Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/275

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 257 ractcr and policy of Constantine ; but had lie seriously cilAP. 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 o])inion. He revived, indeed, the title of ])a- tricians;' but he revived it as a personal, not as an hereditary distinction. They yielded only to the tran- sient superiority of the annual consuls ; but they en- joyed the preeminence over all the great officers of state, with the most familiar access to the person of the prince. This honourable rank was bestowed on them for life ; and as they were usually favourites, 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 pretorian prefects were es- Jhepieio- sentially different from those of the consuls and patri- fpcts'"^' cians. 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 superintend- ing care ; and, like the vizirs of the east, they held with one hand the seal, and with the other the standard, of the empire. The ambition of the prefects, always for- midable and sometimes fatal to the masters whom they served, was supported by the strength of the pretorian bands ; but after those haughty troops had been weak- ened by Diocletian, and finally suppressed by Constan- tine, the prefects, who survived their fall, were reduced without difficulty to the station of useful and obedient ministers. When they were no longer respons^ible for the safety of the emperor's person, they resigned the jurisdiction which they had hitherto claimed and exer- f Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 118; and Godefroy ad Cod. Theodos. 1. vi. tit. vi. VOL. II. S