Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.—Part III

The manly pride of the Romans, content with substantial power,
had left to the vanity of the East the forms and ceremonies of
ostentatious greatness. 73 But when they lost even the semblance
of those virtues which were derived from their ancient freedom,
the simplicity of Roman manners was insensibly corrupted by the
stately affectation of the courts of Asia. The distinctions of
personal merit and influence, so conspicuous in a republic, so
feeble and obscure under a monarchy, were abolished by the
despotism of the emperors; who substituted in their room a severe
subordination of rank and office from the titled slaves who were
seated on the steps of the throne, to the meanest instruments of
arbitrary power. This multitude of abject dependants was
interested in the support of the actual government from the dread
of a revolution, which might at once confound their hopes and
intercept the reward of their services. In this divine hierarchy
(for such it is frequently styled) every rank was marked with the
most scrupulous exactness, and its dignity was displayed in a
variety of trifling and solemn ceremonies, which it was a study
to learn, and a sacrilege to neglect. 74 The purity of the Latin
language was debased, by adopting, in the intercourse of pride
and flattery, a profusion of epithets, which Tully would scarcely
have understood, and which Augustus would have rejected with
indignation. The principal officers of the empire were saluted,
even by the sovereign himself, with the deceitful titles of your
_Sincerity_, your _Gravity_, your _Excellency_, your _Eminence_,
your _sublime and wonderful Magnitude_, your _illustrious and
magnificent Highness_. 75 The codicils or patents of their office
were curiously emblazoned with such emblems as were best adapted
to explain its nature and high dignity; the image or portrait of
the reigning emperors; a triumphal car; the book of mandates
placed on a table, covered with a rich carpet, and illuminated by
four tapers; the allegorical figures of the provinces which they
governed; or the appellations and standards of the troops whom
they commanded. Some of these official ensigns were really
exhibited in their hall of audience; others preceded their
pompous march whenever they appeared in public; and every
circumstance of their demeanor, their dress, their ornaments, and
their train, was calculated to inspire a deep reverence for the
representatives of supreme majesty. By a philosophic observer,
the system of the Roman government might have been mistaken for a
splendid theatre, filled with players of every character and
degree, who repeated the language, and imitated the passions, of
their original model. 76

73 (return) [ Scilicet externæ superbiæ sueto, non inerat notitia
nostri, (perhaps _nostræ;_) apud quos vis Imperii valet, inania
transmittuntur. Tacit. Annal. xv. 31. The gradation from the
style of freedom and simplicity, to that of form and servitude,
may be traced in the Epistles of Cicero, of Pliny, and of
Symmachus.]

74 (return) [ The emperor Gratian, after confirming a law of
precedency published by Valentinian, the father of his
_Divinity_, thus continues: Siquis igitur indebitum sibi locum
usurpaverit, nulla se ignoratione defendat; sitque plane
_sacrilegii_ reus, qui _divina_ præcepta neglexerit. Cod. Theod.
l. vi. tit. v. leg. 2.]

75 (return) [ Consult the _Notitia Dignitatum_ at the end of the
Theodosian code, tom. vi. p. 316. * Note: Constantin, qui
remplaca le grand Patriciat par une noblesse titree et qui
changea avec d’autres institutions la nature de la societe
Latine, est le veritable fondateur de la royaute moderne, dans ce
quelle conserva de Romain. Chateaubriand, Etud. Histor. Preface,
i. 151. Manso, (Leben Constantins des Grossen,) p. 153, &c., has
given a lucid view of the dignities and duties of the officers in
the Imperial court.—M.]

76 (return) [ Pancirolus ad Notitiam utriusque Imperii, p. 39.
But his explanations are obscure, and he does not sufficiently
distinguish the painted emblems from the effective ensigns of
office.]

All the magistrates of sufficient importance to find a place in
the general state of the empire, were accurately divided into
three classes. 1. The _Illustrious_. 2. The _Spectabiles_, or
_Respectable_. And, 3. the _Clarissimi;_ whom we may translate by
the word _Honorable_. In the times of Roman simplicity, the
last-mentioned epithet was used only as a vague expression of
deference, till it became at length the peculiar and appropriated
title of all who were members of the senate, 77 and consequently
of all who, from that venerable body, were selected to govern the
provinces. The vanity of those who, from their rank and office,
might claim a superior distinction above the rest of the
senatorial order, was long afterwards indulged with the new
appellation of _Respectable;_ but the title of _Illustrious_ was
always reserved to some eminent personages who were obeyed or
reverenced by the two subordinate classes. It was communicated
only, I. To the consuls and patricians; II. To the Prætorian
præfects, with the præfects of Rome and Constantinople; III. To
the masters-general of the cavalry and the infantry; and IV. To
the seven ministers of the palace, who exercised their _sacred_
functions about the person of the emperor. 78 Among those
illustrious magistrates who were esteemed coordinate with each
other, the seniority of appointment gave place to the union of
dignities. 79 By the expedient of honorary codicils, the
emperors, who were fond of multiplying their favors, might
sometimes gratify the vanity, though not the ambition, of
impatient courtiers. 80

77 (return) [ In the Pandects, which may be referred to the
reigns of the Antonines, Clarissimus is the ordinary and legal
title of a senator.]

78 (return) [ Pancirol. p. 12-17. I have not taken any notice of
the two inferior ranks, _Prefectissimus_ and _Egregius_, which
were given to many persons who were not raised to the senatorial
dignity.]

79 (return) [ Cod. Theodos. l. vi. tit. vi. The rules of
precedency are ascertained with the most minute accuracy by the
emperors, and illustrated with equal prolixity by their learned
interpreter.]

80 (return) [ Cod. Theodos. l. vi. tit. xxii.]

I. As long as the Roman consuls were the first magistrates of a
free state, they derived their right to power from the choice of
the people. As long as the emperors condescended to disguise the
servitude which they imposed, the consuls were still elected by
the real or apparent suffrage of the senate. From the reign of
Diocletian, even these vestiges of liberty were abolished, and
the successful candidates who were invested with the annual
honors of the consulship, affected to deplore the humiliating
condition of their predecessors. The Scipios and the Catos had
been reduced to solicit the votes of plebeians, to pass through
the tedious and expensive forms of a popular election, and to
expose their dignity to the shame of a public refusal; while
their own happier fate had reserved them for an age and
government in which the rewards of virtue were assigned by the
unerring wisdom of a gracious sovereign. 81 In the epistles which
the emperor addressed to the two consuls elect, it was declared,
that they were created by his sole authority. 82 Their names and
portraits, engraved on gilt tables of ivory, were dispersed over
the empire as presents to the provinces, the cities, the
magistrates, the senate, and the people. 83 Their solemn
inauguration was performed at the place of the Imperial
residence; and during a period of one hundred and twenty years,
Rome was constantly deprived of the presence of her ancient
magistrates. 84

81 (return) [ Ausonius (in Gratiarum Actione) basely expatiates
on this unworthy topic, which is managed by Mamertinus (Panegyr.
Vet. xi. [x.] 16, 19) with somewhat more freedom and ingenuity.]

82 (return) [ Cum de Consulibus in annum creandis, solus mecum
volutarem.... te Consulem et designavi, et declaravi, et priorem
nuncupavi; are some of the expressions employed by the emperor
Gratian to his preceptor, the poet Ausonius.]

83 (return) [ Immanesque... dentes Qui secti ferro in tabulas
auroque micantes, Inscripti rutilum cœlato Consule nomen Per
proceres et vulgus eant. —Claud. in ii. Cons. Stilichon. 456.

Montfaucon has represented some of these tablets or dypticks see
Supplement à l’Antiquité expliquée, tom. iii. p. 220.]

84 (return) [

Consule lætatur post plurima seculo viso Pallanteus apex:
agnoscunt rostra curules Auditas quondam proavis: desuetaque
cingit Regius auratis Fora fascibus Ulpia lictor. —Claud. in vi.
Cons. Honorii, 643.

From the reign of Carus to the sixth consulship of Honorius,
there was an interval of one hundred and twenty years, during
which the emperors were always absent from Rome on the first day
of January. See the Chronologie de Tillemonte, tom. iii. iv. and
v.]

On the morning of the first of January, the consuls assumed the
ensigns of their dignity. Their dress was a robe of purple,
embroidered in silk and gold, and sometimes ornamented with
costly gems. 85 On this solemn occasion they were attended by the
most eminent officers of the state and army, in the habit of
senators; and the useless fasces, armed with the once formidable
axes, were borne before them by the lictors. The procession moved
from the palace 87 to the Forum or principal square of the city;
where the consuls ascended their tribunal, and seated themselves
in the curule chairs, which were framed after the fashion of
ancient times. They immediately exercised an act of jurisdiction,
by the manumission of a slave, who was brought before them for
that purpose; and the ceremony was intended to represent the
celebrated action of the elder Brutus, the author of liberty and
of the consulship, when he admitted among his fellow-citizens the
faithful Vindex, who had revealed the conspiracy of the Tarquins.
88 The public festival was continued during several days in all
the principal cities in Rome, from custom; in Constantinople,
from imitation in Carthage, Antioch, and Alexandria, from the
love of pleasure, and the superfluity of wealth. 89 In the two
capitals of the empire the annual games of the theatre, the
circus, and the amphitheatre, 90 cost four thousand pounds of
gold, (about) one hundred and sixty thousand pounds sterling: and
if so heavy an expense surpassed the faculties or the
inclinations of the magistrates themselves, the sum was supplied
from the Imperial treasury. 91 As soon as the consuls had
discharged these customary duties, they were at liberty to retire
into the shade of private life, and to enjoy, during the
remainder of the year, the undisturbed contemplation of their own
greatness. They no longer presided in the national councils; they
no longer executed the resolutions of peace or war. Their
abilities (unless they were employed in more effective offices)
were of little moment; and their names served only as the legal
date of the year in which they had filled the chair of Marius and
of Cicero. Yet it was still felt and acknowledged, in the last
period of Roman servitude, that this empty name might be
compared, and even preferred, to the possession of substantial
power. The title of consul was still the most splendid object of
ambition, the noblest reward of virtue and loyalty. The emperors
themselves, who disdained the faint shadow of the republic, were
conscious that they acquired an additional splendor and majesty
as often as they assumed the annual honors of the consular
dignity. 92

85 (return) [ See Claudian in Cons. Prob. et Olybrii, 178, &c.;
and in iv. Cons. Honorii, 585, &c.; though in the latter it is
not easy to separate the ornaments of the emperor from those of
the consul. Ausonius received from the liberality of Gratian a
_vestis palmata_, or robe of state, in which the figure of the
emperor Constantius was embroidered. Cernis et armorum proceres
legumque potentes: Patricios sumunt habitus; et more Gabino
Discolor incedit legio, positisque parumper Bellorum signis,
sequitur vexilla Quirini. Lictori cedunt aquilæ, ridetque togatus
Miles, et in mediis effulget curia castris. —Claud. in iv. Cons.
Honorii, 5. —_strictaque_ procul radiare _secures_. —In Cons.
Prob. 229]

87 (return) [ See Valesius ad Ammian. Marcellin. l. xxii. c. 7.]

88 (return) [ Auspice mox læto sonuit clamore tribunal; Te fastos
ineunte quater; solemnia ludit Omina libertas; deductum Vindice
morem Lex servat, famulusque jugo laxatus herili Ducitur, et
grato remeat securior ictu. —Claud. in iv Cons. Honorii, 611]

89 (return) [ Celebrant quidem solemnes istos dies omnes ubique
urbes quæ sub legibus agunt; et Roma de more, et Constantinopolis
de imitatione, et Antiochia pro luxu, et discincta Carthago, et
domus fluminis Alexandria, sed Treviri Principis beneficio.
Ausonius in Grat. Actione.]

90 (return) [ Claudian (in Cons. Mall. Theodori, 279-331)
describes, in a lively and fanciful manner, the various games of
the circus, the theatre, and the amphitheatre, exhibited by the
new consul. The sanguinary combats of gladiators had already been
prohibited.]

91 (return) [ Procopius in Hist. Arcana, c. 26.]

92 (return) [ In Consulatu honos sine labore suscipitur.
(Mamertin. in Panegyr. Vet. xi. [x.] 2.) This exalted idea of the
consulship is borrowed from an oration (iii. p. 107) pronounced
by Julian in the servile court of Constantius. See the Abbé de la
Bleterie, (Mémoires de l’Académie, tom. xxiv. p. 289,) who
delights to pursue the vestiges of the old constitution, and who
sometimes finds them in his copious fancy]

The proudest and most perfect separation which can be found in
any age or country, between the nobles and the people, is perhaps
that of the Patricians and the Plebeians, as it was established
in the first age of the Roman republic. Wealth and honors, the
offices of the state, and the ceremonies of religion, were almost
exclusively possessed by the former who, preserving the purity of
their blood with the most insulting jealousy, 93 held their
clients in a condition of 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 honors, deserved triumphs,
contracted alliances, and, after some generations, assumed the
pride of ancient nobility. 94 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. 95 Very 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
perpetuating an order, which was still considered as honorable
and sacred. 96 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. 97 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 honorable rank was bestowed on them
for life; and as they were usually favorites, 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 Constantine were reverenced as the adopted _Fathers_ of the
emperor and the republic. 98

93 (return) [ Intermarriages between the Patricians and Plebeians
were prohibited by the laws of the XII Tables; and the uniform
operations of human nature may attest that the custom survived
the law. See in Livy (iv. 1-6) the pride of family urged by the
consul, and the rights of mankind asserted by the tribune
Canuleius.]

94 (return) [ See the animated picture 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
honor 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
_Cæcilius_, there is reason to believe that those haughty nobles
derived their origin from a sutler.]

95 (return) [ 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 Cæsar and Augustus. (Tacit. Annal. xi. 25.) The
family of Scaurus (a branch of the Patrician Æmilii) was degraded
so low that his father, who exercised the trade of a charcoal
merchant, left him only teu slaves, and somewhat less than three
hundred pounds sterling. (Valerius Maximus, l. iv. c. 4, n. 11.
Aurel. Victor in Scauro.) The family was saved from oblivion by
the merit of the son.]

96 (return) [ Tacit. Annal. xi. 25. Dion Cassius, l. iii. p. 698.
The virtues of Agricola, who was created a Patrician by the
emperor Vespasian, reflected honor on that ancient order; but his
ancestors had not any claim beyond an Equestrian nobility.]

97 (return) [ This failure would have been almost impossible if
it were true, as Casaubon compels Aurelius Victor to affirm (ad
Sueton, in Cæsar v. 24. 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 much even
for the whole Senatorial order. unless we should include all the
Roman knights who were distinguished by the permission of wearing
the laticlave.]

98 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 118; and Godefroy ad Cod.
Theodos. l. vi. tit. vi.]

II. The fortunes of the Prætorian præfects 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 præfects, 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
præfects, 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 guards 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 præfect; and after the
monarchy was once more united in the person of Constantine, he
still continued to create the same number of Four Præfects, and
intrusted to their care the same provinces which they already
administered. 1. The præfect 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 præfect of
Illyricum. 3. The power of the præfect 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 dependent 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 præfect 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. 99

99 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 109, 110. If we had not
fortunately possessed this satisfactory account of the division
of the power and provinces of the Prætorian præfects, we should
frequently have been perplexed amidst the copious details of the
Code, and the circumstantial minuteness of the Notitia.]

After the Prætorian præfects 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 manufactures,
whatever could interest the public prosperity, was moderated by
the authority of the Prætorian præfects. As the immediate
representatives of the Imperial majesty, they were empowered to
explain, to enforce, and on some occasions 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
jurisdictions, an appeal in every matter of importance, either
civil or criminal, might be brought before the tribunal of the
præfect; 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 honored with
such unbounded confidence. 100 His appointments were suitable to
his dignity; 101 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 præfects, they were
attentive to counterbalance the power of this great office by the
uncertainty and shortness of its duration. 102

100 (return) [ See a law of Constantine himself. A præfectis
autem prætorio provocare, non sinimus. Cod. Justinian. l. vii.
tit. lxii. leg. 19. Charisius, a lawyer of the time of
Constantine, (Heinec. Hist. Romani, p. 349,) who admits this law
as a fundamental principle of jurisprudence, compares the
Prætorian præfects to the masters of the horse of the ancient
dictators. Pandect. l. i. tit. xi.]

101 (return) [ When Justinian, in the exhausted condition of the
empire, instituted a Prætorian præfect for Africa, he allowed him
a salary of one hundred pounds of gold. Cod. Justinian. l. i.
tit. xxvii. leg. i.]

102 (return) [ 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 the legal and
historical materials. From those authors, Dr. Howell (History of
the World, vol. ii. p. 24-77) has deduced a very distinct
abridgment of the state of the Roman empire]

From their superior importance and dignity, Rome and
Constantinople were alone excepted from the jurisdiction of the
Prætorian præfects. 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. 103
Valerius Messalla was appointed the first præfect of Rome, that
his reputation might countenance so invidious a measure; but, at
the end of a few days, that accomplished citizen 104 resigned his
office, declaring, with a spirit worthy of the friend of Brutus,
that he found himself incapable of exercising a power
incompatible with public freedom. 105 As the sense of liberty
became less exquisite, the advantages of order were more clearly
understood; and the præfect, who seemed to have been designed as
a terror only to slaves and vagrants, was permitted to extend his
civil and criminal jurisdiction over the equestrian and noble
families of Rome. The prætors, annually created as the judges of
law and equity, could not long dispute the possession of the
Forum with a vigorous and permanent magistrate, who was usually
admitted into the confidence of the prince. Their courts were
deserted, their number, which had once fluctuated between twelve
and eighteen, 106 was gradually reduced to two or three, and
their important functions were confined to the expensive
obligation 107 of exhibiting games for the amusement of the
people. After the office of the Roman consuls had been changed
into a vain pageant, which was rarely displayed in the capital,
the præfects assumed their vacant place in the senate, and were
soon acknowledged as the ordinary presidents of that venerable
assembly. They received appeals from the distance of one hundred
miles; and it was allowed as a principle of jurisprudence, that
all municipal authority was derived from them alone. 108 In the
discharge of his laborious employment, the governor of Rome was
assisted by fifteen officers, some of whom had been originally
his equals, or even his superiors. The principal departments were
relative to the command of a numerous watch, established as a
safeguard against fires, robberies, and nocturnal disorders; the
custody and distribution of the public allowance of corn and
provisions; the care of the port, of the aqueducts, of the common
sewers, and of the navigation and bed of the Tyber; the
inspection of the markets, the theatres, and of the private as
well as the public works. Their vigilance insured the three
principal objects of a regular police, safety, plenty, and
cleanliness; and as a proof of the attention of government to
preserve the splendor and ornaments of the capital, a particular
inspector was appointed for the statues; the guardian, as it
were, of that inanimate people, which, according to the
extravagant computation of an old writer, was scarcely inferior
in number to the living inhabitants of Rome. About thirty years
after the foundation of Constantinople, a similar magistrate was
created in that rising metropolis, for the same uses and with the
same powers. A perfect equality was established between the
dignity of the _two_ municipal, and that of the _four_ Prætorian
præfects. 109

103 (return) [ Tacit. Annal. vi. 11. Euseb. in Chron. p. 155.
Dion Cassius, in the oration of Mæcenas, (l. lvii. p. 675,)
describes the prerogatives of the præfect of the city as they
were established in his own time.]

104 (return) [ The fame of Messalla has been scarcely equal to
his merit. In the 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 favor 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 orator, he disputed the palm of
eloquence with Cicero himself. Messalla 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.]

105 (return) [ Incivilem esse potestatem contestans, says the
translator of Eusebius. Tacitus expresses the same idea in other
words; quasi nescius exercendi.]

106 (return) [ See Lipsius, Excursus D. ad 1 lib. Tacit. Annal.]

107 (return) [ Heineccii. Element. Juris Civilis secund ordinem
Pandect i. p. 70. See, likewise, Spanheim de Usu. Numismatum,
tom. ii. dissertat. x. p. 119. In the year 450, Marcian published
a law, that _three_ citizens should be annually created Prætors
of Constantinople by the choice of the senate, but with their own
consent. Cod. Justinian. li. i. tit. xxxix. leg. 2.]

108 (return) [ Quidquid igitur intra urbem admittitur, ad P. U.
videtur pertinere; sed et siquid intra contesimum milliarium.
Ulpian in Pandect l. i. tit. xiii. n. 1. He proceeds to enumerate
the various offices of the præfect, who, in the code of
Justinian, (l. i. tit. xxxix. leg. 3,) is declared to precede and
command all city magistrates sine injuria ac detrimento honoris
alieni.]

109 (return) [ Besides our usual guides, we may observe that
Felix Cantelorius has written a separate treatise, De Præfecto
Urbis; and that many curious details concerning the police of
Rome and Constantinople are contained in the fourteenth book of
the Theodosian Code.]