The Beginnings of Rome

Changes in the Constitution of the Principate.

In theory, at least, the Roman world was governed according to the "maxims of Augustus" (Suet. Ner. 1o), down to the time of Diocletian. Even in the 3rd century there is still in name at least a republic, of which the emperor is in strictness only the chief magistrate, deriving his authority from the senate and people, and with prerog atives limited and defined by law. The case is quite different when we turn from theory to practice. The division of authority between the republic and its chief magistrate became increasingly unequal. Over the provinces the princeps from the first ruled autocratically; and this autocracy reacted upon his position in Rome, so that it became every year more difficult for a ruler so absolute abroad to maintain even the fiction of republican govern ment at home. The republican institutions, with the partial exception of the senate, lose all semblance of authority outside Rome, and even as the municipal institutions of the chief city of the empire they retain but little actual power. The real govern ment even of Rome passes gradually into the hands of imperial prefects and commissioners, and the old magistracies become merely decorations which the emperor bestows at his pleasure. At the same time the rule of the princeps assumes an increasingly personal character, and the whole work of government is silently concentrated in his hands and in those of his own subordinates. Closely connected with this change is the different aspect pre sented by the history of the empire in Rome and Italy on the one hand and in the provinces on the other. Rome and Italy share in the decline of the republic. Political independence and activity die out ; their old pre-eminence and exclusive privileges gradually disappear; and at the same time the weight of the overwhelming power of the princeps, and the abuses of their power by individual principes, press most heavily upon them. On the other hand, in the provinces and on the frontiers, where the imperial system was most needed, and where from the first it had full play, it is seen at its best as developing or protecting an orderly civilization and maintaining the peace of the world.

The decay of the republican institutions had commenced be fore the revolutionary crisis of 49. It was accelerated by the virtual suspension of regular government between 49 and 28; and not even the diplomatic deference towards ancient forms which Augustus displayed availed to conceal the unreality of his work of restoration. The cornitia received back from him "their ancient rights" (Suet. Aug. 4o), and during his lifetime they continued to pass laws and to elect magistrates. But after the end of the reign of Tiberius we have only two instances of legislation by the assembly in the ordinary way', and the law making of the empire is performed either by decrees of the senate or by imperial edicts and constitutions. Their prerogative of electing magistrates was, even under Augustus, robbed of most of its importance by the control which the princeps exercised 'The plebiscita of Claudius, Tac. Ann. xi. 13, 14, and the lex agraria of Nerva; Digest, xlvii. 3 ; Dio lxviii. 2 ; Plin. Epp. vii. 31.

over their choice by means of his rights of nomination and com mendation, which effectually secured the election of his own nominees. By Tiberius this restricted prerogative was still further curtailed. The candidates for all magistracies except the consul ship were thenceforward nominated and voted for in the senate house and by the senators, and only the formal return of the result (renuntiatio) took place in the assembly (Dio lviii. 2o). The princeps himself as long as the principate lasted, continued to receive the tribunicia potestas by a vote of the assembly, and was thus held to derive his authority from the people.

This almost complete effacement of the cornitia was largely due to the fact that they had ceased to represent anything but the populace of Rome, and the comparatively greater vitality shown by the old magistracies is mainly attributable to the value they continued to possess in the eyes of the Roman upper class.

But, though they were eagerly sought (Plin. Epp. ii. 9, vi. 6), and conferred on their holders considerable social distinction, the magistrates ceased, except in name, to be the popularly chosen executive officers of the Roman State. In the administration of

the empire at large they had no share, if we except the sub ordinate duties still assigned to the quaestor in a province. In Rome, to which their sphere of work was limited, they were overshadowed by the dominant authority of the princeps, while their range of duties was increasingly circumscribed by the gradual transference of administrative authority, even within the city, to the emperor and his subordinate officials.

The senate alone among republican institutions retained some importance and influence, and it thus came to be regarded as sharing the government of the empire with the princeps himself. It nominally controlled the administration of Italy and of the "public provinces," whose governors it appointed. It is to the senate, in theory, that the supreme power reverts in the absence of a princeps. It is by decree of the senate that the new princeps immediately receives his powers and privileges, though he is still supposed to derive them ultimately from the people. After the cessation of all legislation by the comitia, the only law-making authority, other than that of the princeps by his edicts, was that of the senate by its decrees. Its judicial authority was co-ordinate with that of the emperor, and at the close of the 1st century we find the senators claiming, as the emperor's "peers," to be exempt from his jurisdiction. But in spite of the outward dignity of its position, and of the deference with which it was frequently treated, the senate became gradually almost as powerless in reality as the comitia and the magistracies. The senators con tinued indeed to be taken as a rule from the ranks of the wealthy, and a high property qualification was, established by Augustus as a condition of membership; but this merely enabled the emperors to secure their own ascendancy by subsidizing those whose property fell short of the required standard, and who thus became simply the paid creatures of their imperial patrons. Admission to the senate was possible only by favour of the emperor, both as controlling the elections to the magis tracies, which still gave entrance to the curia, and as invested with the power of directly creating senators by adlectio, a power which from the time of Vespasian onwards was freely used. As the result, the composition of the senate rapidly altered. Under Augustus and Tiberius it still contained many representatives of the old republican families, whose prestige and ancestral tradi tions were some guarantee for their independence. But this ele ment soon disappeared. The ranks of the old nobility were thinned by natural decay and by the jealous fears of the last three Claudian emperors. Vespasian flooded the senate with new men from the municipal towns of Italy and the Latinized provinces of the West. Trajan and Hadrian, both provincials themselves, carried on the same policy, and by the close of the 2nd century even the Greek provinces of the East had their representatives in the senate. Some, no doubt, of these provincials, who constituted the great majority of the senate in the 3rd cen tury, were men of wealth and mark, but many more were of low birth; on some rested the stain of a servile descent, and all owed alike their present position and their chances of further promotion to the emperor. The procedure of the senate was as completely at the mercy of the princeps as its composition. He was himself a senator and the first of senators ; he possessed the magisterial prerogatives of convening the senate, of laying business before it, and of carrying senates consulta; above all, his tribunician power enabled him to interfere at any stage, and to modify or reverse its decisions. The share of the senate in the government was in fact determined by the amount of administrative activity which each princeps saw fit to allow it to exercise, and this share became steadily smaller. The jurisdiction assigned it by Augustus and Tiberius was in the 3rd century limited to the hearing of such cases as the emperor thought fit to send for trial, and these became steadily fewer in number. Its control of the State treasury, as distinct from the imperial fiscus, was in fact little more than nominal, and became increasingly unimportant as the great bulk of the revenue passed into the hands of the emperor.