Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/682

 sacred functions about the person of the emperor.

1. The consuls who, though their office had degenerated into an empty name, were still the highest officers of the state, were inaugurated at the imperial residence with the utmost splendour. The title of patricians became, under Constantine, a personal and not an hereditary distinction, bestowed on the ministers and favourites of the court.

2. The praetorian praefects were the civil magistrates of the provinces, as the immedíate representatives of the imperial majesty: everything was under their control. The accompanying table taken from Marquardt (Handbuch der Röm. Alterthum, p. 240), gives the division of the empire under these four great officers. Rome and Constantinople were alone exempted from their jurisdiction, but were respectively under a praefect of the city, and a perfect equality was established between the two municipal and the four praetorian praefects. The "spectabiles," in which were included the 3 proconsuls of Asia, Achaia, and Africa, with the lieutenant-generals and military counts and dukes, formed an intermediate class between the illustrious praefects and honourable magistrates of the provinces.

The great framework of the Roman empire was broken up into 116 provinces, each of which supported an expensive establishment. Of these 3 were governed by "Proconsules;" 37 by "Consulares;" 5 by "Correctores;" 71 by "Praesides."

All these were entrusted with the administration of justice and the finances in their respective districts. They were drawn from the profession of the law.

The defence of the Roman empire on the