Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/284

 266 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, mous 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 honours ; 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 pretorian pre- fect 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 an- nually chosen, with a salary of sixty pounds of gold, to defend the causes of the treasury. The first experi^ ment 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 ob- tained the government of a province ; and, by the aid of merit, of reputation, or of favour, they ascended, by successive steps, to the ' illustrious' dignities of the state ^ In the practice of the bar, these men had con- language and jurisprudence of the Romans, may be computed to have lasted from the third to the middle of the sixth century. Heinec. Jur. Piom. Hist, p. 351—356. f As in a former period I have traced the civil and military promotion of Pertinax, I shall here insert the civil honours of Mallius Theodorus. 1. He was distinguished by his eloquence, while he pleaded as an advocate in the court of the pretorian prefect. 2. He governed one of the provinces of Africa, either as president or consular, and deserved, by his administration, the honour of a brass statue. 3. He was appointed vicar, or vice-prefect of Macedonia. 4. Quaestor. 5. Count of the sacred largesses. 6. Pretorian prefect of the Gauls; whilst he might yet be represented as a young man. 7. After a retreat, perhaps a disgrace of many years, which Mallius (con- founded by some critics with the poet Manilius, see Fabricius Bibliolhec. Latin, edit. Ernest, torn. i. c. 18. p. 501.) employed in the study of the Gre- cian philosophy, he was named pretorian prefect of Italy, in the year 397. b. While he still exercised that great office, he was created, in the year 399, consul for the west; and his name, on account of the infamy of his colleague, ' the eunuch Eutropius, often stands alone in the Fasti. 9. In the year 408, Mallius was appointed a second time pretorian prefect of Italy. Even in the venal panegyric of Claudian, we may discover the merit of INIallius Theodorus, who, by a rare felicity, was the intimate friend both of Symma- chus and of St. Augustin. See Tillemont, Hist, des Emp. torn. v. p. 1 110. — 1114.
 * The splendour of the school of Berytus, which preserved in the east the