The Republic. R O 
rewarded his soldiers and allies, dethroned princes, divided 
kingdoms, founded colonies, and distributed the treasures of 
Mithridates. On his return to Rome, he obtained, by a sin¬ 
gle act of the senate and people, the universal ratification 
of all his proceedings. Such was the power over the soldiers, 
and over the enemies of Rome, which was either granted to, 
or assumed by the generals of the republic. They were, at 
the same time, the governors, or rather monarchs, of the con¬ 
quered provinces, united the civil with the military character, 
administered justice as well as finances, and exercised both the 
executive and legislative power of the state. 
Within six days after Augustus had been compelled to 
accept so very liberal a grant, he resolved to gratify the 
pride of the senate by an easy sacrifice. He represented to 
them, that they had enlarged his powers, even beyond that 
degree which might be required by the melancholy condi¬ 
tion of the times. They had not permitted him to refuse 
the laborious command of the armies and the frontiers; 
but he must insist on being allowed to restore the more 
peaceful and secure provinces, to the mitd administration 
of the civil magistrate. In the division of the provinces, 
Augustus provided for his own power, and for the dignity 
of the republic. The proconsuls of the senate, particularly 
those of Asia, Greece, and Africa, enjoyed a more honour¬ 
able character than the lieutenants of the emperor, who 
commanded in Gaul or Syria. The former were attended by 
lictors, the latter by soldiers. A law was passed, that 
wherever the emperor was present, his extraordinary com¬ 
mission should supersede the ordinary jurisdiction of the 
governor; a custom was introduced, that the new conquests 
belonged to the imperial portion; and it was soon discover¬ 
ed, that the authority of the prince, the favourite epithet 
of Augustus, was the same in every part of the empire. 
In return for this imaginary concession, Augustus obtain¬ 
ed an important privilege, which rendered him master of 
Rome and Italy. By a dangerous exception to the ancient 
maxims, he was authorised to preserve his military com¬ 
mand, supported by a numerous body of guards, even in 
time of peace, and in the heart of the capital. His com¬ 
mand, indeed, was confined to those citizens who were 
engaged in the service by the military oath ; but such was 
the propensity of the Romans to servitude, that the oath 
was voluntarily taken by the magistrates, the senators, and the 
equestrian order, till the homage of flattery was insensibly 
converted into an annual and solemn protestation of fidelity. 
Although Augustus considered a military force as the 
firmest foundation, he wisely rejected it, as a very odious 
instrument of government. It was more agreeable to his 
temper as well as to his policy, to reign under the venerable 
names of ancient magistracy, and artfully to collect, in Ms 
own person, all the scattered rays of civil jurisdiction. 
With this view, he permitted the senate to confer upon 
him, for his life, the powers of the consular and tribuni- 
tian offices, which were, in the same manner, continued 
to all his successors. The consuls had succeeded to the 
kings of Rome, and represented the dignity of the state. 
They superintended the ceremonies of religion, levied and 
commanded the legions, gave audience to foreign ambassa¬ 
dors, and presided in the assemblies both of the senate and 
people. The general control of the finances was intrusted 
to their care; and though they seldom had leisure to 
administer justice in person, they were considered as the 
supreme guardians of law, equity, and the public peace. 
Such was their ordinary jurisdiction; but whenever the 
senate empowered the first magistrate to consult the safety 
of the commonwealth, he was raised by that degree above 
the laws, and excercised, in the defence of liberty, a tem¬ 
porary despotism. The character of the tribunes was, in 
every respect, different from that of the consuls. The ap¬ 
pearance of the former was modest and humble; but their 
persons were sacred and inviolable. Their force was suited 
rather for opposition than for action. They were instituted 
to defend the oppressed, to pardon offences, to arraign the 
enemies of the people, and, when they judged it necessary, 
M E. The Republic. 259 
to stop, by a single word, the whole machine of govern¬ 
ment. As long as the republic subsisted, the dangerous in¬ 
fluence, which either the consul or the tribune might derive 
from their respective jurisdiction, was diminished by several 
important restrictions. Their authority expired with the 
ear in which they were elected; the former office was 
ivided between two, the latter among ten persons; and, as 
both in their private and public interest they were averse to 
each other, their mutual conflicts contributed, for the most 
part, to strengthen rather than to destroy the balance of 
the constitution. But when the consular and tribunitian 
powers were united, when they were vested for life in a 
single person, when the general of the army was, at the 
same time, the minister of the senate and the representative 
of the Roman people, it was impossible to resist the exer¬ 
cise, nor was it easy to define the limits, of his Imperial 
prerogative. 
To these accumulated honours, the policy of Augustus 
soon added the splendid as well as important dignities of 
supreme pontiff, and of censor. By the former he acquired 
the management of the religion, and by the latter a legal 
inspection over the manners and fortunes, of the Roman 
people. If so many distinct and independent powers did 
not exactly unite with each other, the complaisance of the 
senate was prepared to supply every deficiency by the most 
ample and extraordinary concessions. The emperors, as 
the first ministers of the republic, were exempted from the 
obligation and penalty of many inconvenient laws: they 
were authorized to convoke the senate, to make several 
motions in the same day, to recommend candidates, for the 
honours of the state, to enlarge the bounds of the city, to 
employ the revenue at their discretion, to declare peace and 
war, to ratify treaties; and by a most comprehensive clause, 
they were empowered to execute whatsoever they should 
judge advantageous to the empire, and agreeable to the 
majesty of things private or public, human or divine. 
To resume, in a few words, the system of the imperial 
government, as it was instituted by Augustus, and main¬ 
tained by those princes who understood their own interest 
and that of the people, it may be defined an absolute mo¬ 
narchy disguised by the forms of a commonwealth. The 
masters of the Roman world surrounded their throne with 
darkness, concealed their irresistible strength, and humbly 
professed themselves the unaccountable ministers of the se¬ 
nate, whose supreme decrees they dictated and obeyed. 
The history of Roman Literature, as it existed un¬ 
der the republic, may be comprised in a short compass. To 
Dunlop’s history, we refer for full particulars, and shall 
content ourselves with introducing from a very good analy¬ 
sis of that work, contained in the Edinburgh Review, the 
more important heads of the subject. The earliest specimen 
of Latin in existence, is, it appears, an old song, or carmen, 
used by the priests at sacrifices. This remarkable monument 
of antiquity which had been inscribed on a stone in the 
time of the Emperor Heliogabalus, was discovered on open¬ 
ing the foundations of the sacristy of St. Peter’s, in the 
year 1778 and is as follows : 
Enos Lases juvate, 
Neve luerve Marmar sins incurrer ein pleores. 
Satur fufere Mars; limen sali sta Berber. 
Semunes alternei advocapit conctos. 
Enos Marmor j uvato, 
Triumpe! Triumpe! 
The words are interpreted thus: “Nos, Lares, juvate, 
neve luem (anciently luerem), Mamers, sinas, incurrare in 
flores. Satur fueris, Mars: pestem (Xv/zov) maris siste. Mars. 
Semones alterni advocate cunctos. Nos, Mamuri, juvato. 
Triumphe! Triumphe!”—This hymn, the preface to which 
(Sacerdotes januis clusis, acceptis libellis, tripodaverunt 
in verba hcec: Enos, &c.) alludes to the dances that ac¬ 
companied it, was probably somewhat modernized by the 
artist who engraved it on the stone upon which it was found, 
as 
