pulsion 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 honorable title of Prince of the Senate, which had always been bestowed by the censors on the citizen the most eminent for his honors and services. 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.

Resigns his

usurped

Before an assembly thus modelled and prepared, Augustus pronounced a studied oration, which displayed his patriotism, and disguised his ambition. "He lamented, yet excused, his past conduct. Filial piety had required power. at his hands the revenge of his father's murder; the humanity of his own nature had sometimes given way to the stern laws of necessity, and to a forced connection with two unworthy colleagues: as long as Antony lived, the republic forbade 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."

It would require the pen of Tacitus (if Tacitus had assisted

3 Dion Cassius, 1. lii. [c. 42] p. 693. Suetonius in August. c. 35.

4 Dion (1. liii. [c. 3 seq.] p. 698) gives us a prolix and bombast speech on this great occasion. I have borrowed from Suetonius and Tacitus the general lan

guage of Augustus.

a The title of Princeps Senatus was an honorary distinction, which neither was connected with any office nor conferred any privileges. Under the republie 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. hiiì. 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. c. 1, 9, and Ovid, Fasti, ii. 412: "Tu (Romule) domini nomen, principis ille (Augustus) tenet.

-S.

upon to re

the title of emperor or

at this assembly) to describe the various emotions of the senIs prevailed ate; those that were suppressed, and those that sume it under were affected. It was dangerous to trust the sincerity of Augustus; to seem to distrust it was still general. 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 license 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. But 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 vigor,

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 conferred 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.

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."

Power of the Roman generals.

Without any violation of the principles of the constitution, the general of the Roman armies might receive and exercise an authority almost despotic over the soldiers, the enemies, and 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 rati fied 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,

6 Dion, 1. liii. [c. 11] p. 703, etc. [c. 16], p. 709.-S.

7 Livy, Epitom. 1. xiv. Valer. Maxim. vi. 3.

8 See, in the eighth 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 ac tion, were obliged to respect the principle.

of their enterprises that they expected the honors of a triumph. In the use of victory, especially after they were no longer controlled by the commissioners of the senate, they exercised the most unbounded despotism. When Pompey commanded in the East, he rewarded his soldiers and allies, dethroned princes, divided kingdoms, founded colonies, and distributed the treasures of Mithridates. On his return to Rome he obtained, by a single act of the senate and people, the universal ratification of all his proceedings. Such was the power over the soldiers, and over the enemies of Rome, which was either granted to or assumed by the generals of the republic. They were at the same time the governors, or rather monarchs, of the conquered provinces, united the civil with the military character, administered justice as well as the finances, and exercised both the executive and legislative power of the State.

Lieutenants

peror.

From what has been already observed in the first chapter of this work, some notion may be formed of the armies and provinces thus intrusted to the ruling hand of Auof the em- gustus. But, as it was impossible that he could personally command the legions of so many distant frontiers, he was indulged by the senate, as Pompey had already been, in the permission of devolving the execution of his great office on a sufficient number of lieutenants. In rank and authority these officers seemed not inferior to the ancient proconsuls; but their station was dependent and precarious. They received and held their commissions at the will of a superior, to whose auspicious influence the merit of their action was legally attributed." They were the repre

By the lavish but unconstrained suffrages of the people, Pompey had obtained a military command scarcely inferior to that of Augustus. Among the extraordinary acts of power executed by the former, we may remark the foundation of twenty-nine cities, and the distribution of three or four millions sterling to his troops. The ratification of his acts met with some opposition and delays in the senate. See Plutarch, Appian, Dion Cassius, and the first book of the epistles to Atticus.

10 Under the commonwealth, a triumph could only be claimed by the general who was authorized to take the Auspices in the name of the people. By an exact consequence, drawn from this principle of policy and religion, the triumph was reserved to the emperor; and his most successful lieutenants were satisfied with

sentatives of the emperor. The emperor alone was the general of the republic, and his jurisdiction, civil as well as military, extended over all the conquests of Rome. It was some satisfaction, however, to the senate that he always delegated his power to the members of their body. The imperial lieutenants were of consular or prætorian dignity; the legions were commanded by senators; and the præfecture of Egypt was the only important trust committed to a Roman knight.

Division of

between the

the senate.

Within six days after Augustus had been compelled to accept so very liberal a grant, he resolved to gratify the pride of the senate by an easy sacrifice. He represented the provinces to them that they had enlarged his powers even beemperor and yond that degree which might be required by the melancholy condition of the times. They had not permitted him to refuse the laborious command of the armies and the frontiers; but he must insist on being allowed to restore the more peaceful and secure provinces to the mild administration of the civil magistrate. In the division of the provinces Augustus provided for his own power and for the dignity of the republic. The proconsuls of the senate, particularly those of Asia, Greece, and Africa, enjoyed a more honorable character than the lieutenants of the emperor, who commanded in Gaul or Syria. The former were attended by lictors, the latter by soldiers.

A law was passed that, wher

some marks of distinction, which, under the name of triumphal honors, were invented in their favor.

a A few supplemental remarks, corrective and illustrative, upon the provinces may be of use to the student. I. The Provinces of the Senate.-These were divided into two classes, consular and prætorian. Asia and Africa were the consular provinces; the rest were prætorian (Strab. xvii. p. 840; Dion Cass. liii. 13). The governors of these provinces were appointed in the ancient fashion, by lot, and for a single year (Sueton. Aug. 47; Dion Cass. liii. 13; Tacit. Ann. iii. 58), the two oldest consulars drawing lots for the consular provinces, and the two oldest prætorians for the prætorian provinces. All the governors of the senatorial provinces, whether consulars or prætorians, had the title of proconsul, but with this distinction in the insignia of their rank, that the proconsuls of Asia and Africa had twelve lictors each, and the remainder only six (Dion Cass. liii. 13). They did not, however, possess the military power, and therefore wore the toga, and not the paludamentum with the sword, as in the time of the republic (Dion Cass. l. c.). Consequently there were no legions in these provinces; but a small body of troops was placed at their disposal for the preservation of order.

II. The Provinces of the Casar.-These were governed by the emperor himself by means of his Legati. The larger provinces were administered by legati,