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. 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 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. of the trol the authority of the provincial magiftrates 157. CHAP. 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 150 Xenophon. Cyropæd. I. viii. Briffon, de Regno Perfico, 1. i. No 190. p. 264. The emperors adopted with pleasure this Perfian metaphor. |