Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/56

 S8 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAR gions, and banished to the frontiers of the empire, ' where they might be serviceable without again be- coming dangerous ^ By suppressing the troops which were usually stationed in Rome, Constantine gave the fatal blow to the dignity of the senate and people, and the disarmed capital was exposed without protection to the insults or neglect of its distant master. We may observe, that in this last effort to preserve their ex- piring freedom, the Romans, from the apprehension of a tribute, had raised ^laxentius to the throne. He exacted that tribute from the senate under the name of a free gift. They implored the assistance of Constan- tine. He vanquished the tyrant, and converted the free gift into a perpetual tax. The senators, according to the declaration which was required of their pro- perty, were divided into several classes. The most opulent paid annually eight pounds of gold, the next class paid four, the last two, and those whose poverty might have claimed an exemption, were assessed how- ever at seven pieces of gold. Besides the regular members of the senate, their sons, their descendants, and even their relations, enjoyed the vain privileges, and supported the heavy burdens, of the senatorial order ; nor will it any longer excite our surprise, that Constantine should be attentive to increase the number of persons who were included under so useful a de- scription^. After the defeat of Maxentius, the victo- rious emperor passed no more than two or three months in Rome, which he visited twice during the remainder of his life, to celebrate the solemn festivals of the tenth and of the twentieth years of his reign. Constantine was almost perpetually in motion, to exercise the le- f PraetoriaB legiones ac subsidia, factionibus aptiora quam urbi Romae, sublata penitus; simul arma atque usus indumenti militaris. Aurelius Vic- tor. Zosimus (1. ii, p. 89.) mentions this fact as an historian ; and it is very pompously celebrated in the ninth panegyric. s Ex omnibus provinciis optimates viros curiae tuae pigneiaveris ; ut se- Datus dignitas .... ex totius orbis flore consisteret. Nazarius in Panegyr. Vet. X. 35. The word pigneraieiis might almost seem maliciously chosen. Concerning the senatorial tax, see Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 115, the second title of the sixth book of the Theodosian code, with Godefroy's commentary, and iMenioires de I'Academie des Inscriptions, torn, xxviii. p. 726.