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those who have improved their discoveries and corrected their errors ; but if we except the inimitable Lucian, this age of indolence passed away without having produced a single writer of original genius, or who excelled in the arts of elegant composition. The authority of

Plato and Aristotle, of Zeno and Epicurus, still reigned in the schools; and their systems, transmitted with blind deference from one generation of disciples to another, precluded every generous attempt to exercise the powers, or enlarge the limits, of the human mind. The beauties of the poets and orators, instead of kindling a fire like their own, inspired only cold and servile imitations: or, if any ventured to deviate from those models, they deviated at the same time from good sense and propriety. On the revival of letters, the youthful vigour of the imagination after a long repose, national emulation, a new religion, new languages, and a new world, called forth the genius of Europe. But the provincials of Rome, trained by an uniform artificial foreign education, were engaged in a very unequal competition with those bold ancients who, by expressing their genuine feelings in their native tongue, had already occupied every place of honour. The name of Poet was almost forgotten; that of Orator was usurped by the sophists. A cloud of critics, of compilers, of commentators, darkened the face of learning, and the decline of genius was soon followed by the corruption of taste.

Degeneracy.

The sublime Longinus, who in somewhat a later period, and in the court of a Syrian queen, preserved the spirit of ancient Athens, observes and laments this degeneracy of his contemporaries, which debased their sentiments, enervated their courage, and depressed their talents. "In the same manner," says he, "as "some children always remain pigmies, whose infant limbs have "been too closely confined; thus our tender minds, fettered by the "prejudices and habits of a just servitude, are unable to expand "themselves, or to attain that well-proportioned greatness which we "admire in the ancients, who, living under a popular government, "wrote with the same freedom as they acted."11 This diminutive stature of mankind, if we pursue the metaphor, was daily sinking below the old standard, and the Roman world was indeed peopled by a race of pigmies, when the fierce giants of the north broke in and mended the puny breed. They restored a manly spirit of freedom; and, after the revolution of ten centuries, freedom became the happy parent of taste and science.

11 Longin. de Sublim. c. 44, p. 229, edit. Toll. Here, too, we may say of Longinus, "his own example strengthens all his laws." Instead of proposing his sentiments with a manly boldness, he insinuates them with the most guarded caution; puts them into the mouth of a friend, and, as far as we can collect from a corrupted text, makes a show of refuting them himself.

Idea of a monarchy.

CHAPTER III.

OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE AGE OF THE ANTONINES. THE obvious definition of a monarchy seems to be that of a state in which a single person, by whatsoever name he may be distinguished, is intrusted with the execution of the laws, the management of the revenue, and the command of the army. But, unless public liberty is protected by intrepid and vigilant guardians, the authority of so formidable a magistrate will soon degenerate into despotism. The influence of the clergy, in an age of superstition, might be usefully employed to assert the rights of mankind; but so intimate is the connexion between the throne and the altar, that the banner of the church has very seldom been seen on the side of the people. A martial nobility and stubborn commons, possessed of arms, tenacious of property, and collected into constitutional assemblies, form the only balance capable of preserving a free constitution against enterprises of an aspiring prince. Every barrier of the Roman constitution had been levelled by the vast ambition of the dictator; every fence had been extirpated by the cruel hand of the triumvir. After the victory of Actium the fate of the Roman world depended on the will of Octavianus, surnamed Cæsar by his uncle's adoption, and afterwards Augustus by the flattery of the senate. The conqueror was at the head of forty-four veteran legions,' conscious of their own strength and of the weakness of the constitution, habituated during twenty years' civil war to every act of blood and violence, and passionately devoted to the house of Cæsar, from whence alone they had received and expected the most lavish rewards. The provinces, long oppressed by the ministers of the republic, sighed for the government of a single person, who would be the

Situation of

Augustus.

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master, not the accomplice, of those petty tyrants. The people of Rome, viewing with a secret pleasure the humiliation of the aristocracy, demanded only bread and public shows, and were supplied with both by the liberal hand of Augustus. The rich and polite Italians, who had almost universally embraced the philosophy of Epicurus, enjoyed the present blessings of ease and tranquillity, and suffered not the pleasing dream to be interrupted by the memory of their old tumultuous freedom. With its power the senate had lost its dignity; many of the most noble families were extinct. republicans of spirit and ability had perished in the field of battle, or in the proscription. The door of the assembly had been designedly left for a mixed multitude of more than a thousand persons, who reflected disgrace upon their rank, instead of deriving honour from it.2

open

The

The reformation of the senate was one of the first steps in which Augustus laid aside the tyrant, and professed himself the He reforms father of his country. He was elected censor; and, in the senate. concert with his faithful Agrippa, he examined the list of the senators, expelled a few members whose vices or whose obstinacy required a public example, persuaded near two hundred to prevent the shame of an expulsion by a voluntary retreat, raised the qualification of a senator to about ten thousand pounds, created a sufficient number of patrician families, and accepted for himself the honourable title of Prince of the Senate, which had always been bestowed by the censors on the citizen the most eminent for his honours and services.3 c But, whilst he thus restored the dignity, he destroyed the independence of the senate. The principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.

2 Julius Cæsar introduced soldiers, strangers, and half-barbarians, into the senate (Sueton. in Cæsar, c. 80). The abuse became still more scandalous after his death." 3 Dion Cassius, 1. lii. [c. 42] p. 693. Suetonius in August. c. 35.

See Dion Cass. 1. xliii. 47. Sueton. Oct. 35.-S.

b Of these Dion and Suetonius knew nothing.-W. Dion says the contrary, αὐτὸς μὲν οὐδίνα αὐτῶν ἀπήλειψε.-Μ.

The title of Princeps Senatus was an honorary distinction, which neither was connected with any office nor conferred any privileges. Under the republic the censors usually bestowed this title upon the oldest of those who had filled the office of censor (Liv. xxvii. 11); but the censor in office appears sometimes to have received this title from his colleague (Liv. xl. 51). As Augustus was appointed

Princeps Senatus when he discharged the duties of the censorship in his sixth consulship (B.C. 28) (Dion Cass. liii. 1), there is no doubt that he received the title from his colleague Agrippa, in accordance with ancient precedent. The name of the Princeps Senatus stood first in the album Senatorum, a list of the senate which was made public. This title, which only declared Augustus the chief of the senators, was the one he chose in preference to all others. See Tacit. Ann. i. cc. 1, 9, and Ovid, Fasti, ii. 412: "Tu (Romule) domini nomen, principis ille (Augustus) tenet."-S.

Resigns his

usurped

Before an assembly thus modelled and prepared, Augustus pronounced a studied oration, which displayed his patriotism, power. and disguised his ambition. "He lamented, yet excused, "his past conduct. Filial piety had required at his hands the revenge "of his father's murder; the humanity of his own nature had some"times given way to the stern laws of necessity, and to a forced con"nexion with two unworthy colleagues: as long as Antony lived, the "republic forbad him to abandon her to a degenerate Roman and a "barbarian queen. He was now at liberty to satisfy his duty and "his inclination. He solemnly restored the senate and people to all "their ancient rights; and wished only to mingle with the crowd of "his fellow-citizens, and to share the blessings which he had obtained "for his country." 4

upon to

resume it under the title of Emperor or General.

It would require the pen of Tacitus (if Tacitus had assisted at this Is prevailed assembly) to describe the various emotions of the senate; those that were suppressed, and those that were affected. It was dangerous to trust the sincerity of Augustus; to seem to distrust it was still more dangerous. The respective advantages of monarchy and a republic have often divided speculative inquirers; the present greatness of the Roman state, the corruption of manners, and the licence of the soldiers, supplied new arguments to the advocates of monarchy; and these general views of government were again warped by the hopes and fears of each individual. Amidst this confusion of sentiments the answer of the senate was unanimous and decisive. They refused to accept the resignation of Augustus; they conjured him not to desert the republic which he had saved. After a decent resistance the crafty tyrant submitted to the orders of the senate; and consented to receive the government of the provinces, and the general command of the Roman armies, under the well-known names of PROCONSUL and IMPERATOR.5 But

Dion (1. liii. [c. 3, sqq.] p. 698) gives us a prolix and bombast speech on this great occasion. I have borrowed from Suetonius and Tacitus the general language of Augustus.

5 Imperator (from which we have derived Emperor) signified under the republic no more than general, and was emphatically bestowed by the soldiers, when on the field of battle they proclaimed their victorious leader worthy of that title. When the Roman emperors assumed it in that sense, they placed it after their name, and marked how often they had taken it.a

This note of Gibbon implies, but does not state with sufficient clearness, the double use of the title Imperator by the Roman emperors. There was first the ancient use of the title, mentioned in Gibbon's note, which was bestowed upon the emperor by the soldiers after a victory, and placed after his name with the number of the victory; in this sense

Augustus was imperator twenty-one times (Tacit. Ann. i. c. 9), and on the coins of his successors the title is found down to the time of Caracalla. There was, secondly, the new use of the title, which was conferred upon the emperor by the senate, and was prefixed to the imperial name (prænomen imperatoris, Sueton. Tib. c. 26); in this sense it was first con

he would receive them only for ten years. Even before the expiration of that period he hoped that the wounds of civil discord would be completely healed; and that the republic, restored to its pristine health and vigour, would no longer require the dangerous interposition of so extraordinary a magistrate. The memory of this comedy, repeated several times during the life of Augustus, was preserved to the last ages of the empire by the peculiar pomp with which the perpetual monarchs of Rome always solemnized the tenth years of their reign.

6

7

the Roman

Without any violation of the principles of the constitution, the general of the Roman armies might receive and exercise an Power of authority almost despotic over the soldiers, the enemies, and generais. the subjects of the republic. With regard to the soldiers, the jealousy of freedom had, even from the earliest ages of Rome, given way to the hopes of conquest, and a just sense of military discipline. The dictator, or consul, had a right to command the service of the Roman youth; and to punish an obstinate or cowardly disobedience by the most severe and ignominious penalties, by striking the offender out of the list of citizens, by confiscating his property, and by selling his person into slavery. The most sacred rights of freedom, confirmed by the Porcian and Sempronian laws, were suspended by the military engagement. In his camp the general exercised an absolute power of life and death; his jurisdiction was not confined by any forms of trial or rules of proceeding, and the execution of the sentence was immediate and without appeal. The choice of the enemies of Rome was regularly decided by the legislative authority. The most important resolutions of peace and war were seriously debated in the senate, and solemnly ratified by the people. But when the arms of the legions were carried to a great distance from Italy, the generals assumed the liberty of directing them against whatever people, and in whatever manner, they judged most advantageous for the public service. It was from the success, not from the justice, of their enterprises that they expected the honours of a triumph. In the use of Dion, 1. liii. [c. 11] p. 703, &c. [c. 16, p. 709.-S.]

8

? Livy Epitom. 1. xiv. Valer. Maxim. vi. 3.

See, in the viiith book of Livy [c. 7 and 32], the conduct of Manlius Torquatus and Papirius Cursor. They violated the laws of nature and humanity, but they asserted those of military discipline; and the people, who abhorred the action, was obliged to respect the principle.

ferred upon Augustus, as stated in Gibbon's text (in B.C. 29), and was borne by all succeeding emperors (Dion Cass. lii. 41).

The title of Proconsul which Gibbon mentions as bestowed upon Augustus was the imperium proconsulare in its most

extended meaning, which placed in his hands the government of all the provinces of the empire. See Eckhel, Doctrina Numorum Veterum, vol. viii. p. 339, seq.; Marquardt in Becker's Handbuch der Römischen Alterthümer, vol. iii. pt. iii. p. 295, seq.-S.

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