60 



We sometimes find that the ornaments or insignia of the 

 Decurionate were decreed as a compHment to a Sevir, without 

 his being invested with the office, just as the consular and 

 sediHcian insignia were sent in compliment to those who were 

 not Eediles or consuls.' The Seviri are thought to have been 

 entitled in virtue of their own office to carry the fasces ; but 

 this rests on no other authority than a passage in Petronius 

 Arbiter, who represents Trimalchion as having the fasces fixed 

 up before the door of his triclinium, with an inscription declar- 

 ing his dignity as Sevir ; this, however, might be merely a mani- 

 festation of his vanity, and in itself it is not probable that so 

 insignificant an officer should be allowed to use the insignia of 

 the first magistrate of the republic. 



I have hitherto spoken of the Seviri and Augustales as the 

 same, but the names are not identical. We sometimes find 

 Seviri alone spoken of, sometimes Seviri Augustales, sometimes 

 Seviri et Augustales ; and hence the difficulty of defining the 

 relation of the one to the other. The most probable explanation 

 seems to be, that the Seviri were a select body exercising 

 a kind of presidency over the Augustales ; that they were 

 generally chosen from the Augustales, but not necessarily or 

 invariably, and hence that although Sevir and Augustalis were 

 generally synonymous, there must have been many Augustales 

 who were not Seviri, and some Seviri who were not Augustales. 

 And, it is probable, that though the Augustales held their office 

 for life, the Seviri may have been annually changed.^ The 

 scanty information respecting the order of Seviri which has thus 

 been gleaned from monuments is not altogether without use, as 

 affording us a glimpse of society in the provincial towns of the 

 Roman Empire. The rapid multiplication of the order may be 

 attributed to two causes, that spirit of flattery towards the im- 

 perial family, which was almost essential to safety, and of which 

 the monuments of those ages bear so many marks ; and the 

 disposition of a people among whom wealth increases, while the 

 sphere of their activity is narrowed by despotism, to seek a 

 compensation in frivolous distinctions for the honour which 



^ Gruter 354, 7. ^ gee Zumpt de Augustalibus, p. 60. 



