tribunitian powers were united, when they were vested | gustus, were permitted to expose all the inconvenifor life in a single person, when the general of the army was, at the same time, the minister of the senate and the representative of the Roman people, it was impossible to resist the exercise, nor was it easy to define the limits of his imperial prerogative.

ences of a wild democracy. That artful prince, instead of discovering the least symptom of impatience, humbly solicited their suffrages for himself or his friends, and scrupulously practised all the duties of an ordinary candidate. But we may venture to ascribe to his councils the first measure of the succeeding reign, by which the elections were transferred to the senate." The assemblies of the people were for ever abolished, and the emperors were delivered from a dangerous multitude, who, without restoring liberty, might have disturbed, and perhaps endangered, the established government.

The senate.

Imperial preroTo these accumulated honours, the gatives. policy of Augustus soon added the splendid as well as important dignities of supreme pontiff, and of censor. By the former he acquired the management of the religion, and by the latter a legal inspection over the manners and fortunes of the Roman poople. If so many indistinct and independent powers did not exactly unite with each other, the complaisance By declaring themselves the protecof the senate was prepared to supply every deficiency tors of the people, Marius and Cæsar by the most ample and extraordinary concessions. had subverted the constitution of their country. But The emperors, as the first ministers of the republic, as soon as the senate had been humbled and disarmed, were exempted from the obligation and penalty of many such an assembly, consisting of five or six hundred inconvenient laws: they were authorized to convoke persons, was found a much more tractable and useful the senate, to make several motions in the same day, instrument of dominion. It was on the dignity of the to recommend candidates for the honours of the state, to senate, that Augustus and his successors founded their enlarge the bounds of the city, to employ the revenue new empire; and they affected, on every occasion, to at their discretion, to declare peace and war, to ratify adopt the language and principles of Patricians. In treaties; and by a most comprehensive clause, they the administration of their own powers, they frequently were empowered to execute whatsoever they should consulted the great national council, and seemed to judge advantageous to the empire, and agreeable to the refer to its decision the most important concerns of majesty of things private or public, human or divine. peace and war. Rome, Italy, and the internal provinWhen all the various powers of execu- ces, were subject to the immediate jurisdiction of the The magistrates. tive government were committed to the senate. With regard to civil objects, it was the suimperial magistrate, the ordinary magistrates of the preme court of appeal; with regard to criminal matters, commonwealth languished in obscurity, without vi- à tribunal, constituted for the trial of all offences that gour, and almost without business. The names and were committed by men in any public station, or that forms of the ancient administration were preserved by affected the peace and majesty of the Roman people. Augustus with the most anxious care. The usual The exercise of the judicial power became the most number of consuls, prætors, and tribunes, were annu- frequent and serious occupation of the senate; and the ally invested with their respective ensigns of office, important causes that were pleaded before them, afand continued to discharge some of their least impor- forded a last refuge to the spirit of ancient eloquence. tant functions Those honours still attracted the vain As a council of state, and as a court of justice, the ambition of the Romans; and the emperors themselves, senate possessed very considerable prerogatives; but though invested for life with the powers of the consul- in its legislative capacity, in which it was supposed ship, frequently aspired to the title of that annual dig-virtually to represent the people, the rights of sovenity, which they condescended to share with the most reignty were acknowledged to reside in that assembly. illustrious of their fellow-citizens. In the election of Every power was derived from their authority, every these magistrates, the people, during the reign of Au-law was ratified by their sanction. Their regular

De Lolme, the consuls, the dictators, and the nobles, whom the people had the prudence to fear, and the simplicity to trust, continued to mingle with them and to practice their intrigues. They still ha rangued, they still changed the place of the assemblies of the people, they dissolved them or managed them; and the tribunes when they had been able to effect a combination, had the vexation of seeing the projects which they had prosecuted with great difficulty, and even with the greatest peril, baffled and defeated by miserable cunning. (De Lolme Constitut. d'Angleterre, chap. 7, vol. ii. p. ii.) We find in Valerius Maximus, a striking example of the influence which the nobility often exercised over the people, in spite of the tribunes and their measures. In a time of scarcity, the tribunes wishing to propose some measures respecting torn, Scipio Nasica restrained the assembly by exclaiming. Silence, Romans! I know better than you what is for the interest of the republic."-Tacete quæso, Quirites; plus enim ego quam vos quid reipublicæ expediat intelligo. Qua voce auditâ omnes pleno venerationis silentio, majorum ejus autoritatis quàm suorum alimentorum curam egerunt. This influence was such that the tribunes often fell victims in their struggle with the senate, although on many occasions they sustained the true interests of the people. Such was the fate of the two Gracchi, so unjustly calumniated by the nobles, and so basely abandoned by the people whose cause they had embraced. -G.]

See a fragment of a decree of the Senate, conferring on the emperor Vespasian, all the powers granted to his predecessor, Augustus, Tiberius, and Claudius. This curious and important monument is published in Gruter's Inscriptions. No. ccxlii.

meetings were held on three stated days in every month, the Calends, the Nones, and the Ides. The debates were conducted with decent freedom; and the emperors themselves, who gloried in the name of senators, sat, voted, and divided with their equals.

To resume, in a few words, the sys- General idea of tem of the imperial government; as it the imperial syswas instituted by Augustus, and main- tem. tained by those princes who understood their own interest and that of the people, it may be defined an absolute monarchy disguised by the forms of a commonwealth. The masters of the Roman world surrounded their throne with darkness, concealed their irresistible strength, and humbly professed themselves the accountable ministers of the senate, whose supreme decrees they dictated and obeyed."

The face of the court corresponded Court of the emwith the forms of the administration.

perors.

t Quoties Magistratuum Comitiis interesset. Tribus cum candidatis suis circuibat: supplicabatque more solemni. Ferebat et ipse suffra [It is found also in the editions of Tacitus, which Ryck (Animad. p.gium in tribubus, ut unus e populo. Suetonius in August. c. 56. 420, 421) and Ernesti (Ercurs. ad. lib. iv. c. 6.) have published, but this fragment contains so many irregularities, both in the subject itself and in the manner of relating it, that doubts are entertained of its authenticity.-G.]

Two consuls were created on the Calends of January; but in the course of the year others were substituted in their places, till the annual number seems to have amounted to no less than twelve. The prætors were usually sixteen or eighteen. (Lipsius in Excurs. D, ad Tacit. Annal. 1. i.) I have not mentioned the Ediles or Questors. Officers of the police or revenue easily adapt themselves to any form of government. In the time of Nero, the tribunes legally possessed the right of intercession, though it might be dangerous to exercise it. (Tacit. Annal. xvi. 26.) In the time of Trajan, it was doubtful whether the Tribuneship was an office or a name. (Plin. Epist. i. 23.) The tyrants themselves were ambitious of the consulship. The virtuons princes were moderate in the pursuit, and exact in the discharge of it. Trajan revived the ancient oath, and swore before the consul's tribunal, that he would observe the laws. (Plin. Panegyric. c. 64.)

u Tum primum Comitia e campo ad patres translata sunt. Tacit. Annal. i. 15. The word primum seems to allude to some faint and un. successful efforts which were made towards restoring them to the people.

[The emperor Caligula himself made this attempt.-he restored the Comitia to the people, and again deprived them of them a short time after. (Sueton. in Cuio, c. 16. Dion, lib. lix. 9. 20.) Nevertheless, in the time of Dion, the shadow of the Comitia was still preserved. (Dion, lib. viii. 20.)-G.]

v Dion Cassius (1. liii. p. 703-714.) has given a very loose and partial sketch of the imperial system. To illustrate and often to correct him, I bave meditated Tacitus, examined Suetonius, and consulted the following moderns: the Abbé de la Bleterie, in the Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xix. xxi. xxiv. xxv. xxvii. Beaufort, Republique Romaine, tom. i. p. 255-275. The Dissertations of Noodt and Gronovius, de lege Regia; printed at Leyden, in the year 1731. Gravina de Imperio Romano, p. 479-544. of his Opuscula. Maffei Vorona Illustrata, p. i. p. 245, &c.

The emperors, if we except those tyrants whose capricious folly violated every law of nature and decency, disdained that pomp and ceremony which might offend their countrymen, but could add nothing to their real power. In all the offices of life, they affected to confound themselves with their subjects, and maintained with them an equal intercourse of visits and entertainments. Their habit, their palace, their table, were suited only to the rank of an opulent senator. Their family, however numerous or splendid, was composed entirely of their domestic slaves and freedmen." Augustus or Trajan would have blushed at employing the meanest of the Romans in those menial offices, which, in the household and bed-chamber of a limited monarch, are so eagerly solicited by the proudest nobles of Britain.

it was received as an institution, not of religion, but of policy. We should disgrace the virtues of the Antonines, by comparing them with the vices of Hercules or Jupiter. Even the characters of Cæsar or Augus tus were far superior to those of the popular deities. But it was the misfortune of the former to live in an enlightened age, and their actions were too faithfully recorded to admit of such a mixture of fable and mystery, as the devotion of the vulgar requires. As soon as their divinity was established by law, it sunk into oblivion, without contributing either to their own fame, or to the dignity of succeeding princes.

In the consideration of the imperial Titles of Augus government, we have frequently mention- tus and Cæsar. ed the artful founder, under his well-known title of Augustus, which was not, however, conferred upon The deification of the emperors is the him till the edifice was almost completed. The obDeification. only instance in which they departed scure name of Octavianus, he derived from a mean from their accustomed prudence and modesty. The family, in the little town of Aricia. It was stained Asiatic Greeks were the first inventors, the successors with the blood of the proscription; and he was desirous, of Alexander the first objects of this servile and impious had it been possible, to erase all memory of his former mode of adulation. It was easily transferred from the life. The illustrious surname of Cæsar he had assumed, kings to the governors of Asia; and the Roman magis- as the adopted son of the dictator; but he had too trates very frequently were adored as provincial deities, inuch good sense, either to hope to be confounded, or with the pomp of altars and temples, of festivals and to wish to be compared, with that extraordinary man. sacrifices. It was natural that the emperors should It was proposed in the senate, to dignify their minister not refuse what the proconsuls had accepted; and the with a new appellation: and after a very serious disdivine honours which both the one and the other cussion, that of Augustus was chosen, among several received from the provinces, attested rather the despot- others, as being the most expressive of the character ism than the servitude of Rome. But the conquerors of peace and sanctity, which he uniformly affected. soon imitated the vanquished nations in the arts of Augustus was therefore a personal, Cæsar a family, disflattery; and the imperious spirit of the first Cæsar too tinction. The former should naturally have expired easily consented to assume, during his life-time, a with the prince on whom it was bestowed; and howplace among the tutelar deities of Rome. The milder ever the latter was diffused by adoption and female temper of his successor declined so dangerous an am- alliance, Nero was the last prince who could allege bition, which was never afterwards revived, except by any hereditary claim to the honours of the Julian line. the madness of Caligula and Domitian. Augustus But, at the time of his death, the practice of a century permitted, indeed, some of the provincial cities to erect had inseparably connected those appellations with the temples to his honour, on condition that they should imperial dignity, and they have been preserved by a associate the worship of Rome with that of the sove-long succession of emperors, Romans, Greeks, Franks, reign; he tolerated private superstition, of which he might be the object; but he contented himself with being revered by the senate and people in his human character, and wisely left to his successor the care of his public deification. A regular custom was introduced, that on the decease of every emperor who had neither lived nor died like a tyrant, the senate by a solemn decree should place him in the number of the gods; and the ceremonies of his Apotheosis were blended with those of his funeral. This legal, and, as it should seem, injudicious profanation, so abhorrent to our stricter principles, was received with a very faint murmur, by the easy nature of polytheism; but

w A weak prince will always be governed by his domestics. The power of slaves aggravated the shame of the Romans; and the senate

paid court to a Pallas or a Narcissus. There is a chance that a modern

favourite may be a gentleman.

See a treatise of Vandale de Consecratione Principum. It would

be easier for me to copy, than it has been to verify, the quotations of that learned Dutchman.

This is incorrect. The successors of Alexander were not the first deified sovereigns. The Egyptians had deified and worshipped many of their kings, the Olympus of the Greeks was peopled with divinities who had reigned upon earth. Romulus himself had received the honours of apotheosis (Tit. Liv. lib. i. c. 16.) a long time before Alexander and his successors. It is also incorrect to confound the homage rendered by temples and altars in the provinces to Roman governors with the real apotheosis of the emperors. This was not a religious worship, for there were neither priests nor sacrifices. Augustus was severely censured for having permitted himself to be worshipped as a god in the provinces. (Tac. Annal. lib. i. c. 10.) He would not have incurred this censure had such homage only been rendered to him as was given to the Roman governors.-G.]

z See a dissertation of the Abbé Mongault in the first volume of the Academy of Inscriptions.

a Jurandasque tuum per nomen ponimus aras, says Horace to the emperor himself, and Horace was well acquainted with the court of Augustus.

b[The honours of apotheosis were not conferred on good princes alone. They were bestowed also on many tyrants. (See an excellent treatise of Schoepflin De consecratione imperatorum romanorum in his Commentationes historica et critica. Bâle 1741, p. 1. 84.)-G.]

See Cicero in Philippic. i, 6. Julian in Cæsaribus. Inque Deûm templis jurabit Roma per umbras, is the indignant expression of Lucan, but it is a patriotic, rather than a devout, indignatior.

and Germans, from the fall of the republic, to the present time. A distinction was, however, soon introduced. The sacred title of Augustus was always reserved for the monarch, whilst the name of Cæsar was more freely communicated to his relations; and from the reign of Hadrian, at least, was appropriated to the second person in the state, who was considered as the presumptive heir of the empire.

Character and

The tender respect of Augustus for a free constitution which he had destroyed policy of Augus can only be explained by an attentive as. consideration of the character of that subtle tyrant. A cool head, an unfeeling heart and a cowardly disposition, prompted him, at the age of nineen, to assume the mask of hypocrisy, which he never afterwards laid aside.

With the same hand, and probably with the same temper, he signed the proscription of Cicero, and the pardon of Cinna. His virtues, and even his

d[Octavius was not descended from an obscure family, but from a distinguished family of the equestrian order; his father. Octavius, who possessed great wealth, had been prætor, governor of Macedonia, honored with the title of imperator, and was upon the point of becoming consul, when he died. His mother, Attia, was the daughter of M. Attius-Balbus, who had also been prætor. Mark Anthony reproached Octavius with the place of his birth, Aricia, which was, nevertheless, a large municipal town, but Cicero forcibly refuted him. (Philipp. iii. c. 6.) G.]

e Dion Cassius, 1. liii. p. 710. with the curious annotations of Reymar. [Those princes who by their birth or adoption belonged to the family of the Caesars, took the name of Cæsar. After the death of Nero, this name designated the imperial dignity itself, and then the chosen successor. The date at which it was first employed in this last sense, cannot be assigned with certainty. Baeh affirms (Hist. Jurispr. Rom. p. 304.) according to Tacitus (Hist, lib. 1. c. 15.) and Suetonius (Galba, c. 17.) that Galba conferred upon Piso Lucinianus the title of Caesar, and that this was the origin of the use of this word, but the two historians say simply that Galba adopted Piso for his successor, and makes no mention of the name of Cæsar. Aurelius Victor (in Traj. p. 348. ed. Arntzen.) says that Adrian first received the title upon his adoption; but since the adoption of Adrian is still doubtful, and because Trajan on his death bed would not probably have created a new title for a man who was to succeed him, it is more than probable that Ælius Verus was the first who was called Cæsar, when adopted by Adrian. Spart. in Elio Vero. c. 1, and 2.-G.]

vices, were artificial; and according to the various | the fondest attachment to the house of Cæsar; but the dictates of his interest, he was at first the enemy, and attachments of the multitude are capricious and inconat last the father, of the Roman world. When he stant. Augustus summoned to his aid whatever reframed the artful system of the Imperial authority, his mained in those fierce minds of Roman prejudices; moderation was inspired by his fears. He wished to enforced the rigour of discipline by the sanction of deceive the people by an image of civil liberty, and law; and, interposing the majesty of the senate between the armies by an image of civil government. the emperor and the army, boldly claimed their alleImage of liberty I. The death of Cæsar was ever before giance, as the first magistrate of the republic. for the people. his eyes. He had lavished wealth and honours on his adherents; but the most favoured friends of his uncle were in the number of the conspirators. The fidelity of the legions might defend his authority against open rebellion; but their vigilance could not secure his person from the dagger of a determined republican; and the Romans, who revered the memory of Brutus, would applaud the imitation of his virtue. Cæsar had provoked his fate, as much by the ostentation of his power, as by his power itself. The consul or the tribune might have reigned in peace. The title of king had armed the Romans against his life. Augustus was sensible that mankind is governed by names; nor was he deceived in his expectation, that the senate and people would submit to slavery, provided they were respectfully assured that they still enjoyed their ancient freedom. A feeble senate and enervated people cheerfully acquiesced in the pleasing illusion, as long as it was supported by the virtue, or even by the prudence, of the successors of Augustus. It was a motive of self-preservation, not a principle of liberty, that animated the conspirators against Caligula, Nero, and Domitian. They attacked the person of the tyrant, without aiming their blow at the authority of the emperor.

Attempt of the There appears, indeed, one memorable senate after the occasion, in which the senate, after death of Caligula. seventy years of patience, made an ineffectual attempt to reassume its long-forgotten rights. When the throne was vacant by the murder of Caligula, the consuls convoked that assembly in the capitol, condemned the memory of the Caesars, gave the watch-word liberty to the few cohorts who faintly adhered to their standard, and during eight-and-forty hours acted as the independent chiefs of a free commonwealth. But while they deliberated, the prætorian guards had resolved. The stupid Claudius, brother of Germanicus, was already in their camp, invested with the imperial purple, and prepared to support his election by arms. The dream of liberty was at an end; and the senate awoke to all the horrors of inevitable servitude. Deserted by the people, and threatened by a military force, that feeble assembly was compelled to ratify the choice of the prætorians, and to embrace the benefit of an amnesty, which Claudius had the prudence to offer, and the generosity to observe.i

mies.

During a period of two hundred and Their obedience. twenty years, from the establishment of this artful system to the death of Commodus, the dangers inherent to a military government were, in a great measure, suspended. The soldiers were seldom roused to that fatal sense of their own strength, and of the weakness of the civil authority, which was, before and afterwards, productive of such dreadful calamities. Caligula and Domitian were assassinated in their palace by their own domestics: the convulsions which agitated Rome on the death of the former, were confined to the walls of the city. But Nero involved the whole empire in his ruin. In the space of eighteen months, four princes perished by the sword; and the Roman world was shaken by the fury of the contending armies. Excepting only this short, though violent eruption of military licence, the two centuries from Augustus to Commodus passed away unstained with civil blood, and undisturbed by revolutions. The emperor was elected by the authority of the senate, and the consent of the soldiers. The legions respected their oath of fidelity; and it requires a minute inspection of the Roman annals to discover three inconsiderable rebellions, which were all suppressed in a few months, and without even the hazard of a battle."

successor.

In elective monarchies, the vacancy of Designation of a the throne is a moment big with danger and mischief. The Roman emperors, desirous to spare the legions that interval of suspense, and the temptation of an irregular choice, invested their designed successor with so large a share of present power, as should enable him, after their decease, to assume the remainder, without suffering the empire to perceive the change of masters. Thus Augustus, after all his fairer prospects had been snatched from him by untimely deaths, rested his last hopes on Of Tiberius. Tiberius, obtained for his adopted son the censorial and tribunitian powers, and dictated a law, by which the future prince was invested with an authority equal to his own, over the provinces and the armies." Thus Vespasian subdued the generous mind of his eldest son. Titus was adored by Of Titus. the eastern legions, which, under his command, had recently achieved the conquest of Judæa. His power was dreaded, and, as his virtues were

k Augustus restored the ancient severity of discipline. After the civil wars, he dropped the endearing name of fellow-soldiers, and called II. The insolence of the armies in- them only soldiers. (Suet. in August. c. 25.) See the use Tiberius Image of government for the ar- spired Augustus with fears of a still made of the senate in the mutiny of the Pannonian legions. (Tacit. more alarming nature. The despair of Annal. i.) 1[Caligula perished by a conspiracy formed by the officers of the the citizens could only attempt, what the power of the prætorian guard, and Domitian would not, perhaps, have been assassi soldiers was at any time able to execute. How pre-nated, had not two officers of this guard engaged in accomplishing his death.-G.] carious was his own authority over men whom he had taught to violate every social duty! He had heard their seditious clamours; he dreaded their calmer moments of reflection. One revolution had been purchased by immense rewards; but a second revolution might double those rewards. The troops professed

As Octavianus advanced to the banquet of the Caesars, his colour changed like that of the camelion; pale at first, then red, afterwards black, he at last assumed the mild livery of Venus and the Graces (Casars, p. 309.) This image, employed by Julian in his ingenious fiction, is just and elegant; but when he considers this change of character as real, and ascribes it to the power of philosophy, he does too much honour to philosophy, and to Octavianus.

Two centuries after the establishment of monarchy, the emperor Marcus Antoninus recommends the character of Brutus as a perfect mo

del of Roman virtue.

i It is much to be regretted that we have lost the part of Tacitus, which treated of that transaction. We are forced to content ourselves with the popular rumours of Josephus, and the imperfect hints of Dion and Suetonias.

m These words seem to have been the constitutional language. See Tacit. Annal. xiii. 4.

obliged to purchase their consent to his coronation. The presents he [This praise of the soldiery is a little exaggerated. Claudius was gave them, and those the prætorian guard received on several other occasions, caused great injury to the finances of the empire. This formidable guard besides, often favoured the cruelties of the tyrants. Their distant revolts were more frequent than Gibbon seems to think. Already under Tiberius the legions of Germany seditiously wished to force Germanicus to assume the imperial purple. Upon the revolt of Claudius Civilis under Vespasian, the legions of Gaul slew their general, and promised their assistance to the Gauls who had rebelled. Julius Sabinus caused himself to be declared emperor, &c. The wars, the merit, and the severe discipline of Trajan, Adrian, and the two Antonines, effected, after some time, more subordination.-G.]

The first was Camillus Scribonianus, who took up arms in Dalmatia against Claudius, and was deserted by his own troops in five days. The second, L. Antonins, in Germany, who rebelled against Domitian; and the third, Avidius Cassius, in the reign of M. Antoninus. The two last reigned but a few months, and were cut off by their own adherents. We may observe, that both Camillus and Cassius coloured their ambition with the design of restoring the republic; a task, said Cassius, peculiarly reserved for his name and family.

• Velleius Paterculus, l. ii. c. 121. Sueton. in Tiber. c. 20.

[Gibbon attributes a merit to Antoninus Pius which he had not, or which at least he did not show on this occasion. He had not himself been adopted, except on condition that he should adopt in his turn, M. Aurelius, and L. Verus. His two sons died in childhood, and one of them, M. Galerius, seems to have survived only a few years after the accession of his father. Gibbon is also deceived when he says. (see note,) "Without the help of medals and inscriptions, we should be ig u Dion (1. Ixix. p. 1249.) affirms the whole to have been a fiction, on norant that Antoninus had two sons." Capitolinus says expressly, (c. the authority of his father, who being governor of the province where 1.) Filii mares duo, duæ fœmina. We are indebted to the medals only Trajan died, had very good opportunities of sifting this mysterious for their names. (Pagi Critic. Baron, ad. A. C. 161. vol. 1. p. 33. ed. transaction Yet Dodwell (Prælect. Camden xvii.) has maintained, | Paris.-G.]