force altogether distinct and peculiar. In B.C. 46, the Senate bestowed upon Julius Cæsar the title of Imperator, not solely as a term of military distinction, but as the peculiar and befitting appellation of supreme power; and it was thus transmitted to his successors, without, however, suppressing the original import of the word. Tribunicia Potestas.- -After the battle of Pharsalia, the Senate voted that Cæsar should possess for life the powers of a Tribune of the Plebs; and on the 27th of June, B.C. 23, a similar vote was passed in favour of Augustus. In virtue of this the person of the Prince was at all times sacred and inviolable; he could summon meetings of the Senate, and could at once put a stop, by intercession, to any procedure of a magistrate or public assembly. The Tribunitia Potestas of the Emperor, however, differed materially from the power wielded by the Tribunes of the Plebs under the Republic, and was in every respect superior.

1. Neither Augustus nor any of his successors ever assumed the name of Tribunus Plebis, but the attribute Tribunitia Potestas.

2. The Tribuni Plebis remained in office for one year only. The Tribunitia Potestas of the Emperors continued for life.

3. The Tribuni Plebis could not absent themselves from the city, even for a single night, except during the Feriae Latinae, and their jurisdiction extended to a mile only from the walls. Those invested with Tribunitia Potestas might absent themselves from the city for any length of time, and their jurisdiction extended over the Roman dominions.

It must be borne in mind also that while the Emperors were invested with Tribunitia Potestas, the ordinary Tribuni Plebis continued to be chosen, although their influence was merely nominal. For the Consulship under the Empire, see p. 68.

Pontifex Maximus.-Upon the death of Lepidus, the Pontifex Maximus, B.C. 13, Augustus in the following year agreed to accept this dignity, which was ever after regularly conferred upon each new Emperor by a vote of the Senate. When Balbinus and Pupienus were named Joint-Emperors by the Senate (A.D. 237), both assumed the title. The Emperors, not content with the office of Pontifex Maximus, became members of all the four

great corporations of priests. In an inscription, Tiberius is styled PONTIF. MAX. AUGURI. XVVIRO. S. F. VIIVIRO. EPULON.; and Nero was, by a decree of the Senate, admitted a supernumerary member of all the four colleges, as appears from the coin of which we annex a cut; on the obverse a youthful head of Nero, with the legend NERO CLAUD.

CAES. DRUSUS. GERM. PRIN. IUv., and on the reverse sacerdotal instruments with the legend SACERD. COOPT. IN. OMN. CONL. SUPRA NUM. Ex. S. C.

Augustus.—When Octavianus had firmly established his power, and was now left without a rival, the Senate, being desirous of distinguishing him by some peculiar and emphatic title, decreed in B.C. 27, that he should be styled Augustus, an epithet properly applicable to some object demanding veneration

Sancta vocant AUGUSTA patres, AUGUSTA vocantur

Templa, sacerdotum rite dicata manu.

This honorary appellation was at once assumed after his decease, by Tiberius, his adopted son; by C. Caligula as the adopted grandson of Tiberius, and by Claudius, whose example was followed by all succeeding rulers. The title was sometimes bestowed by an Emperor upon a second person, who was thenceforward regarded as a colleague in the Empire. Towards the close of the reign of Sept. Severus, there were three Augusti, viz., Severus himself and his two sons.

Cæsar. Cæsar, originally a cognomen belonging to the Gens Iulia, was assumed by Octavianus after his adoption by Julius Cæsar, and transmitted by Octavianus to his three grandsons, Caius, Lucius, and Agrippa, and to his step-son and son-in-law Tiberius. By the latter it was communicated to his son Drusus, and to his adopted son Germanicus, and by Germanicus to his own sons, among whom was Caligula.

With Nero all traces of the Julian stock disappeared, and yet Galba, immediately upon his accession, assumed the name of Caesar; his example was followed by Otho; and most subsequent Emperors assumed the appellation of Cesar as well as of Augustus.

After the elevation of Vespasian it became customary for Emperors to bestow the title of Caesar on the individual whom they destined for their successor.

Princeps. Under the Republic, the senator whose name was placed first upon the roll of the Censors was styled Princeps Senatus. În B.C. 28, Octavianus became Princeps Senatus, and selected this as his proper appellation. Thenceforward the term Princeps was perpetually employed to designate the Emperor.

Princeps Iuventutis. In the early Republic, when the Equites were the flower of the nobility, they were designated as a body by the complimentary appellation of Principes Iuventutis. Augustus was most eager that his grandsons Caius and Lucius should be styled Principes Iuventutis, and we learn from medals that they actually received this distinction. Henceforward the title of Princeps Iuventutis was frequently bestowed upon the person

marked out as the heir of the imperial dignity, or on some one closely connected with the imperial family.

Pater Patriae s. Parens Patriae.-Romulus, when snatched from earth to heaven, is said to have been hailed as Parens Urbis Romae; but the first individual, belonging to an epoch strictly historical, who received this title was Cicero, to whom it was voted by the Senate after the Catilinarian conspiracy. It was bestowed upon Julius Cæsar after his victory in Spain, B.C. 45, and it appears on a medal of Augustus struck about B.C. 2. From this time forward it seems to have been offered to every Emperor immediately upon his accession. By M. Aurelius it was not adopted until the fifteenth year of his sovereignty.

Pius. Felix.—The epithet Pius was bestowed, under the Republic, upon the son of Metellus Numidicus, somewhat later upon Sextus Pompeius; but the first Emperor on whom it was regularly conferred was Antoninus. It gradually became one of the ordinary titles of the Augusti.

Felix was first connected with the name of Sulla, and among the Emperors, first adopted by Commodus. After Commodus, the first who combined the epithets Pius and Felix was Caracalla.

Dominus.—The appellation Dominus (properly the master of a slave), was rejected by both Augustus and Tiberius. Caligula first permitted himself to be addressed by this invidious designation; in the reign of Claudius the term was applied in society as an expression of courteous civility. Aurelian first suffered the legend DEO ET DOMINO NOSTRO AURELIANO to appear upon his coinage, and his example was followed by Carus.

Deus. Divus.—Even under the Republic, altars and temples were erected and sacrifices were offered by the provincials in honour of their governors. This adulation was addressed, with increased servility, to each Emperor in succession. But although the Senate had voted to Julius Cæsar, while alive, honours almost divine, neither he, nor Augustus, nor Tiberius suffered themselves to be actually worshipped within the limits of Italy, while they permitted themselves to be adored as gods in foreign countries. Caligula, however, set up his own effigy in Rome; and Domitian was addressed as Dominus et Deus, and victims were offered to both of these Princes.

Soon after the deaths of Julius Cæsar and of Augustus, the Senate formally decreed that homage should be rendered to them as to persons translated to heaven; a college of priests (Sodales Augustales) was appointed to preside over the holy rites now instituted; and the example was followed in the case of all succeeding Princes. This deification was termed Consecratio by the Romans, and azotiwo, by the Greeks; and the individual

thus hallowed was thenceforward distinguished by the epithet Divus.

This epithet and divine honours were bestowed occasionally on the consorts also of the emperors, as on Livia and Julia Domna; on their children, as on Claudia, the daughter of Nero, and Julia, the daughter of Titus; on their parents, as on Trajan, the father of Trajan, and even on other relatives.

The medals struck in honour of the imperial personages thus deified, bear appropriate devices, such as an eagle, a blazing altar, a funeral pyre, a sacred car drawn by elephants; in the case of females, a Carpentum drawn by mules, the spirit of the departed ascending to the skies on a peacock, and several others.

Titles derived from Conquered Countries.-Numerous examples occur under the Republic, such as Africanus, Asiaticus, Numidicus. Under Augustus, Drusus, the younger brother of Tiberius, gained for himself, by his exploits, the cognomen of Germanicus; from him it passed to his sons Germanicus and Claudius, of whom the latter transmitted it to Nero. It was subsequently borne by Vitellius, Domitian, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and many others. Britannicus was probably first assumed by Claudius; it was adopted by Commodus, Sept. Severus, Caracalla, and Geta. In addition to these, we find Parthicus, Dacicus, Sarmaticus, Medicus, and others.

Succession to the Throne.-Augustus, and those who followed him, tacitly assumed the right of nominating their successors, by admitting the individual selected as Collega in some of their most important duties, such as the Tribunitia Potestas and the Proconsulare Imperium, or associating him still more closely with themselves under the designation of Cæsar or Augustus. When a social convulsion took place, the nomination of a new monarch depended, in the first instance, upon the will of the Praetorians; but it seldom happened that the powerful armies on the frontiers were ready to acquiesce in the decision of the household troops, and hence the bloody and complicated struggles which ensued upon the death of Nero, of Commodus, and of many others. The Senate was the body with whom, in theory, the nomination lay; but it was a mere puppet in the hands of the army.

CHAPTER VI.

THE SENATE.

Manner of Choosing the Senate. -(Lectio Senatus). Under the regal government the Senate was chosen in the first instance, and vacancies were filled up by the King (legit sublegitque). After the expulsion of the Tarquins, the power of choosing Senators was at first committed to the Consuls, but after B.C. 443, to the Censors, whose task it was, each Lustrum, to revise the list (Album Senatorium), and to supply the vacancies.

It is to be observed that all the higher magistrates, from the Quaestor upwards, had, during the period of their office, the right of sitting and speaking in the Senate; but they were not necessarily Senators, unless they had been enrolled as such before the close of the preceding Lustrum. Hence the distinction observed between Senatores and those quibus in Senatu sententiam dicere licet.

Princeps Senatus.-The Censors, as we have seen, drew up a list of the Senate. The Senator whose name was placed by them at the head of the roll was styled Princeps Senatus, and this position was highly valued, although it conferred no substantial power or privilege. Qualifications as to Birth, Occupation, Age, Fortune, &c. Any one possessing the full Civitas was regarded as eligible without any limitation as to birth except ingenuitas for two generations. Hence, the son of a Libertinus would be shut out; but this exclusion seems to have rested upon public opinion rather than upon any specific law. The same feeling, although neglected during the troubles of Marius and Sulla, was revived in the age of Cicero, but altogether disregarded by Julius Cæsar.

No Senator, in the early ages at least, was allowed to follow any lucrative trade, or to engage in traffic except in so far as selling the produce of his lands; and hence, by an ancient Lex Claudia, no Senator nor son of a Senator, was permitted to possess a sea-going ship of more than 300 amphorae burden. But this law had fallen into desuetude in the days of Cicero.

There can be little doubt, that towards the close of the Republic there was a fixed age, before which no one was eligible. Under the Empire the Aetas Senatoria seems to have been twenty-five, since, under ordinary circumstances, no one could hold the Quaestorship until he had attained to that age.

That the Senators, as a body, formed the wealthiest class in the