294
ROMAN EMPIRE
ROMAX EMPIRE
but a senator had been made lec/atu.t Angusti pro prrrtore. Aliove all, the Senate could legislate without interference from tribunes ur Comiha. It elected all the magistrates (from the time of Tiberius), and even the emperor owed to it his constitutional appointment. So far as forms went, the State was a Republic still, and became a real one for a moment when the government lapsed to the consuls at an emperor's death. The name respublica lasted far past 476.
But the emperor was not only master, but fully recognized as such. The liberty of the Senate was hardly more than liberty to flatter hira. The pillars of his power were three. He had (1) the imperium proconsulare, which gave him full mili- tary and civil power in the great frontier pro- vinces, where most of the army lay. The rest were left to the Senate ; but as his imperium was defined to be ma/us — superior to that of ordinary proconsuls — he practically controlled them too. The power was for life, and was not forfeited in the usual way by residence in Rome. He held also (2) the trihunicia potestas, also for life, and without limitation to the first milestone out of Rome. This made his person sacrosanct, and gave hxiaViie jus auxilii, by which he cancelled decisions of magistrates, and the intercessio, by which he annulled decisions of the Senate. He had also (3) other powers conferred separately on Augustus, but afterwards embodied in a lex regia or de im- perio for his successors. A fragment of the law passed for Vespasian is preserved {CIL vi. 930), and two of its clauses run —
' Utiqtte, qutBCUTnqtu ex usu reipublicce, majestate divi- naru7n, humanarum, publicarum prii-atarum^iw. reruin esse censebit^ ei agere^ /acere jus pot<'8ULsqu£ sit, ita uti divo Augiiiio Tibcrioque lulio ViBnari Awjuxto Tiberioque Ctattdio Civaari Amiioito Gerjnanico /uU ; utique quihiis leg-Unis plebeim settis ecrij'tum J'uit ne diviui Augustus tfcc. tt'neretUtir, iis Ugibits plebisque scitis impcrator Ccesar Vespasianus snlutus fit, qu<i:(juf ex quaque lege, rogatione divum Auguattan .tc, facerc. oportuU, ea omnia itnperatori Ccesari Vespasiaiw Axiijusto J'acere iiceat.'
Thus the emperor was not arbitrary. He was subject to law like any otlier citizen, unless dis- pensed by law. True, he could alter law by getting a senatus coniultum, or by issuing his edict as a magistrate. He could also interpret it by a rescript or answer to a governor who asKed directions; his acta were binding during his reign, though the Senate might quash them afterwards ; and, as we have seen, he had large discretionary ]>owers. But by law he was supposed to govern, and by law he commonly did govern. The excesses of a Nero must not blind us to the steady action of the great machine, which was so great a blessing to the pro- vincials. Moreover, though the Senate was com- monly servile enough, it was no cipher even in the 3rd century. It represented the tradition of the past, the society of the present ; and every prudent emperor paid it scrupulous respect. If an emperor is called bad, it need not mean that he was incom- jietent {Tiberius was able enough), or that he ojipressed the provinces (Nero did not). It means that he was on bad terms with the Senate, and, therefore, with the strong organization of society which culminated in the Senate. Nero did himself more harm by fiddling and general vuljgarity than by murders and general vileness. Society was always a check on the emperor, and in the end it proved the stronger power. If Diocletian shook oil" the control of the army, he did it only by a capitulation to the plutocrats of society.
The religious condition of the Empire was not like anything in modem Europe. It had no estab- lished or even organized Church, for the regular worships were local, except that of the emperor. I'riesthoods might run in lamilies or be elective, or sometimes any one who knew the ritual might act
as priest ; but the priests were not a class Taken as lie commonly was from the higher ranks of society, the priest was first of all the great senator or local magnate, so that his priesthood was only a minor office. The priests were not a clergy, ex- cept in the irregular Mithraic and othet Eastern cults, where they were not yet taken from the higher classes. Nevertheless, there were sharp limits to Roman toleration, though persecution was not always going on. Intolerance, indeed, was a principle of heathenism, laid do\vn in the Twelve Tables, and impressed by Mrecenas on Augustus. Rome had her gods, whose favour had built up the Empire, and whose wrath might over- throw it : so no Roman citizen could be allowed to worship other gods without lawful authority, which could be given only by the Senate. Gradually all national gods obtained recognition, so that the pantlieon of the Empire became a lar"e one ; but the individual was as strictly as ever forbidden to go outside it. Thus we get the anomaly of perse- cution without a persecuting Church.
The emperor's own position was equally nnlike that of modem sovereigns. He held the office of Pontifcx Maximus in permanence after the deatl of Lepidus, B.C. 12. This gave him a dignitie- position as head of the college of pontiffs, which superintended the State religion ; and it gave hira by law or usurpation the appointment of pontill's, vestals, and flamens. But these were only local officials ; with the priests in the provinces and with the irregular Eastern cults the Pontifex Maximus had no direct concern. Couiplete as was the identification of Church and State in Rome, the office gave its bolder no exorbitant power over religion.