Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/272

 254 THE DECLINE AND FALL CIIAF'. The procession moved from the palace' to the fovum, '_ or principal square of the city ; where the consuls as- cended 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 cere- mony 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 pubHc 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 thou- sand pounds sterling : and if so heavy an expense sur- ^ passed the faculties or the inclination of the magistrates themselves, the sum was supplied from the imperial treasury y. As soon as the consuls had discharged these customary duties, they were at liberty to retire into the shade of private Ufe, 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 re- ' Auspice mox laeto sonuit clamore tribunal ; Te fastos ineunte quater ; solemnia ludit Omina libertas : deductum Vindice morem Lex servat ; famulusque jugo laxatus herili Ducitur, et grato remeat securior ictu. Claud, in iv Cons. Honorii, 611. " Celebrant quidem solemnes istos dies, omnes ubique urbes quae sub legibus agunt ; et Roma de more, et Constantinopolis de imitatione, et Antiochia^pro luxu, et discincta Carthago, et domus fluminis Alexandria, sed Treviri Principis beneficio. Ausonius in Grat. Actione. -'^ Claudian (in Cons. Mall. Theodori, 279—331.) describes, in a lively and fanciful manner, the various games of the circus, the theatre, and the amphitheatre, exhibited by the new consul. The sanguinary combats of gladiators had already been prohibited. y Procopius in Hist. Arcana, c. 26. i
 * See Valesius ad Ammian. Maicellin. 1. xxii. c. 7.