-that Rome contained a multitude of palaces, and that each palace was equal to a city since it included within its own precincts everything which could be subservient either to use or luxury; markets, hippodromes, temples, fountains, baths, porticos, shady groves, and artificial aviaries. 25 The historian Olympiodorus, who represents the state of Rome when it was besieged by the Goths,26 continues to observe that several of the richest senators received from their estates an annual income of four thousand pounds of gold, above one hundred and sixty thousand pounds sterling; without computing the stated provision of corn and wine, which, had they been sold, might have equalled in value onethird of the money. Compared to this immoderate wealth, an ordinary revenue of a thousand or fifteen hundred pounds of gold might be considered as no more than adequate to the dignity of the senatorian rank, which required many expenses of a public and ostentatious kind. Several examples are recorded in the age of Honorius of vain and popular nobles who celebrated the year of their prætorship by a festival which lasted seven days and cost above one hundred thousand pounds sterling.27 The estates of the Roman senators, which so far exceed the proportion of modern wealth, were not confined to 24 See Nardini, Roma Antica, p. 89, 498, 500. 25 Quid loquar inclusas inter laquearia silvas? Claud. Rutil. Numatian. Itinerar. ver. 111. The poet lived at the time of the Gothic invasion. A moderate palace would have covered Cincinnatus's farm of four acres (Val. Max. iv. 4, 7). În laxitatem ruris excurrunt, says Seneca, Epist. 114. See a judicious note of Mr. Hume, Essays, vol. i. p. 562, last 8vo. edition. 26 This curious account of Rome in the reign of Honorius is found in a fragment of the historian Olympiodorus, ap. Photium, p. 197 [p. 63, ed. Bekker]. The sons of Alypius [Olympius in Bekker's ed.], of Symmachus, and of Maximus, spent, during their respective prætorships, twelve, or twenty, or forty, centenaries (or hundredweight of gold). See Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p. 197 [p. 63, ed. Bekker]. This popular estimation allows some latitude; but it is difficult to explain a law in the Theodosian Code (1. vi. tit. iv. leg. 5) which fixes the expense of the first prætor at 25,000, of the second at 20,000, and of the third at 15,000 folles. The name of follis (see Mém. de l'Académie des Inscriptions, tom. xxviii. p. 727) was equally applied to a purse of 125 pieces of silver, and to a small copper coin of the value of part of that purse. In the former sense, the 25,000 folles would be equal to 150,000.; in the latter to five or six pounds sterling. The one appears extravagant, the other is ridiculous. There must have existed some third and middle value, which is here understood; but ambiguity is an inexcusable fault in the language of laws. The centenarium was a hundred pounds weight of gold; and from the time of Constantine the pound contained 72 solidi. the limits of Italy. Their possessions extended far beyond the Ionian and Ægean seas to the most distant provinces: the city of Nicopolis, which Augustus had founded as an eternal monument of the Actian victory, was the property of the devout Paula ;28 and it is observed by Seneca, that the rivers which had divided hostile nations now flowed through the lands of private citizens.29 According to their temper and circumstances, the estates of the Romans were either cultivated by the labour of their slaves, or granted, for a certain and stipulated rent, to the industrious farmer. The economical writers of antiquity strenuously recommend the former method wherever it may be practicable; but if the object should be removed by its distance or magnitude from the immediate eye of the master, they prefer the active care of an old hereditary tenant, attached to the soil and interested in the produce, to the mercenary administration of a negligent, perhaps an unfaithful, steward. 30 manners. The opulent nobles of an immense capital, who were never excited by the pursuit of military glory, and seldom engaged in the Their occupations of civil government, naturally resigned their leisure to the business and amusements of private life. At Rome commerce was always held in contempt; but the senators, from the first age of the republic, increased their patrimony and multiplied their clients by the lucrative practice of usury, and the obsolete laws were eluded or violated by the mutual inclinations and interest of both parties. A considerable mass of treasure must always have 31 28 Nicopolis. . . . . in Actiaco littore sita possessionis vestræ nunc pars vel maxima est. Jerom. in præfat. Comment. ad Epistol. ad Titum, tom. ix. p. 243. M. de Tillemont supposes, strangely enough, that it was part of Agamemnon's inheritance. Mém. Ecclés. tom. xii. p. 85. 29 Seneca, Epist. lxxxix. His language is of the declamatory kind: but declamation could scarcely exaggerate the avarice and luxury of the Romans. The philosopher himself deserved some share of the reproach, if it be true that his rigorous exaction of Quadringenties, above three hundred thousand pounds, which he had lent at high interest, provoked a rebellion in Britain. (Dion Cassius, 1. lxii. [c. 2] p. 1003.) According to the conjecture of Gale (Antoninus's Itinerary in Britain, p. 92), the same Faustinus possessed an estate near Bury, in Suffolk, and another in the kingdom of Naples. 30 Volusius, a wealthy senator (Tacit. Annal. iii. 30), always preferred tenants born on the estate. Columella, who received this maxim from him, argues very judiciously on the subject. De Re Rusticâ, 1. i. c. 7, p. 408, edit. Gesner. Leipzig, 1735. 31 Valesius (ad Ammian. xiv. 6) has proved, from Chrysostom and Augustin, that the senators were not allowed to lend money at usury. Yet it appears from the Theo 10s. English, the prætorship of Symmachus cost 72,000, and that of Maximus 144,000. In the passage of the This is the value of the solidus, according to Savigny (see note, vol. ii. p. 338), which we have adopted in previous notes, but Mommsen makes the solidus nearly equal to 12s. See Marquardt in Becker's Römisch. Alterth., vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 34. Theodosian Code quoted by Gibbon, the follis means a purse of 125 pieces of silver, and, as this follis was equal to 5. 11s8. nearly (according to Mommsen), 25,000 folles contained 143,750. This sum, it is true, is prodigious; but it is very nearly the same as the amount expended by Maximus in his prætorship.-S. existed at Rome, either in the current coin of the empire, or in the form of gold and silver plate; and there were many sideboards in the time of Pliny which contained more solid silver than had been transported by Scipio from vanquished Carthage.32 The greater part of the nobles, who dissipated their fortunes in profuse luxury, found themselves poor in the midst of wealth, and idle in a constant round of dissipation. Their desires were continually gratified by the labour of a thousand hands; of the numerous train of their domestic slaves, who were actuated by the fear of punishment; and of the various professions of artificers and merchants, who were more powerfully impelled by the hopes of gain. The ancients were destitute of many of the conveniences of life which have been invented or improved by the progress of industry; and the plenty of glass and linen has diffused more real comforts among the modern nations of Europe than the senators of Rome could derive from all the refinements of pompous or sensual luxury.33 Their luxury and their manners have been the subject of minute and laborious disquisition; but as such inquiries would divert me too long from the design of the present work, I shall produce an authentic state of Rome and its inhabitants which is more peculiarly applicable to the period of the Gothic invasion. Ammianus Marcellinus, who prudently chose the capital of the empire as the residence the best adapted to the historian of his own times, has mixed with the narrative of public events a lively representation of the scenes with which he was familiarly conversant. The judicious reader will not always approve the asperity of censure, the choice of circumstances, or the style of expression; he will perhaps detect the latent prejudices and personal resentments which soured the temper of Ammianus himself; but he will surely observe, with philosophic curiosity, the interesting and original picture of the manners of Rome.34 dosian Code (see Godefroy ad 1. ii. tit. xxxiii. tom. i. p. 230-239) that they were permitted to take six per cent., or one-half of the legal interest; and, what is more singular, this permission was granted to the young senators. 32 Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 50. He states the silver at only 4380 pounds, which is increased by Livy (xxx. 45) to 100,023; the former seems too little for an opulent city, the latter too much for any private sideboard. 33 The learned Arbuthnot (Tables of Ancient Coins, &c., p. 153) has observed with humour, and I believe with truth, that Augustus had neither glass to his windows nor a shirt to his back. Under the lower empire the use of linen and glass became somewhat more common." 34 It is incumbent on me to explain the liberties which I have taken with the text of Ammianus. 1. I have melted down into one piece the sixth chapter of the fourteenth and the fourth of the twenty-eighth book. 2. I have given order and connection The discovery of glass in such common use at Pompeii spoils the jest of Arbuthnot. See Sir W. Gell, Pompeiana, 2nd ser. p. 98.-M. See also Becker's Gallus, vol. iii. p. 58, sqq., 2nd ed.-S. 66 66 66 66 66 Character of nobles, by Marcellinus. "The greatness of Rome (such is the language of the historian) was founded on the rare and almost incredible alliance of "virtue and of fortune. The long period of her infancy the Roman was employed in a laborious struggle against the tribes Ammianus "of Italy, the neighbours and enemies of the rising city. "In the strength and ardour of youth she sustained the storms of war, carried her victorious arms beyond the seas and the moun"tains, and brought home triumphal laurels from every country of "the globe. At length, verging towards old age, and sometimes conquering by the terror only of her name, she sought the blessings "of ease and tranquillity. The VENERABLE CITY, which had trampled "on the necks of the fiercest nations, and established a system of laws, "the perpetual guardians of justice and freedom, was content, like a "wise and wealthy parent, to devolve on the Cæsars, her favourite sons, the care of governing her ample patrimony.35 A secure and profound peace, such as had been once enjoyed in the reign of "Numa, succeeded to the tumults of a republic; while Rome was "still adored as the queen of the earth, and the subject nations still "reverenced the name of the people and the majesty of the senate. "But this native splendour (continues Ammianus) is degraded and "sullied by the conduct of some nobles, who, unmindful of their own dignity and of that of their country, assume an unbounded licence "of vice and folly. They contend with each other in the empty vanity of titles and surnames, and curiously select or invent the "most lofty and sonorous appellations-Reburrus or Fabunius, Pago"nius or Tarrasius36—which may impress the ears of the vulgar with "astonishment and respect. From a vain ambition of perpetuating "their memory, they affect to multiply their likeness in statues of "bronze and marble; nor are they satisfied unless those statues are "covered with plates of gold; an honourable distinction, first granted 66 66 66 to the confused mass of materials. 3. I have softened some extravagant hyperboles and pared away some superfluities of the original. 4. I have developed some observations which were insinuated rather than expressed. With these allowances my version will be found, not literal indeed, but faithful and exact. 35 Claudian, who seems to have read the history of Ammianus, speaks of this great revolution in a much less courtly style: Postquam jura ferox in se communia Cæsar De Bell. Gildonico, v. 49. 36 The minute diligence of antiquarians has not been able to verify these extraordinary names. I am of opinion that they were invented by the historian himself, who was afraid of any personal satire or application. It is certain, however, that the simple denominations of the Romans were gradually lengthened to the number of four, five, or even seven, pompous surnames; as for instance, Marcus Mæcius Mammius Furius Balburius Cæcilianus Placidus. See Noris, Cenotaph. Pisan. Dissert. iv. p. 438. |
