S3 



especially those provinces which, iu the general division untler 

 Augustus between senatorial and imperial provinces, had been ranged 

 iu the latter class, and were thus more immediately placed under the 

 controlling eye of the Emperor. It was considered a boon for a province 

 to be removed from the administration of the senate, whose agents and 

 officers retained some of the republican license, and to be placed under 

 governors, directly responsible to the searching and jealous control of 

 their imperial master. (Tac. Ann. i. 76.) 



It is surprising to observe the immensity of business thus devolving 

 more or less directly on the central government of that vast empire, 

 and awaiting a final decision at the untiring hands of the Emperor. 

 No province was too remote, no town too insignificant, no interest too 

 paltry to escape the notice of Tiberius ; he was not satisfied with 

 giving general instructions to his servants, but he watched vigilantly 

 over their execution. (Dion Cass. Ivii. 10.) He had nobody to rely 

 upon but himself, and thus an astounding organization of a centralized 

 government was worked out at an age, which to us seems devoid of the 

 mechanical agencies for carrying it on in such vast spaces. This 

 circumstance certainly was a great misfortune ; it undermined by 

 degrees the inherent strength and vitality of the different parts of the 

 ancient world, and finally surrendered it an easy prey to the invading 

 barbarians ; but it was a misfortune inherent in the nature of tl e 

 empire, whicli, composed as it was of locally disjointed limbs of motlv 

 provinces and nations, could only be welded and held together by the 

 crusliing weight of a powerful and centralized government. Kome could 

 not rule in Gaul and Egj'pt, in Spain and Pontus, without rooting out 

 the germ of national life and self government, which, if allowed to 

 grow, would soon have overshadowed the plain of Latium and the great 

 city on the seven hills. 



The detail of tliis immense activity of the central government we 

 liave lost, nor would it possess general interest to modern readers, if 

 preserved ; but we find numerous instances, which show, what the 

 system was, of which it may be intei'esting to adduce the following : — 



As a result of the general lawlessness of a rude and violent age, 

 there existed in most Greek cities certain sanctunries, which under 

 the! name of asyla interposed the revered protection of the national 

 gods in favour of those, whom civil tribunals were unable to shield from 

 the vengeance of a powerful enemy. These asyla, necessary and useful 

 in ag(.'s of barljarism and anarchy, instead of disappearing under the 

 more steady rule of equitable laws, derived a deleterious vitality from 

 their connection with the national religion, and degenerated and multi- 

 Iiliod to such a degree, that at last they formed in almost every city 



