Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/286

 268 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, himself. Ministers of peace and war, the distribution XVII. ' of rewards and punishments depended on them alone ; and they successively appeared on their tribunal in the robes of civil magistracy, and in complete armour 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 I'ender their power supreme and absolute ; and whenever they were tempted to vio- late their allegiance, the loyal province which they in- volved in their rebellion was scarcely sensible of any change in its political state. From the time of Com- modus to the reign of Constantine, near one hundred governors might be enumerated, who, with various suc- cess, 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 tran- quillity from these formidable servants, Constantine re- solved to divide the military from the civil administra- tion ; 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 pretorian prefects over the armies of the empire, was transferred to the two ' mastei's ge- neral' whom he instituted, the one for the cavalry, the other for the infantry ; and though each of these ' illus- trious' officers was more peculiarly responsible for the discipline of those troops which were under his imme- diate 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 I See a very splendid example in the Life of Agricola, particularly c. 20, 21. The lieutenant of Britain was intrusted with the same powers which Cicero, proconsul of Cilicia, had exercised in the name of the senate and people. '' The abbe Dubos, who has examined with accuracy (see Hist, de la Monarchic Fran^:oise, tom. i. p. 41 — 100. edit. 1742.) the institutions of Augustus ami of Constantine, observes, that if Otlio had been put to death the day before he executed his conspiracy, Otho would now appear in his- tory as innocent as Corbulo. ' Zosimus, 1. ii.p. 110. Before the end of the reign of Constantius, the ' magistri niilitum ' were already increased to four. See Valesius ad Am- mian. 1. xvi. c. 7.