The vague descriptions of exile and imprisonment, of pain and torture, are
so easily exaggerated or softened by the pencil of an artful orator, *
that we are naturally induced to inquire into a fact of a more distinct
and stubborn kind; the number of persons who suffered death in consequence
of the edicts published by Diocletian, his associates, and his successors.
The recent legendaries record whole armies and cities, which were at once
swept away by the undistinguishing rage of persecution. The more ancient
writers content themselves with pouring out a liberal effusion of loose
and tragical invectives, without condescending to ascertain the precise
number of those persons who were permitted to seal with their blood their
belief of the gospel. From the history of Eusebius, it may, however, be
collected, that only nine bishops were punished with death; and we are
assured, by his particular enumeration of the martyrs of Palestine, that
no more than ninety-two Christians were entitled to that honorable
appellation. As we are unacquainted with the degree of episcopal zeal and
courage which prevailed at that time, it is not in our power to draw any
useful inferences from the former of these facts: but the latter may serve
to justify a very important and probable conclusion. According to the
distribution of Roman provinces, Palestine may be considered as the
sixteenth part of the Eastern empire: and since there were some governors,
who from a real or affected clemency had preserved their hands unstained
with the blood of the faithful, it is reasonable to believe, that the
country which had given birth to Christianity, produced at least the
sixteenth part of the martyrs who suffered death within the dominions of
Galerius and Maximin; the whole might consequently amount to about fifteen
hundred, a number which, if it is equally divided between the ten years of
the persecution, will allow an annual consumption of one hundred and fifty
martyrs. Allotting the same proportion to the provinces of Italy, Africa,
and perhaps Spain, where, at the end of two or three years, the rigor of
the penal laws was either suspended or abolished, the multitude of
Christians in the Roman empire, on whom a capital punishment was inflicted
by a judicial, sentence, will be reduced to somewhat less than two
thousand persons. Since it cannot be doubted that the Christians were more
numerous, and their enemies more exasperated, in the time of Diocletian,
than they had ever been in any former persecution, this probable and
moderate computation may teach us to estimate the number of primitive
saints and martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the important purpose of
introducing Christianity into the world.
We shall conclude this chapter by a melancholy truth, which obtrudes
itself on the reluctant mind; that even admitting, without hesitation or
inquiry, all that history has recorded, or devotion has feigned, on the
subject of martyrdoms, it must still be acknowledged, that the Christians,
in the course of their intestine dissensions, have inflicted far greater
severities on each other, than they had experienced from the zeal of
infidels. During the ages of ignorance which followed the subversion of
the Roman empire in the West, the bishops of the Imperial city extended
their dominion over the laity as well as clergy of the Latin church. The
fabric of superstition which they had erected, and which might long have
defied the feeble efforts of reason, was at length assaulted by a crowd of
daring fanatics, who from the twelfth to the sixteenth century assumed the
popular character of reformers. The church of Rome defended by violence
the empire which she had acquired by fraud; a system of peace and
benevolence was soon disgraced by proscriptions, war, massacres, and the
institution of the holy office. And as the reformers were animated by the
love of civil as well as of religious freedom, the Catholic princes
connected their own interest with that of the clergy, and enforced by fire
and the sword the terrors of spiritual censures. In the Netherlands alone,
more than one hundred thousand of the subjects of Charles V. are said to
have suffered by the hand of the executioner; and this extraordinary
number is attested by Grotius, a man of genius and learning, who preserved
his moderation amidst the fury of contending sects, and who composed the
annals of his own age and country, at a time when the invention of
printing had facilitated the means of intelligence, and increased the
danger of detection. If we are obliged to submit our belief to the
authority of Grotius, it must be allowed, that the number of Protestants,
who were executed in a single province and a single reign, far exceeded
that of the primitive martyrs in the space of three centuries, and of the
Roman empire. But if the improbability of the fact itself should prevail
over the weight of evidence; if Grotius should be convicted of
exaggerating the merit and sufferings of the Reformers; we shall be
naturally led to inquire what confidence can be placed in the doubtful and
imperfect monuments of ancient credulity; what degree of credit can be
assigned to a courtly bishop, and a passionate declaimer, * who, under the
protection of Constantine, enjoyed the exclusive privilege of recording
the persecutions inflicted on the Christians by the vanquished rivals or
disregarded predecessors of their gracious sovereign.
The unfortunate Licinius was the last rival who opposed the greatness, and
the last captive who adorned the triumph, of Constantine. After a tranquil
and prosperous reign, the conqueror bequeathed to his family the
inheritance of the Roman empire; a new capital, a new policy, and a new
religion; and the innovations which he established have been embraced and
consecrated by succeeding generations. The age of the great Constantine
and his sons is filled with important events; but the historian must be
oppressed by their number and variety, unless he diligently separates from
each other the scenes which are connected only by the order of time. He
will describe the political institutions that gave strength and stability
to the empire, before he proceeds to relate the wars and revolutions which
hastened its decline. He will adopt the division unknown to the ancients
of civil and ecclesiastical affairs: the victory of the Christians, and
their intestine discord, will supply copious and distinct materials both
for edification and for scandal.
After the defeat and abdication of Licinius, his victorious rival
proceeded to lay the foundations of a city destined to reign in future
times, the mistress of the East, and to survive the empire and religion of
Constantine. The motives, whether of pride or of policy, which first
induced Diocletian to withdraw himself from the ancient seat of
government, had acquired additional weight by the example of his
successors, and the habits of forty years. Rome was insensibly confounded
with the dependent kingdoms which had once acknowledged her supremacy; and
the country of the Cæsars was viewed with cold indifference by a
martial prince, born in the neighborhood of the Danube, educated in the
courts and armies of Asia, and invested with the purple by the legions of
Britain. The Italians, who had received Constantine as their deliverer,
submissively obeyed the edicts which he sometimes condescended to address
to the senate and people of Rome; but they were seldom honored with the
presence of their new sovereign. During the vigor of his age, Constantine,
according to the various exigencies of peace and war, moved with slow
dignity, or with active diligence, along the frontiers of his extensive
dominions; and was always prepared to take the field either against a
foreign or a domestic enemy. But as he gradually reached the summit of
prosperity and the decline of life, he began to meditate the design of
fixing in a more permanent station the strength as well as majesty of the
throne. In the choice of an advantageous situation, he preferred the
confines of Europe and Asia; to curb with a powerful arm the barbarians
who dwelt between the Danube and the Tanais; to watch with an eye of
jealousy the conduct of the Persian monarch, who indignantly supported the
yoke of an ignominious treaty. With these views, Diocletian had selected
and embellished the residence of Nicomedia: but the memory of Diocletian
was justly abhorred by the protector of the church: and Constantine was
not insensible to the ambition of founding a city which might perpetuate
the glory of his own name. During the late operations of the war against
Licinius, he had sufficient opportunity to contemplate, both as a soldier
and as a statesman, the incomparable position of Byzantium; and to observe
how strongly it was guarded by nature against a hostile attack, whilst it
was accessible on every side to the benefits of commercial intercourse.
Many ages before Constantine, one of the most judicious historians of
antiquity had described the advantages of a situation, from whence a
feeble colony of Greeks derived the command of the sea, and the honors of
a flourishing and independent republic.
If we survey Byzantium in the extent which it acquired with the august
name of Constantinople, the figure of the Imperial city may be represented
under that of an unequal triangle. The obtuse point, which advances
towards the east and the shores of Asia, meets and repels the waves of the
Thracian Bosphorus. The northern side of the city is bounded by the
harbor; and the southern is washed by the Propontis, or Sea of Marmara.
The basis of the triangle is opposed to the west, and terminates the
continent of Europe. But the admirable form and division of the
circumjacent land and water cannot, without a more ample explanation, be
clearly or sufficiently understood.
The winding channel through which the waters of the Euxine flow with a
rapid and incessant course towards the Mediterranean, received the
appellation of Bosphorus, a name not less celebrated in the history, than
in the fables, of antiquity. A crowd of temples and of votive altars,
profusely scattered along its steep and woody banks, attested the
unskilfulness, the terrors, and the devotion of the Grecian navigators,
who, after the example of the Argonauts, explored the dangers of the
inhospitable Euxine. On these banks tradition long preserved the memory of
the palace of Phineus, infested by the obscene harpies; and of the sylvan
reign of Amycus, who defied the son of Leda to the combat of the cestus.
The straits of the Bosphorus are terminated by the Cyanean rocks, which,
according to the description of the poets, had once floated on the face of
the waters; and were destined by the gods to protect the entrance of the
Euxine against the eye of profane curiosity. From the Cyanean rocks to the
point and harbor of Byzantium, the winding length of the Bosphorus extends
about sixteen miles, and its most ordinary breadth may be computed at
about one mile and a half. The new castles of
Europe and Asia are constructed, on either continent, upon the foundations
of two celebrated temples, of Serapis and of Jupiter Urius. The oldcastles,
a work of the Greek emperors, command the narrowest part of the channel in
a place where the opposite banks advance within five hundred paces of each
other. These fortresses were destroyed and strengthened by Mahomet the
Second, when he meditated the siege of Constantinople: but the Turkish
conqueror was most probably ignorant, that near two thousand years before
his reign, continents had been joined by a bridge of boats. At a small distance from the
old castles we discover the little town of Chrysopolis, or Scutari, which
may almost be considered as the Asiatic suburb of Constantinople. The
Bosphorus, as it begins to open into the Propontis, passes between
Byzantium and Chalcedon. The latter of those cities was built by the
Greeks, a few years before the former; and the blindness of its founders,
who overlooked the superior advantages of the opposite coast, has been
stigmatized by a proverbial expression of contempt.
The harbor of Constantinople, which may be considered as an arm of the
Bosphorus, obtained, in a very remote period, the denomination of the
Golden Horn. The curve which it describes might
be compared to the horn of a stag, or as it should seem, with more
propriety, to that of an ox. The epithet of golden
was expressive of the riches which every wind wafted from the most distant
countries into the secure and capacious port of Constantinople. The River
Lycus, formed by the conflux of two little streams, pours into the harbor
a perpetual supply of fresh water, which serves to cleanse the bottom, and
to invite the periodical shoals of fish to seek their retreat in that
convenient recess. As the vicissitudes of tides are scarcely felt in those
seas, the constant depth of the harbor allows goods to be landed on the
quays without the assistance of boats; and it has been observed, that in
many places the largest vessels may rest their prows against the houses,
while their sterns are floating in the water. From the mouth of the Lycus
to that of the harbor, this arm of the Bosphorus is more than seven miles
in length. The entrance is about five hundred yards broad, and a strong
chain could be occasionally drawn across it, to guard the port and city
from the attack of a hostile navy.
Between the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, the shores of Europe and Asia,
receding on either side, enclose the sea of Marmara, which was known to
the ancients by the denomination of Propontis. The navigation from the
issue of the Bosphorus to the entrance of the Hellespont is about one
hundred and twenty miles. Those who steer their westward course through
the middle of the Propontis, and at once descry the high lands of Thrace
and Bithynia, and never lose sight of the lofty summit of Mount Olympus,
covered with eternal snows. They leave on the left a deep gulf, at the
bottom of which Nicomedia was seated, the Imperial residence of
Diocletian; and they pass the small islands of Cyzicus and Proconnesus
before they cast anchor at Gallipoli; where the sea, which separates Asia
from Europe, is again contracted into a narrow channel.
The geographers who, with the most skilful accuracy, have surveyed the
form and extent of the Hellespont, assign about sixty miles for the
winding course, and about three miles for the ordinary breadth of those
celebrated straits. But the narrowest part of the channel is found to the
northward of the old Turkish castles between the cities of Sestus and
Abydus. It was here that the adventurous Leander braved the passage of the
flood for the possession of his mistress. It was here likewise, in a place
where the distance between the opposite banks cannot exceed five hundred
paces, that Xerxes imposed a stupendous bridge of boats, for the purpose
of transporting into Europe a hundred and seventy myriads of barbarians. A
sea contracted within such narrow limits may seem but ill to deserve the
singular epithet of broad, which Homer, as well
as Orpheus, has frequently bestowed on the Hellespont. * But our ideas of
greatness are of a relative nature: the traveller, and especially the
poet, who sailed along the Hellespont, who pursued the windings of the
stream, and contemplated the rural scenery, which appeared on every side
to terminate the prospect, insensibly lost the remembrance of the sea; and
his fancy painted those celebrated straits, with all the attributes of a
mighty river flowing with a swift current, in the midst of a woody and
inland country, and at length, through a wide mouth, discharging itself
into the Ægean or Archipelago. Ancient Troy, seated on a an eminence
at the foot of Mount Ida, overlooked the mouth of the Hellespont, which
scarcely received an accession of waters from the tribute of those
immortal rivulets the Simois and Scamander. The Grecian camp had stretched
twelve miles along the shore from the Sigæan to the Rhætean
promontory; and the flanks of the army were guarded by the bravest chiefs
who fought under the banners of Agamemnon. The first of those promontories
was occupied by Achilles with his invincible myrmidons, and the dauntless
Ajax pitched his tents on the other. After Ajax had fallen a sacrifice to
his disappointed pride, and to the ingratitude of the Greeks, his
sepulchre was erected on the ground where he had defended the navy against
the rage of Jove and of Hector; and the citizens of the rising town of Rhæteum
celebrated his memory with divine honors. Before Constantine gave a just
preference to the situation of Byzantium, he had conceived the design of
erecting the seat of empire on this celebrated spot, from whence the
Romans derived their fabulous origin. The extensive plain which lies below
ancient Troy, towards the Rhætean promontory and the tomb of Ajax,
was first chosen for his new capital; and though the undertaking was soon
relinquished the stately remains of unfinished walls and towers attracted
the notice of all who sailed through the straits of the Hellespont.
We are at present qualified to view the advantageous position of
Constantinople; which appears to have been formed by nature for the centre
and capital of a great monarchy. Situated in the forty-first degree of
latitude, the Imperial city commanded, from her seven hills, the opposite
shores of Europe and Asia; the climate was healthy and temperate, the soil
fertile, the harbor secure and capacious; and the approach on the side of
the continent was of small extent and easy defence. The Bosphorus and the
Hellespont may be considered as the two gates of Constantinople; and the
prince who possessed those important passages could always shut them
against a naval enemy, and open them to the fleets of commerce. The
preservation of the eastern provinces may, in some degree, be ascribed to
the policy of Constantine, as the barbarians of the Euxine, who in the
preceding age had poured their armaments into the heart of the
Mediterranean, soon desisted from the exercise of piracy, and despaired of
forcing this insurmountable barrier. When the gates of the Hellespont and
Bosphorus were shut, the capital still enjoyed within their spacious
enclosure every production which could supply the wants, or gratify the
luxury, of its numerous inhabitants. The sea-coasts of Thrace and
Bithynia, which languish under the weight of Turkish oppression, still
exhibit a rich prospect of vineyards, of gardens, and of plentiful
harvests; and the Propontis has ever been renowned for an inexhaustible
store of the most exquisite fish, that are taken in their stated seasons,
without skill, and almost without labor. But when the passages of the
straits were thrown open for trade, they alternately admitted the natural
and artificial riches of the north and south, of the Euxine, and of the
Mediterranean. Whatever rude commodities were collected in the forests of
Germany and Scythia, and far as the sources of the Tanais and the
Borysthenes; whatsoever was manufactured by the skill of Europe or Asia;
the corn of Egypt, and the gems and spices of the farthest India, were
brought by the varying winds into the port of Constantinople, which for
many ages attracted the commerce of the ancient world.
[See Basilica Of Constantinople]
The prospect of beauty, of safety, and of wealth, united in a single spot,
was sufficient to justify the choice of Constantine. But as some decent
mixture of prodigy and fable has, in every age, been supposed to reflect a
becoming majesty on the origin of great cities, the emperor was desirous
of ascribing his resolution, not so much to the uncertain counsels of
human policy, as to the infallible and eternal decrees of divine wisdom.
In one of his laws he has been careful to instruct posterity, that in
obedience to the commands of God, he laid the everlasting foundations of
Constantinople: and though he has not condescended to relate in what
manner the celestial inspiration was communicated to his mind, the defect
of his modest silence has been liberally supplied by the ingenuity of
succeeding writers; who describe the nocturnal vision which appeared to
the fancy of Constantine, as he slept within the walls of Byzantium. The
tutelar genius of the city, a venerable matron sinking under the weight of
years and infirmities, was suddenly transformed into a blooming maid, whom
his own hands adorned with all the symbols of Imperial greatness. The
monarch awoke, interpreted the auspicious omen, and obeyed, without
hesitation, the will of Heaven. The day which gave birth to a city or
colony was celebrated by the Romans with such ceremonies as had been
ordained by a generous superstition; and though Constantine might omit
some rites which savored too strongly of their Pagan origin, yet he was
anxious to leave a deep impression of hope and respect on the minds of the
spectators. On foot, with a lance in his hand, the emperor himself led the
solemn procession; and directed the line, which was traced as the boundary
of the destined capital: till the growing circumference was observed with
astonishment by the assistants, who, at length, ventured to observe, that
he had already exceeded the most ample measure of a great city. "I shall
still advance," replied Constantine, "till He, the invisible guide who
marches before me, thinks proper to stop." Without presuming to
investigate the nature or motives of this extraordinary conductor, we
shall content ourselves with the more humble task of describing the extent
and limits of Constantinople.
In the actual state of the city, the palace and gardens of the Seraglio
occupy the eastern promontory, the first of the seven hills, and cover
about one hundred and fifty acres of our own measure. The seat of Turkish
jealousy and despotism is erected on the foundations of a Grecian
republic; but it may be supposed that the Byzantines were tempted by the
conveniency of the harbor to extend their habitations on that side beyond
the modern limits of the Seraglio. The new walls of Constantine stretched
from the port to the Propontis across the enlarged breadth of the
triangle, at the distance of fifteen stadia from the ancient
fortification; and with the city of Byzantium they enclosed five of the
seven hills, which, to the eyes of those who approach Constantinople,
appear to rise above each other in beautiful order. About a century after
the death of the founder, the new buildings, extending on one side up the
harbor, and on the other along the Propontis, already covered the narrow
ridge of the sixth, and the broad summit of the seventh hill. The
necessity of protecting those suburbs from the incessant inroads of the
barbarians engaged the younger Theodosius to surround his capital with an
adequate and permanent enclosure of walls. From the eastern promontory to
the golden gate, the extreme length of Constantinople was about three
Roman miles; the circumference measured between ten and eleven; and the
surface might be computed as equal to about two thousand English acres. It
is impossible to justify the vain and credulous exaggerations of modern
travellers, who have sometimes stretched the limits of Constantinople over
the adjacent villages of the European, and even of the Asiatic coast. But
the suburbs of Pera and Galata, though situate beyond the harbor, may
deserve to be considered as a part of the city; and this addition may
perhaps authorize the measure of a Byzantine historian, who assigns
sixteen Greek (about fourteen Roman) miles for the circumference of his
native city. Such an extent may not seem unworthy of an Imperial
residence. Yet Constantinople must yield to Babylon and Thebes, to ancient
Rome, to London, and even to Paris.
The master of the Roman world, who aspired to erect an eternal monument of
the glories of his reign could employ in the prosecution of that great
work, the wealth, the labor, and all that yet remained of the genius of
obedient millions. Some estimate may be formed of the expense bestowed
with Imperial liberality on the foundation of Constantinople, by the
allowance of about two millions five hundred thousand pounds for the
construction of the walls, the porticos, and the aqueducts. The forests
that overshadowed the shores of the Euxine, and the celebrated quarries of
white marble in the little island of Proconnesus, supplied an
inexhaustible stock of materials, ready to be conveyed, by the convenience
of a short water carriage, to the harbor of Byzantium. A multitude of
laborers and artificers urged the conclusion of the work with incessant
toil: but the impatience of Constantine soon discovered, that, in the
decline of the arts, the skill as well as numbers of his architects bore a
very unequal proportion to the greatness of his designs. The magistrates
of the most distant provinces were therefore directed to institute
schools, to appoint professors, and by the hopes of rewards and
privileges, to engage in the study and practice of architecture a
sufficient number of ingenious youths, who had received a liberal
education. The buildings of the new city were executed by such artificers
as the reign of Constantine could afford; but they were decorated by the
hands of the most celebrated masters of the age of Pericles and Alexander.
To revive the genius of Phidias and Lysippus, surpassed indeed the power
of a Roman emperor; but the immortal productions which they had bequeathed
to posterity were exposed without defence to the rapacious vanity of a
despot. By his commands the cities of Greece and Asia were despoiled of
their most valuable ornaments. The trophies of memorable wars, the objects
of religious veneration, the most finished statues of the gods and heroes,
of the sages and poets, of ancient times, contributed to the splendid
triumph of Constantinople; and gave occasion to the remark of the
historian Cedrenus, who observes, with some enthusiasm, that nothing
seemed wanting except the souls of the illustrious men whom these
admirable monuments were intended to represent. But it is not in the city
of Constantine, nor in the declining period of an empire, when the human
mind was depressed by civil and religious slavery, that we should seek for
the souls of Homer and of Demosthenes.
During the siege of Byzantium, the conqueror had pitched his tent on the
commanding eminence of the second hill. To perpetuate the memory of his
success, he chose the same advantageous position for the principal Forum;
which appears to have been of a circular, or rather elliptical form. The
two opposite entrances formed triumphal arches; the porticos, which
enclosed it on every side, were filled with statues; and the centre of the
Forum was occupied by a lofty column, of which a mutilated fragment is now
degraded by the appellation of the burnt pillar.
This column was erected on a pedestal of white marble twenty feet high;
and was composed of ten pieces of porphyry, each of which measured about
ten feet in height, and about thirty-three in circumference. On the summit
of the pillar, above one hundred and twenty feet from the ground, stood
the colossal statue of Apollo. It was a bronze, had been transported
either from Athens or from a town of Phrygia, and was supposed to be the
work of Phidias. The artist had represented the god of day, or, as it was
afterwards interpreted, the emperor Constantine himself, with a sceptre in
his right hand, the globe of the world in his left, and a crown of rays
glittering on his head. The Circus, or Hippodrome, was a stately building
about four hundred paces in length, and one hundred in breadth. The space
between the two metoe or goals were filled with statues and obelisks; and we
may still remark a very singular fragment of antiquity; the bodies of
three serpents, twisted into one pillar of brass. Their triple heads had
once supported the golden tripod which, after the defeat of Xerxes, was
consecrated in the temple of Delphi by the victorious Greeks. The beauty
of the Hippodrome has been long since defaced by the rude hands of the
Turkish conquerors; but, under the similar appellation of Atmeidan, it
still serves as a place of exercise for their horses. From the throne,
whence the emperor viewed the Circensian games, a winding staircase
descended to the palace; a magnificent edifice, which scarcely yielded to
the residence of Rome itself, and which, together with the dependent
courts, gardens, and porticos, covered a considerable extent of ground
upon the banks of the Propontis between the Hippodrome and the church of
St. Sophia. We might likewise celebrate the baths, which still retained
the name of Zeuxippus, after they had been enriched, by the munificence of
Constantine, with lofty columns, various marbles, and above threescore
statues of bronze. But we should deviate from the design of this history,
if we attempted minutely to describe the different buildings or quarters
of the city. It may be sufficient to observe, that whatever could adorn
the dignity of a great capital, or contribute to the benefit or pleasure
of its numerous inhabitants, was contained within the walls of
Constantinople. A particular description, composed about a century after
its foundation, enumerates a capitol or school of learning, a circus, two
theatres, eight public, and one hundred and fifty-three private baths,
fifty-two porticos, five granaries, eight aqueducts or reservoirs of
water, four spacious halls for the meetings of the senate or courts of
justice, fourteen churches, fourteen palaces, and four thousand three
hundred and eighty-eight houses, which, for their size or beauty, deserved
to be distinguished from the multitude of plebeian inhabitants.
The populousness of his favored city was the next and most serious object
of the attention of its founder. In the dark ages which succeeded the
translation of the empire, the remote and the immediate consequences of
that memorable event were strangely confounded by the vanity of the Greeks
and the credulity of the Latins. It was asserted, and believed, that all
the noble families of Rome, the senate, and the equestrian order, with
their innumerable attendants, had followed their emperor to the banks of
the Propontis; that a spurious race of strangers and plebeians was left to
possess the solitude of the ancient capital; and that the lands of Italy,
long since converted into gardens, were at once deprived of cultivation
and inhabitants. In the course of this history, such exaggerations will be
reduced to their just value: yet, since the growth of Constantinople
cannot be ascribed to the general increase of mankind and of industry, it
must be admitted that this artificial colony was raised at the expense of
the ancient cities of the empire. Many opulent senators of Rome, and of
the eastern provinces, were probably invited by Constantine to adopt for
their country the fortunate spot, which he had chosen for his own
residence. The invitations of a master are scarcely to be distinguished
from commands; and the liberality of the emperor obtained a ready and
cheerful obedience. He bestowed on his favorites the palaces which he had
built in the several quarters of the city, assigned them lands and
pensions for the support of their dignity, and alienated the demesnes of
Pontus and Asia to grant hereditary estates by the easy tenure of
maintaining a house in the capital. But these encouragements and
obligations soon became superfluous, and were gradually abolished.
Wherever the seat of government is fixed, a considerable part of the
public revenue will be expended by the prince himself, by his ministers,
by the officers of justice, and by the domestics of the palace. The most
wealthy of the provincials will be attracted by the powerful motives of
interest and duty, of amusement and curiosity. A third and more numerous
class of inhabitants will insensibly be formed, of servants, of
artificers, and of merchants, who derive their subsistence from their own
labor, and from the wants or luxury of the superior ranks. In less than a
century, Constantinople disputed with Rome itself the preeminence of
riches and numbers. New piles of buildings, crowded together with too
little regard to health or convenience, scarcely allowed the intervals of
narrow streets for the perpetual throng of men, of horses, and of
carriages. The allotted space of ground was insufficient to contain the
increasing people; and the additional foundations, which, on either side,
were advanced into the sea, might alone have composed a very considerable
city.
The frequent and regular distributions of wine and oil, of corn or bread,
of money or provisions, had almost exempted the poorest citizens of Rome
from the necessity of labor. The magnificence of the first Cæsars
was in some measure imitated by the founder of Constantinople: but his
liberality, however it might excite the applause of the people, has in
curred the censure of posterity. A nation of legislators and conquerors
might assert their claim to the harvests of Africa, which had been
purchased with their blood; and it was artfully contrived by Augustus,
that, in the enjoyment of plenty, the Romans should lose the memory of
freedom. But the prodigality of Constantine could not be excused by any
consideration either of public or private interest; and the annual tribute
of corn imposed upon Egypt for the benefit of his new capital, was applied
to feed a lazy and insolent populace, at the expense of the husbandmen of
an industrious province. * Some other regulations of this emperor are less
liable to blame, but they are less deserving of notice. He divided
Constantinople into fourteen regions or quarters, dignified the public
council with the appellation of senate, communicated to the citizens the
privileges of Italy, and bestowed on the rising city the title of Colony,
the first and most favored daughter of ancient Rome. The venerable parent
still maintained the legal and acknowledged supremacy, which was due to
her age, her dignity, and to the remembrance of her former greatness.
As Constantine urged the progress of the work with the impatience of a
lover, the walls, the porticos, and the principal edifices were completed
in a few years, or, according to another account, in a few months; but
this extraordinary diligence should excite the less admiration, since many
of the buildings were finished in so hasty and imperfect a manner, that
under the succeeding reign, they were preserved with difficulty from
impending ruin. But while they displayed the vigor and freshness of youth,
the founder prepared to celebrate the dedication of his city. The games
and largesses which crowned the pomp of this memorable festival may easily
be supposed; but there is one circumstance of a more singular and
permanent nature, which ought not entirely to be overlooked. As often as
the birthday of the city returned, the statue of Constantine, framed by
his order, of gilt wood, and bearing in his right hand a small image of
the genius of the place, was erected on a triumphal car. The guards,
carrying white tapers, and clothed in their richest apparel, accompanied
the solemn procession as it moved through the Hippodrome. When it was
opposite to the throne of the reigning emperor, he rose from his seat, and
with grateful reverence adored the memory of his predecessor. At the
festival of the dedication, an edict, engraved on a column of marble,
bestowed the title of Second or New Rome on the city of Constantine. But
the name of Constantinople has prevailed over that honorable epithet; and
after the revolution of fourteen centuries, still perpetuates the fame of
its author.
The foundation of a new capital is naturally connected with the
establishment of a new form of civil and military administration. The
distinct view of the complicated system of policy, introduced by
Diocletian, improved by Constantine, and completed by his immediate
successors, may not only amuse the fancy by the singular picture of a
great empire, but will tend to illustrate the secret and internal causes
of its rapid decay. In the pursuit of any remarkable institution, we may
be frequently led into the more early or the more recent times of the
Roman history; but the proper limits of this inquiry will be included
within a period of about one hundred and thirty years, from the accession
of Constantine to the publication of the Theodosian code; from which, as
well as from the Notitia * of the East and West,
we derive the most copious and authentic information of the state of the
empire. This variety of objects will suspend, for some time, the course of
the narrative; but the interruption will be censured only by those readers
who are insensible to the importance of laws and manners, while they
peruse, with eager curiosity, the transient intrigues of a court, or the
accidental event of a battle.
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.
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. 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. 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.
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, 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. Among those illustrious magistrates who were esteemed coordinate
with each other, the seniority of appointment gave place to the union of
dignities. 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.
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. In the
epistles which the emperor addressed to the two consuls elect, it was
declared, that they were created by his sole authority. 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. 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. 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.
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 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. 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. In the two capitals
of the empire the annual games of the theatre, the circus, and the
amphitheatre, 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. 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.
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, 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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.
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. His appointments were suitable to his dignity; 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.
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. 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 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.
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, was gradually reduced to
two or three, and their important functions were confined to the expensive
obligation 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.
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.
Those who, in the imperial hierarchy, were distinguished by the title of
Respectable, formed an intermediate class
between the illustrious præfects, and the
honorable magistrates of the provinces. In this
class the proconsuls of Asia, Achaia, and Africa, claimed a preëminence,
which was yielded to the remembrance of their ancient dignity; and the
appeal from their tribunal to that of the præfects was almost the
only mark of their dependence. But the civil government of the empire was
distributed into thirteen great Dioceses, each of which equalled the just
measure of a powerful kingdom. The first of these dioceses was subject to
the jurisdiction of the count of the east; and
we may convey some idea of the importance and variety of his functions, by
observing, that six hundred apparitors, who would be styled at present
either secretaries, or clerks, or ushers, or messengers, were employed in
his immediate office. The place of Augustal prefect
of Egypt was no longer filled by a Roman knight; but the name was
retained; and the extraordinary powers which the situation of the country,
and the temper of the inhabitants, had once made indispensable, were still
continued to the governor. The eleven remaining dioceses, of Asiana,
Pontica, and Thrace; of Macedonia, Dacia, and Pannonia, or Western
Illyricum; of Italy and Africa; of Gaul, Spain, and Britain; were governed
by twelve vicars or vice-prefects,
whose name sufficiently explains the nature and dependence of their
office. It may be added, that the lieutenant-generals of the Roman armies,
the military counts and dukes, who will be hereafter mentioned, were
allowed the rank and title of Respectable.
As the spirit of jealousy and ostentation prevailed in the councils of the
emperors, they proceeded with anxious diligence to divide the substance
and to multiply the titles of power. The vast countries which the Roman
conquerors had united under the same simple form of administration, were
imperceptibly crumbled into minute fragments; till at length the whole
empire was distributed into one hundred and sixteen provinces, each of
which supported an expensive and splendid establishment. Of these, three
were governed by proconsuls, thirty-seven by
consulars, five by correctors,
and seventy-one by presidents. The appellations
of these magistrates were different; they ranked in successive order, and the
ensigns of and their situation, from accidental circumstances, might be
more or less agreeable or advantageous. But they were all (excepting only
the pro-consuls) alike included in the class of honorable
persons; and they were alike intrusted, during the pleasure of the prince,
and under the authority of the præfects or their deputies, with the
administration of justice and the finances in their respective districts.
The ponderous volumes of the Codes and Pandects would furnish ample
materials for a minute inquiry into the system of provincial government,
as in the space of six centuries it was approved by the wisdom of the
Roman statesmen and lawyers. It may be sufficient for the historian to
select two singular and salutary provisions, intended to restrain the
abuse of authority. 1. For the preservation of peace and order, the
governors of the provinces were armed with the sword of justice. They
inflicted corporal punishments, and they exercised, in capital offences,
the power of life and death. But they were not authorized to indulge the
condemned criminal with the choice of his own execution, or to pronounce a
sentence of the mildest and most honorable kind of exile. These
prerogatives were reserved to the præfects, who alone could impose
the heavy fine of fifty pounds of gold: their vicegerents were confined to
the trifling weight of a few ounces. This distinction, which seems to
grant the larger, while it denies the smaller degree of authority, was
founded on a very rational motive. The smaller degree was infinitely more
liable to abuse. The passions of a provincial magistrate might frequently
provoke him into acts of oppression, which affected only the freedom or
the fortunes of the subject; though, from a principle of prudence, perhaps
of humanity, he might still be terrified by the guilt of innocent blood.
It may likewise be considered, that exile, considerable fines, or the
choice of an easy death, relate more particularly to the rich and the
noble; and the persons the most exposed to the avarice or resentment of a
provincial magistrate, were thus removed from his obscure persecution to
the more august and impartial tribunal of the Prætorian præfect.
2. As it was reasonably apprehended that the integrity of the judge might
be biased, if his interest was concerned, or his affections were engaged,
the strictest regulations were established, to exclude any person, without
the special dispensation of the emperor, from the government of the
province where he was born; and to prohibit the governor or his son from
contracting marriage with a native, or an inhabitant; or from purchasing
slaves, lands, or houses, within the extent of his jurisdiction.
Notwithstanding these rigorous precautions, the emperor Constantine, after
a reign of twenty-five years, still deplores the venal and oppressive
administration of justice, and expresses the warmest indignation that the
audience of the judge, his despatch of business, his seasonable delays,
and his final sentence, were publicly sold, either by himself or by the
officers of his court. The continuance, and perhaps the impunity, of these
crimes, is attested by the repetition of impotent laws and ineffectual
menaces.
All the civil magistrates were drawn from the profession of the law. The
celebrated Institutes of Justinian are addressed to the youth of his
dominions, who had devoted themselves to the study of Roman jurisprudence;
and the sovereign condescends to animate their diligence, by the assurance
that their skill and ability would in time be rewarded by an adequate
share in the government of the republic. The rudiments of this lucrative
science were taught in all the considerable cities of the east and west;
but the most famous school was that of Berytus, on the coast of Phoenicia;
which flourished above three centuries from the time of Alexander Severus,
the author perhaps of an institution so advantageous to his native
country. After a regular course of education, which lasted five years, the
students dispersed themselves through the provinces, in search of fortune
and honors; nor could they want an inexhaustible supply of business in a great
empire, already corrupted by the multiplicity of laws, of arts, and of
vices. The court of the Prætorian præfect of the east could
alone furnish employment for one hundred and fifty advocates, sixty-four
of whom were distinguished by peculiar privileges, and two were annually
chosen, with a salary of sixty pounds of gold, to defend the causes of the
treasury. The first experiment was made of their judicial talents, by
appointing them to act occasionally as assessors to the magistrates; from
thence they were often raised to preside in the tribunals before which
they had pleaded. They obtained the government of a province; and, by the
aid of merit, of reputation, or of favor, they ascended, by successive
steps, to the illustrious dignities of the
state. In the practice of the bar, these men had considered reason as the
instrument of dispute; they interpreted the laws according to the dictates
of private interest and the same pernicious habits might still adhere to
their characters in the public administration of the state. The honor of a
liberal profession has indeed been vindicated by ancient and modern
advocates, who have filled the most important stations, with pure
integrity and consummate wisdom: but in the decline of Roman
jurisprudence, the ordinary promotion of lawyers was pregnant with
mischief and disgrace. The noble art, which had once been preserved as the
sacred inheritance of the patricians, was fallen into the hands of
freedmen and plebeians, who, with cunning rather than with skill,
exercised a sordid and pernicious trade. Some of them procured admittance
into families for the purpose of fomenting differences, of encouraging
suits, and of preparing a harvest of gain for themselves or their
brethren. Others, recluse in their chambers, maintained the dignity of
legal professors, by furnishing a rich client with subtleties to confound
the plainest truths, and with arguments to color the most unjustifiable
pretensions. The splendid and popular class was composed of the advocates,
who filled the Forum with the sound of their turgid and loquacious
rhetoric. Careless of fame and of justice, they are described, for the
most part, as ignorant and rapacious guides, who conducted their clients
through a maze of expense, of delay, and of disappointment; from whence,
after a tedious series of years, they were at length dismissed, when their
patience and fortune were almost exhausted.
III. In the system of policy introduced by Augustus, the governors, those
at least of the Imperial provinces, were invested with the full powers of
the sovereign himself. Ministers of peace and war, the distribution of
rewards and punishments depended on them alone, and they successively
appeared on their tribunal in the robes of civil magistracy, and in
complete armor at the head of the Roman legions. The influence of the
revenue, the authority of law, and the command of a military force,
concurred to render their power supreme and absolute; and whenever they
were tempted to violate their allegiance, the loyal province which they
involved in their rebellion was scarcely sensible of any change in its
political state. From the time of Commodus to the reign of Constantine,
near one hundred governors might be enumerated, who, with various success,
erected the standard of revolt; and though the innocent were too often
sacrificed, the guilty might be sometimes prevented, by the suspicious
cruelty of their master. To secure his throne and the public tranquillity
from these formidable servants, Constantine resolved to divide the
military from the civil administration, and to establish, as a permanent
and professional distinction, a practice which had been adopted only as an
occasional expedient. The supreme jurisdiction exercised by the Prætorian
præfects over the armies of the empire, was transferred to the two
masters-general whom he instituted, the one for
the cavalry, the other for the infantry;
and though each of these illustrious officers
was more peculiarly responsible for the discipline of those troops which
were under his immediate inspection, they both indifferently commanded in
the field the several bodies, whether of horse or foot, which were united
in the same army. Their number was soon doubled by the division of the
east and west; and as separate generals of the same rank and title were
appointed on the four important frontiers of the Rhine, of the Upper and
the Lower Danube, and of the Euphrates, the defence of the Roman empire
was at length committed to eight masters-general of the cavalry and
infantry. Under their orders, thirty-five military commanders were
stationed in the provinces: three in Britain, six in Gaul, one in Spain,
one in Italy, five on the Upper, and four on the Lower Danube; in Asia,
eight, three in Egypt, and four in Africa. The titles of counts,
and dukes, by which they were properly
distinguished, have obtained in modern languages so very different a
sense, that the use of them may occasion some surprise. But it should be
recollected, that the second of those appellations is only a corruption of
the Latin word, which was indiscriminately applied to any military chief.
All these provincial generals were therefore dukes;
but no more than ten among them were dignified with the rank of counts
or companions, a title of honor, or rather of favor, which had been
recently invented in the court of Constantine. A gold belt was the ensign
which distinguished the office of the counts and dukes; and besides their
pay, they received a liberal allowance sufficient to maintain one hundred
and ninety servants, and one hundred and fifty-eight horses. They were
strictly prohibited from interfering in any matter which related to the
administration of justice or the revenue; but the command which they
exercised over the troops of their department, was independent of the
authority of the magistrates. About the same time that Constantine gave a
legal sanction to the ecclesiastical order, he instituted in the Roman
empire the nice balance of the civil and the military powers. The
emulation, and sometimes the discord, which reigned between two
professions of opposite interests and incompatible manners, was productive
of beneficial and of pernicious consequences. It was seldom to be expected
that the general and the civil governor of a province should either
conspire for the disturbance, or should unite for the service, of their
country. While the one delayed to offer the assistance which the other
disdained to solicit, the troops very frequently remained without orders
or without supplies; the public safety was betrayed, and the defenceless
subjects were left exposed to the fury of the Barbarians. The divided
administration which had been formed by Constantine, relaxed the vigor of
the state, while it secured the tranquillity of the monarch.
The memory of Constantine has been deservedly censured for another
innovation, which corrupted military discipline and prepared the ruin of
the empire. The nineteen years which preceded his final victory over
Licinius, had been a period of license and intestine war. The rivals who
contended for the possession of the Roman world, had withdrawn the
greatest part of their forces from the guard of the general frontier; and
the principal cities which formed the boundary of their respective
dominions were filled with soldiers, who considered their countrymen as
their most implacable enemies. After the use of these internal garrisons
had ceased with the civil war, the conqueror wanted either wisdom or
firmness to revive the severe discipline of Diocletian, and to suppress a
fatal indulgence, which habit had endeared and almost confirmed to the
military order. From the reign of Constantine, a popular and even legal
distinction was admitted between the Palatines
and the Borderers; the troops of the court, as
they were improperly styled, and the troops of the frontier. The former,
elevated by the superiority of their pay and privileges, were permitted,
except in the extraordinary emergencies of war, to occupy their tranquil
stations in the heart of the provinces. The most flourishing cities were
oppressed by the intolerable weight of quarters. The soldiers insensibly
forgot the virtues of their profession, and contracted only the vices of
civil life. They were either degraded by the industry of mechanic trades,
or enervated by the luxury of baths and theatres. They soon became
careless of their martial exercises, curious in their diet and apparel;
and while they inspired terror to the subjects of the empire, they
trembled at the hostile approach of the Barbarians. The chain of
fortifications which Diocletian and his colleagues had extended along the
banks of the great rivers, was no longer maintained with the same care, or
defended with the same vigilance. The numbers which still remained under
the name of the troops of the frontier, might be sufficient for the
ordinary defence; but their spirit was degraded by the humiliating
reflection, that they who were exposed to the
hardships and dangers of a perpetual warfare, were rewarded only with
about two thirds of the pay and emoluments which were lavished on the
troops of the court. Even the bands or legions that were raised the
nearest to the level of those unworthy favorites, were in some measure
disgraced by the title of honor which they were allowed to assume. It was
in vain that Constantine repeated the most dreadful menaces of fire and
sword against the Borderers who should dare desert their colors, to
connive at the inroads of the Barbarians, or to participate in the spoil.
The mischiefs which flow from injudicious counsels are seldom removed by
the application of partial severities; and though succeeding princes
labored to restore the strength and numbers of the frontier garrisons, the
empire, till the last moment of its dissolution, continued to languish
under the mortal wound which had been so rashly or so weakly inflicted by
the hand of Constantine.