61 



might be gained in literature or politics, if mind and action 

 were free. The Sevirate also aflforded an opportunity for the 

 numerous, active but disesteemed body of freedmen, to obtain 

 for themselves an honour which might efface the stigma of their 

 birth. 



The other important point in the history of Koman York, 

 ascertained by the monument of M. Verecundus Diogenes, is that 

 York was a colony. Without it we should only have the 

 authority of Richard of Cirencester to this point. He tells us 

 that it was at first a colony, but afterwards invested with the 

 prerogatives of a municipium, in consequence of its having been 

 the residence of several emperors.' But I must declare my 

 adherence to the opinion of those critics, who hold that Richard's 

 Description of Britain is no genuine work.^ In the republican 

 times, Colonia, Municipium and Praefectura, were the great 

 divisions of the towns subject to the Romans ; the Praefectura 

 being governed by magistrates sent from Rome, the other two 

 by magistrates chosen by themselves. The Colony again differed 

 from the Mimicipium, in as much as the Colony was founded 

 by the Romans, the Municipium had been previously in exist- 

 ence. Hence the colony was usually organized upon a strict 

 model, the chief magistrates being Duumviri or Quatuorviri juri 

 dicundo, with a council of Decurions, originally elected by the 

 body of the people. But these distinctions are hardly applicable 

 to Britain. The municipal towns of Italy, whether Latin, 



1 Eboracum vero ad Urum fluvium caput Provincise, primum Colonia nomine 

 sextae a Bomanis factum, sextseque deinde legionis quse Victrix dicebatur, sedes. 

 Deinceps vero plurium inperatorum praesentia illustrius factum municipii quoque 

 anctum prserogativis. p. 27. 



* It is singular that in the controversy which has arisen respecting tlie genuine- 

 ness of this work, no one has thought of comparing tlie style of the Description of 

 Britain, with that of the unquestionable works of Richard in MS. According to 

 Dr. Stukely, there exists an historical work of his, beginning with the Saxon invasion, 

 in the Cotton MSS. Nero c. iii. an Epitome Chronicorum in Beuet College Library, 

 Cambridge, a Tractatus super symbolum majus et minus, in the same Library, and 

 a work whose title is not specified, among the Wharton MSS. in Lambeth Library. 

 Such a comparison would soon settle the question. I have little doubt what the 

 result would be ; for the latinity of the Description appears to me to be the same 

 «8 that of the preface which Bertiam has prefixed to it. 



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