CH_XVII.] THEIR PARTIAL MIXTURE. 203 specious vassalage. But these distinctions, so incompatible with the spirit of a free people, were removed, after a long struggle, by the persevering efforts of the tribunes. The most active and successful of the plebeians accumulated wealth, aspired to honours, deserved triumphs, contracted alliances, and after some generations, assumed the pride of ancient nobility. The patrician families, on the other hand, whose original number was never recruited till the end of the commonwealth, either failed in the ordinary course of nature, or were extinguished in so many foreign and domestic wars, or, through a want of merit or fortune, insensibly mingled with the mass of the people.+ Very the patricians and plebeians were prohibited by the laws of the Twelve Tables; and the uniform operations of human nature may attest that the custom survived the law. See in Livy (4. 1-6), the pride of family urged by the consul, and the rights of mankind asserted by the tribune Canuleius. [Niebuhr, who has asserted for the Plebes a much higher standing than they were before supposed to have occupied in the Roman system, has placed the subject of this note in a different point of view. He says: "The prohibition of intermarriage between patricians and plebeians had been sanctioned by usage since the very earliest times; it was first made an enactment in the Twelve Tables. Such a custom generally becomes galling by being made a written law, and thus the storm was raised from which, the plebiscitum Canuleium sprang. This is usually considered as a great victory of the plebeians. Such a prohibition did harm to none more than to the patricians themselves. Mixed marriages from both orders must surely have been common at all times, and they were binding in conscience; yet the son of a patrician-plebeian marriage never had any gentilician rights, and was counted among the plebeians. The consequence of this was, that the patricians were fast dwindling away. Wherever the nobles are restricted to marry within their own class, their order becomes quite powerless in the course of time. If the plebeians had meant to humble the patricians, they ought to have been strenuous in continuing the prohibition of intermarriage. But for the Canuleian law, the patricians would have lost their position in the state a hundred years sooner." Lectures, vol. i, p. 326.—ED.] * See the animated pictures drawn by Sallust, in the Jugurthine war, of the pride of the nobles, and even of the virtuous Metellus, who was unable to brook the idea that the honour of the consulship should be bestowed on the obscure merit of his lieutenant Marius, (c. 64). Two hundred years before, the race of the Metelli themselves were confounded among the plebeians of Rome; and from the etymology of their name of Cacilius, there is reason to believe that those haughty nobles derived their origin from a sutler. In the year of Rome 800, very few remained, not only of the old patrician families, but even of those which had been created by Caesar and Augustus. (Tacit. Annal 204 EXTINCTION OF THE PATRICIAN LINES. [CH. XVII few remained who could derive their pure and genuine origin from the infancy of the city, or even from that of the republic, when Cæsar and Augustus, Claudius and Vespasian, created from the body of the senate a competent number of new patrician families, in the hope of perpe tuating an order which was still considered as honourable and sacred. But these artificial supplies (in which the reigning house was always included) were rapidly swept away by the rage of tyrants, by frequent revolutions, by the change of manners, and by the intermixture of nations.t Little more was left, when Constantine ascended the throne, than a vague and imperfect tradition, that the patricians had once been the first of the Romans. To form a body of nobles, whose influence may restrain, while it secures, the authority of the monarch, would have been very inconsistent with the character and policy of Constantine; but had he seriously entertained such a design, it might have exceeded the measure of his power to ratify, by an arbitrary edict, an institution which must expect the sanction of time and of opinion. He revived, indeed, the title of patricians, but he revived it as a personal, not as an hereditary, distinction. They yielded only to the transient superiority of the annual consuls; but they enjoyed the pre-eminence over all the great officers of state, with the most familiar access to the person of the prince. This honourable rank was bestowed on them for life; and as they were usually favourites and ministers who had grown old in the imperial court, the true etymology of the word was perverted by ignorance and flattery; and the patricians of 11. 25.) The family of Scaurus (a branch of the patrician Emilii) was degraded so low, that his father, who exercised the trade of a charcoal merchant, left him only ten slaves, and somewhat less than 3001. sterling. (Valerius Maximus, lib. 4, c. 4. n. 11. Aurel. Victor in Scauro.) The family was saved from oblivion by the merit of the son. Tacit. Annal. 11. 25. Dion Cassius, lib. 3, p. 693. The virtues of Agricola, who was created a patrician by the emperor Vespasian, reflected honour on that ancient order; but his ancestors had not any claim beyond an equestrian nobility. This failure would have been almost impossible, if it were true, as Casaubon compels Aurelius Victor to affirm (ad Sueton. in Cæsar. c. 42. See Hist. August. p. 203, and Casaubon, Comment. p. 220,) that Vespasian created at once a thousand patrician families. But this extravagant number is too mach even for the whole senatorial order, unless we should include all CH. XVI.] THE PRÆTORIAN PREFECTS. 205 Constantine were reverenced as the adopted fathers of the emperor and the republic.* II. The fortunes of the prætorian prefects were essentially different from those of the consuls and patricians. The latter saw their ancient greatness evaporate in a vain title. The former, rising by degrees from the most humble condition, were invested with the civil and military administration of the Roman world. From the reign of Severus to that of Diocletian, the guards and the palace, the laws and the finances, the armies and the provinces, were intrusted to their superintending care; and, like the viziers of the east, they held with one hand the seal, and with the other the standard, of the empire. The ambition of the prefects, always formidable, and sometimes fatal, to the masters whom they served, was supported by the strength of the prætorian bands; but after those haughty troops had been weakened by Diocletian, and finally suppressed by Constantine, the prefects, who survived their fall, were reduced without difficulty to the station of useful and obedient ministers. When they were no longer responsible for the safety of the emperor's person, they resigned the jurisdiction which they had hitherto claimed and exercised over all the departments of the palace. They were deprived by Constantine of all military command, as soon as they had ceased to lead into the field, under their immediate orders, the flower of the Roman troops; and at length, by a singular revolution, the captains of the guard were transformed into the civil magistrates of the provinces. According to the plan of government instituted by Diocletian, the four princes had each their prætorian prefect; and, after the monarchy was once more united in the person of Constantine, he still continued to create the same number of four prefects, and intrusted to their care the same provinces which they already administered. 1. The prefect of the east stretched his ample jurisdiction into the three parts of the globe which were subject to the Romans, from the cataracts of the Nile to the banks of the Phasis, and from the mountains of Thrace to the frontiers of Persia: 2. The important provinces of Pannonia, Dacia, Macedonia, and Greece, once acknowledged the authority of the prefect of the Roman knights who were distinguished by the permission of wearing the laticlave. * Zosimus, lib. 2, p. 118; and Godefroy ad Cod. 206 DIPARTMENTS OF THE PREFECTS. [CHI. XVIL Illyricum: 3. The power of the prefect of Italy was not confined to the country from whence he derived his title; it extended over the additional territory of Rhætia as far as the banks of the Danube, over the dependant islands of the Mediterranean, and over that part of the continent of Africa which lies between the confines of Cyrene and those of Tingitania: 4. The prefect of the Gauls comprehended under that plural denomination the kindred provinces of Britain and Spain, and his authority was obeyed from the wall of Antoninus to the foot of mount Atlas.* After the prætorian prefects had been dismissed from all military command, the civil functions which they were ordained to exercise over so many subject nations were adequate to the ambition and abilities of the most consummate ministers. To their wisdom was committed the supreme administration of justice and of the finances, the two objects which, in a state of peace, comprehend almost all the respective duties of the sovereign and of the people; of the former, to protect the citizens who are obedient to the laws; of the latter, to contribute the share of their property which is required for the expenses of the state. The coin, the highways, the posts, the granaries, the manu factures, whatever could interest the public prosperity, was moderated by the authority of the prætorian prefects. As the immediate representatives of the imperial majesty, they were empowered to explain, to enforce, and on some occa sions to modify, the general edicts, by their discretionary proclamations. They watched over the conduct of the provincial governors, removed the negligent, and inflicted punishments on the guilty. From all the inferior jurisdic tions, an appeal in every matter of importance, either civil or criminal, might be brought before the tribunal of the prefect; but his sentence was final and absolute; and the emperors themselves refused to admit any complaints against the judgment or the integrity of a magistrate whom they honoured with such unbounded confidence. His appoint Theodos. lib. 6, tit. 6. * Zosimus, lib. 2, p. 109, 110. If we had not fortunately possessed this satisfactory account of the division of the power and provinces of the prætorian prefects, we should fre quently have been perplexed amid the copious details of the Code, and the circumstantial minuteness of the Notitia. See a law of Constantine himself. A præfectis autem prætorio provocare, non sinimus CH. XVII.] THEIR POWER. 207 ments were suitable to his dignity; and if avarice was his ruling passion, he enjoyed frequent opportunities of collecting a rich harvest of fees, of presents, and of perquisites. Though the emperors no longer dreaded the ambition of their prefects, they were attentive to counterbalance the power of this great office by the uncertainty and shortness of its duration.t From their superior importance and dignity, Rome and Constantinople were alone excepted from the jurisdiction of the prætorian prefects. The immense size of the city, and the experience of the tardy, ineffectual operation of the laws, had furnished the policy of Augustus with a specious pretence for introducing a new magistrate, who alone could. restrain a servile and turbulent populace by the strong arm of arbitrary power. Valerius Messalla was appointed the first prefect of Rome, that his reputation might countenance so invidious a measure; but at the end of a few days, that accomplished citizen§ resigned his office, declaring, with a Cod. Justinian. lib. 7, tit. 62. leg. 19. Charisius, a lawyer of the time of Constantine, (Heinec. Hist. Juris Romani, p. 349,) who admits this law as a fundamental principle of jurisprudence, compares the prætorian prefects to the masters of the horse of the ancient dictators. Pandect. lib. 1, tit. 11. * When Justinian, in the exhausted condition of the empire, instituted a prætorian prefect for Africa, he allowed him a salary of one hundred pounds of gold. Cod. Justinian, lib. 1, tit. 27. leg. 1. For this, and the other dignities of the empire, it may be sufficient to refer to the ample commentaries of Pancirolus and Godefroy, who have diligently collected and accurately digested in their proper order all their legal and historical materials. From those authors, Dr. Howell (History of the World, vol. ii, p. 2477,) has deduced a very distinct abridgment of the state of the Roman empire. Tacit. Annal. 6. 11. Euseb. in Chron. p. 155. Dion Cassius, in the oration of Mæcenas, (lib. 7, p. 675,) describes the prerogatives of the prefect of the city as they were established in his own time. § The fame of Messalla has been scarcely equal to his merit. In his earliest youth, he was recommended by Cicero to the friendship of Brutus. He followed the standard of the republic till it was broken in the fields of Philippi. He then accepted and deserved the favour of the most moderate of the conquerors; and uniformly asserted his freedom and dignity in the court of Augustus. The triumph of Messalla was justified by the conquest of Aquitain. As an olator, he disputed the palm of eloquence with Cicero himself. MesBalla cultivated every muse, and was the patron of every man of genius. He spent his evenings in philosophic conversation with Horace; assumed his place at table between Delia and Tibullus; and amused his leisure by encouraging the poetical talents of young Ovid. |