80 



delegates of the people in a free couutry ; their debates took place 

 under the shadow of the imperial purple; but we cannot read the 

 graphic pages of Tacitus without arriving at the conviction, that not 

 the want of power, but the want of patriotism, public virtue, courage, 

 and self-respect, which the great majority of the senators displayed, 

 facilitated and necessitated the all-engrossing despotism of the time. 

 I say " necessitated," for it is necessary, that the weight of political 

 power should centre somewhere ; it cannot be annihilated or suspended 

 in a living, political organization, and if one part of the community lets 

 it slip from their hands, it will fly to where there is vigour and deter- 

 mination to keep it. 



How easy it would have been for the senate to acquire weight and 

 influence, and thus to mitigate the growing despotism of the Emperor, 

 is sufficiently clear from numerous statements of the historians." 



That in their important debates the senators enjoyed a great amount 

 of freedom of speech, and might even indulge in a sort of opposition, 

 we learn from the following incidents (Suet. Tib. 31): — A sum of 

 money had been left to the inhabitants of Trebia, for the purpose of 

 building a theatre. The Trebians were sensible enough to prefer a 

 wood road to a new theatre, and applied to the Roman senate for leave 

 to appropriate the legacy to this object. In this appHcation they 

 could be sure of the entire support of the Emperor, who was known to 

 be no great patron of the histrionic art, but the senate prevailed against 

 the wish of Tiberius, and refused the concession. 



The deference of Tiberius to the expressed wishes of the senate 

 appears from another cu'cumstance which took place in the second year 

 of his reign. (Tac. Ann. i 77.) The Romans were at that time, 

 as they are in our own days, very fond of sarcasm and invective. The 

 only poetry, in which they were original and in which they excelled, was 

 satire. Their wit was keen and active, and in gratifying it they found a 

 compensation for the loss of free political speech and action. Since 

 the forum had become silent, the theatres afforded an occasional 

 vent for the expression of popular sympathy or hatred. It was, as 

 though a bitter mockery of fate had selected the stage as the fittest 



* According to Suetonius (Tib. 30) Tiberius " preserved to the senate and the magistrates 

 their ancient dignity and power, nor was there anything so iusignificaut or so important iu 

 public or private matters, which he did not bring before the senate; respecting custom dues 

 aud monopolies, the constructiim or repairing of public works, even the conscription and 

 dismission of soldiers, and the division of the legion and auxiliaries, lastly, who should have 

 bis command prolonged, or have a special command, what answers should be given to the 

 letters of foreign princes." Suetonius adds that Tiberius never entered the sen.ite except 

 alone, aud tliat, when he was carried in in his lectica on account of some iudisposilioc, he 

 dismissed his men. Tacitus is as explicit, though less verbose than Suetonius. He sa_> s 

 (Ann. iv. (i ) Publica ucgotia ct privatwum maxima apiid Falres tractabantur. 



