Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/210

 190 THE DECLINE AND FALL which the Roman priests had formerly obtained in the counsels of the republic was gradually abolished by the establishment of monarchy and the removal of the seat of empire. But the dignity of their sacred character was still protected by the laws and manners of their country ; and they still continued, more especially the college of pontiffs, to exercise in the capital, and sometimes in the provinces, the rights of their ecclesiastical and civil jurisdiction. Their robes of purple, chariots of state, and sumptuous entertainments attracted the admiration of the people ; and they received, from the consecrated lands and the public revenue, an anaple stipend, which liberally supported the splendour of the priesthood and all the expenses of the religious worship of the state. As the service of the altar was not incompatible with the command of armies, the Romans, after their consulships and triumphs, aspired to the place of pontiff or of augur ; the seats of Cicero ^ and Pompey were filled, in the fourth century, by the most illustrious members of the senate ; and the dignity of their birth reflected ad- ditional splendour on their sacerdotal character. The fifteen priests who composed the college of pontiffs enjoyed a more distinguished rank as the companions of their sovereign ; and the Christian emperors condescended to accept the robe and en- signs which were appropriated to the office of supreme pontiff. But, when Gratian ascended the throne, more scrupulous, or more enlightened, he sternly rejected those profane symbols ; ^ [C.A.D.3757] applied to the service of the state, or of the church, the revenues of the priests and vestals ; abolished their honours and immunities ; and dissolved the ancient fabric of Roman superstition, which was supported by the opinions and habits of eleven hundred years.^'* Paganism was still the constitutional religion of the senate. The hall, or temple, in which they assembled, was adorned by the statue and altar of ' ictory ; ^^ a majestic female standing on a globe, with flowing garments, expanded wings, and a crown of laurel in her outstretched 8 Cicero frankly (ad Atticum, 1. ii. epist. 5) or indirectly (ad Familiar. 1. xv. epist. 4) confesses, that the Augurate is the supreme object of his wishes. Pliny is proud to tread in the footsteps of Cicero (1. iv. epist. 8), and the chain of tradition might be continued from history and marbles. 8 Zosimus, 1. iv. p. 249, 250 [c. 36]. I have suppressed the foolish pun about Pontifex and Maximus. [Cp. Hodgkin, i. 400. For probable date (375 A.D.) see Mommsen, Staatsrecht, ii-. p. 1108. In an inscr. of 370 A.D. Gratian is Pont. Max.; C. I. L. vi. 1175.] 10 [Compare C. I. L. 6, 749 : antra facit sumptusque tuos nee Roma requirit.] u This statue was transported from Tarentum to Rome, placed in the Curia Julia by Caesar, and decorated by Augustus with the spoils of Egypt.