Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/281

 OF THE ROMAN EIVIPIIIE. 263 nonia or Western Illyricum; of Italy and Africa; of CHAP. 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 Ro- man 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 Thegovem- the councils of the emperors, they ])roceeded with °'*'° ^ ' J i provinces. anxious diligence to divide the substance and to multi- ply 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 pro- vinces, each of which supported an expensive and splen- did establishment. Of these, three were governed by ' proconsuls,' thirty-seven by ' consulars,' five by ' cor- rectors,' and seventy-one by ' presidents.' The appel- lations of these magistrates were different ; they ranked in successive order, the ensigns of their dignity were curiously varied, and their situation, from accidental circumstances, might be more or less agreeable or ad- vantageous. But they were all (excepting only the proconsuls) alike included in the class of ' honourable' persons ; and they were alike intrusted, during the pleasure of the prince, and under the authority of the prefects 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 am])le materials for a minute enquiry into the system of provincial government, as in the space of six centuries it was improved by the wisdom " In Italy there was likewise the ' vicar of Rome.' It has been much disputed, whether his jurisdiction measured one hundred miles from the city, or whether it stretched over the ten southern provinces of Italy. ^ Among the works of the celebrated Ulpian, tiiere was one in ten books concerning the office of a proconsul, whose duties in the most essential ar- ticles were the same as those of an ordinary governor of a province.