What kind of office the consulship is may be understood entirely from this, that among the surpassing dignities of the world it alone deserved to possess the palm-embroidered robes, which felicity bestowed: the rewards of conquerors, the very name of the years; the one recompense to which all things were owed. The right hand of a brave man guarded the standing of the Roman commonwealth; the fortunes of all and the children of the citizens his counsels vindicated; and for so many great debts this dignity alone was the repayment, devised as the adornment of liberty, invented for the common joy. Through it, assuredly, the standing of the empire continually grew; ever-happy Rome received it. Deservedly was it of old reckoned a kind of imperial rank; deservedly did he prevail above all citizens who delivered his fatherland from the enemy.
Disposing the public interests under equity, he pronounced law even over a man's life; yet to him was the power of death safely committed who had been the author of safety. Hence it is that the fasces and axes were ordered to be bound together for so great a power, so that, when they were loosed more slowly, they might gain a delay for deliberation, if they had decreed anything concerning the slaying or death of a man: thus, while all things were handed over to his judgment, lest he should grow insolent in spirit, he was called consul from consulting. Hence flowed forth such bounty, that that right hand which had abundantly shed the blood of enemies poured out the aid of life as a watering stream upon the citizens. Thus those whom he had made fortunate through wars he satisfied with his zeal for largesse.
As a proof, too, of the public glory, he loosed slaves from the yoke of servitude, he who had given liberty to so great a state. But now you receive these things more happily, since we bear the labours of consuls and you the joys of dignities. For your palm-robes are proved to be our victories, and by the outcome of a most prosperous condition you, in peace, grant freeborn status to slaves, while we provide security to the Romans through wars. And therefore, for the indiction so-and-so, we adorn you with the insignia of the consulship.
Paint your broad shoulders with the many-coloured palm-robe, ennoble your strong hand with the victorial sceptre, go forth from your own household gilded even on your shoes, by many steps ascend, with effort befitting its greatness, the curule chair, so that in leisure, as a subject, you may earn what we, ruling, assume after the greatest labours. You wage the business of victories who know nothing of wars: we, with God's help, govern, we deliberate, and your name designates the year. You have conquered the princes in felicity, you who both bear the highest honours and have none of the wearisomeness of dominion. Wherefore raise up the confidence of your mind: it befits consuls to be magnanimous. Think not of private wealth, you who have resolved to win public favour by giving.
For this is the reason why we advance other judges even when they do not ask for it, but consuls we promote only when they hope for it, so that you alone may come to these largesses who know yourselves equal to such great expenses. Otherwise they would be burdens rather than honours, if we imposed anything beyond their strength upon the unwilling. Enjoy, then, becomingly the things you have desired. This is the ambition that is approved. Be illustrious to the world, most prosperous to yourself, and to your posterity worthy of happy imitation. If we examine the order of antiquity in the origin of dignities, the family of the patricians is known to have been dedicated to Jove, so that, as they supposed, the worship of the supreme god might hold the foremost place.
But because it was fitting that you should possess something surpassing, and the very name joined itself by a great kinship to the fathers (patres), this dignity, leaving superstition behind, migrated to your assembly upon the best of terms, since the pontifical praise of conscience could rightly suit the senate. Thus from the augural family you read also that kings were established, and not without reason, for it was fitting that he who could administer public law should come from such a calling. Hence it is that this honour too is girt, even when it is at leisure, having no jurisdiction yet not laying aside the girdle of one who judges. In which a perpetual felicity is born, while the ambition of a successor is not feared: for as soon as it has been given, it becomes coeval with the man for the remaining time of his life:
an inseparable adornment, a faithful girdle, which knows not to desert him before the man chances to depart out of the world. I believe the matter was fashioned after the likeness of the pontificate, whence it came: those who do not lay aside the priesthood except when they relinquish the duties of life. It is added that the laws have conferred such reverence upon them, that one set among sacred things, when he has been girded with this honour, is freed from the bonds of paternal authority, unless it be specially provided against by the prince. And this is established by a probable reason, so that he who had received the most ample spirit of precious liberty might not share the meanest condition with subjects.
He takes precedence over the praetorian men and over men of other dignities, yielding only to one splendour, which it is established is at times assumed even by us. Accordingly, understand this dignity to be one necessarily praised, lest either we should seem to have given too little or you should treat it too negligently, if you should think you had received something mediocre. Wherefore, from that indiction, raised up by our gift, ascend the summit of the patriciate—which certain of the jurists have maintained was named from the fathers—about to do all things that befit so great a reverence. For although our clemency has conferred great things, you still have what you may seek after, if you strive to conduct yourself approvably.
If the origin of any honour is praiseworthy, if a good beginning can give renown to the things that follow, the praetorian prefecture glories in such an author, one who is proved both most prudent toward the world and most acceptable to the divinity. For when Pharaoh, king of Egypt, was pressed by unheard-of dreams concerning the peril of a coming famine, and no human counsel could reveal so great a vision, blessed Joseph was found, who both truly foretold the future and most providently came to the aid of an imperilled people. He first consecrated the insignia of this dignity: he, reverend, mounted the chariot: raised to this summit of glory, that through wisdom he might confer upon the peoples what the power of the ruler had been unable to furnish.
For from that patriarch he is even now called the father of the empire: even today the herald's voice resounds the same title, instructing the judge not to suffer himself to be unlike him: deservedly, so that he to whom so great a power could be given might seem ever to be subtly admonished. For certain rights are common to this dignity even with us. For it produces distant persons without prescription, it fines wrongdoers in great amount, it distributes the treasury according to its own deliberation, it bestows the use of the post-service with like power, it proscribes vacant goods, it punishes the offences of provincial judges, by a word it pronounces sentence. What is there that he does not have committed to him, whose very utterance is a judgment?
It almost amounts to this, that he can establish laws, since his reverence can terminate cases without appeal. Entering the palace, by our custom, he is frequently adored, and such homage seems to discharge a usage that could have accused others. To his power, then, no dignity is equal. In place of the sacred majesty he judges everywhere. No soldier prescribes against him by the authority of his own court, save the official of the master of the soldiers: I believe, so that antiquity might yield something even to those who seemed to wage wars for the commonwealth. He even scourges the curials, who are called by the laws the lesser senate. In his own office he retains a singular right, and is known to command such and so great persons, whom even provincial judges would not dare to despise in any respect.
An office assuredly favoured by genius, effective, well-furnished, and most powerful in all firmness of mind, men who so carry out commands that they delay the things ordered by no postponements. He confers upon those who have completed their military service the honour of tribunes and notaries, and makes his soldiers equal to those who, mingled among the nobles, attend upon our presence. Gladly do we fulfil what he has appointed, by whose reverence we too are so constrained that without hesitation we do the things which we know he has decreed. And not undeservedly, since he sustains the palace by his provision, procures provisions for those who serve us, supplies maintenance even to the judges themselves, and satisfies the greedy envoys of the nations by his arrangements:
and although other dignities have their predefined titles, by this one is carried out almost everything, whatever in our empire is handled with equable moderation. This bulk of all cares, then, the fairest of all—as is prosperous for us and useful for the commonwealth—from that indiction we becomingly lay upon your shoulders, which you should both sustain by the virtue of your talent and strive to administer with the highest fidelity. By however much it is constrained with diverse anxieties, by so much the more does this dignity triumph in the amplest praises. And therefore let so great a light of glory shine in your actions, that it may both blaze in our palace and gleam back in the remoteness of the provinces. Let prudence be matched with power in you: let a fourfold virtue sit beside your conscience.
Know that your tribunal has been made so lofty for this reason, that, seated there, you should think nothing low and abject. Consider what you ought to say, which is received by so many. Let the public records contain such things as no one need blush to have read. The wonderful presiding officer has no part with offences, who, unless he constantly does something excellent, incurs blame even by being idle. For if that most holy author aforesaid be called to mind, it is a kind of priesthood to administer competently the dignity of the praetorian prefecture. Since the praise of a judge is always assessed from the dignity committed to him, and he must be held more excellent than those over whom he is known to preside, no one seems to be more highly exalted than he to whom Rome could be committed.
It is a great thing, indeed, to be a noble, but a far greater thing to judge concerning nobles. That senate, glorious in wonderful repute, is proved to have a presiding officer whom the world looks up to as one establishing laws: and thence it comes about that they exercise perfect power in the senate who tremble before you to plead their own causes. But this moderation too is known to be worthy of proclamation, that they should choose to be bound by the laws which they know could have been established by themselves. This matter is in part absolutely common to us: but we are distinguished by this reason alone, that we cannot be made subject to another, we who hold ourselves as our own judges. Look upon so many learned men, and consider what it is to say anything to these and not to dread the shame of error.
Concerning such men you deliberate, whom you know to be more excellent than yourself. So conduct your post, then, that all may acknowledge you as judge of an honoured assembly. You sit above all the consulars, no less; you pronounce sentence first; and in that hall of Liberty you are beheld with reverence, in which you are approved to have the chief men of the world committed to you. Who now could think of an obscure vice, who knows himself to be among so many lights of character? Do you wish not to receive hatred? Exclude from yourself the zeal for currying favour. You must needs have public love, if you promise nothing in secret. It will be assuredly a great and singular renown, if the judges do not accept, where there are those who strive to give much.
To your jurisdiction not only is Rome committed—although in her all things are contained—but the ancient laws willed that you should extend your power within the hundredth milestone, lest a mural rampart should enclose the judge of so great a city, since Rome possessed all things. You also take cognizance, by appeal, of the provinces assigned by law. Learned advocates serve as soldiers under you, since in that fatherland it is not difficult to find orators, where it has ever befallen men to hear the masters of eloquence. You are borne in a carriage through the noble populace, public prayers accompany you, most welcome acclamations advance with you in unison of voice. Do well, since at your coming it is permitted even to the peoples to be silent.
You have abundant means whence to win for yourself the favour of so great a city, if diverse wares are sold under no venality, if the supply of the baths, salubriously kindled, does not grow cool through the heats of rapacity, if the spectacle that is offered for pleasure is not the cause of litigation. For he sweetly compels the people to be grateful, whoever in the contests of the factions turns aside from the unjust. For so great is the force of glorious truth, that even in theatrical matters equity is desired. The order of admonitions, then, having been run through, by that indiction we adorn you with the garb of the toga'd dignity, so that, clothed in Romulean attire, you may strive after Roman laws. For if you are equal to this dignity, there is nothing which you may not in the least obtain from us.
For by such a testimonial you will be no less worthy of all things, if the senate praises your conduct. For the proof of a matter is perfect, where the consenting witnesses are proved to be the highest in rank. If dignities are illustrious only insofar as they enjoy the sight of us, if frequent presence betrays the affection of the ruler, no one among the judges can be so glorious as he who is received into the participation of our thoughts. For to some we commit the procuration of public money, to others we grant cases to be heard, to others we delegate the rights of our patrimony: but the quaestorship we receive with our whole heart, which we reckon to be the voice of our own tongue.
This office is necessarily and intimately applied to our thoughts, so that it can properly say what it knows we feel: it lays aside the discretion of its own will and so takes on the will of our mind, that what it speaks is thought rather to have proceeded from us. O how arduous a thing it is for a subject to assume the words of a ruler, to be able to speak what may be believed to be ours, and, advanced to public dignity, to make glorious falsehood! Consider what weight you have, and at the same time what comeliness.
If we are in any doubt, we inquire of the quaestor, who is the treasury of public repute, the cabinet of the laws, ever ready for the sudden need; and, as Tully, the master of eloquence, says, nothing seems more excellent than to be able by speaking to hold the minds of men, to allure their wills, to impel them whither one wills, and to lead them back from whence one wills. For if it is proper to the orator to speak gravely and ornately, so as to be able to move the minds of the judges, how much more eloquent ought he to be who is known to admonish the peoples by the mouth of the prince, that they should love the right, despise the perverse, praise the good without end, and vehemently accuse the worst? So that the rigour of justice is almost on holiday, where the strength of eloquence prevails.
Let him be a most prudent imitator of the ancients, let him correct both the morals of others and guard his own with due integrity. Such, in fine, ought the quaestor to be, as it befits one who bears the image of the prince to be. For if it befalls us, as is customary, to hear a case by formal record, what authority will there be in the tongue, which beneath our eyes can fulfil the royal genius? There must be present knowledge of the law, caution of speech, so that no one may have cause to reprehend what it is established the prince has decreed. There will be need, moreover, of firmness of mind, so that he be drawn away from the path of justice by no bribes, by no terrors. For in order to preserve equity, we suffer even ourselves to be contradicted, we whom it also behoves to be obeyed.
But see that you bring forth so much learning, that, fully consulted, you may expound all things approvably. For other dignities may seek the solace of assessors: but your dignity furnishes counsels to the prince. And therefore, provoked by the fame of your prudence and eloquence, we grant you, by that indiction, with God supplying, the quaestorship—the glory of letters, the temple of civility, the mother of all dignities, the dwelling of self-restraint, the seat of all the virtues—so that you may act in such wise as you contend yourself to be equal to the things aforesaid. For to you the provinces transmit their prayers: from you the senate seeks the help of law:
from you the learned are proved to seek what they already know, and it is necessary for you to suffice for all, as many as it befalls to demand from us the remedies of the laws. But when you have done all these things, be not lifted up by any elations, be bitten by no envy, rejoice not in the calamities of others, since what is hateful to the prince cannot befit the quaestor. Exercise the power of the prince in the condition of a subject. So, glorified by our mouth, speak forth, yet so that you believe you will render an account to us as your judges, where either the culpable receives his recompense or the man of good purpose, being praised, acquires the glory of it.
He takes up a reverend honour, whoever has received the name of master (magister), since this appellation always comes from expertise, and in the name it is recognized what is to be judged concerning his morals. To him assuredly pertains the discipline of the palace: he himself calms the stormy ways of the insolent scholae by the prosperous serenity of his moderation. So many orders are arranged without any confusion, and he himself bears the burden of all, which the throng holds distributed. Thus, having discharged the gravity of his name, he adorns the principate by his acts. Through him the senator, coming, is presented to our gaze: he admonishes the trembling, composes the speaker, and is even wont to insert his own words, that we may becomingly hear all things.
He is the not-unfulfilling promiser of the royal countenance, the glorious bestower of our converse, as it were a kind of morning star of the court consistory: for as the morning star promises the coming day, so he attributes to those who long for it the countenance of our serenity. Moreover, we deposit the greatest weight of cases in the recesses of his audience with the best security, so that, relieved by his faithful cares, we may more actively occupy ourselves with public interests. He even guards, by the strictness of his diligence, the opportune swiftness of the post-horses, whose condition is ever in motion, so that he may expedite by the benefit of speed those of our solicitudes which he aids by counsel.
Through him, for the praise of our commonwealth, courtesy is dispensed to foreign nations, and they return unwilling whom he had received mourning. Through him, indeed, the arrival of envoys—however hastening—is announced to us beforehand: through him the dispatch of our name is determined, and to him is principally entrusted what is felt to be so necessary. These labours, too, being weighed, antiquity decreed the greatest power to this office, that no judge throughout the provinces should assume the fasces, unless he himself had also decreed it to be done. It subjected to his arbitration the judgments of others, so that to him might return what another seemed to have furnished.
He has not, indeed, the troubles of exacting money, but he enjoys far and wide the good of the power he has obtained—I believe, so that the dignity might be culled from diverse titles, instituted for the relief of the prince. He also, of his own will, appoints the equalizers of victual supplies in the royal city, and makes a judge of so necessary a matter. For he himself furnishes joy to the peoples, he himself furnishes adornment to our times, when he sets such men over the public stores, that the querulous commons, being satisfied, may not know how to have sedition.
His office, indeed, is adorned with so great a prerogative of genius, that, having completed the duties of military service, he is honoured with the name of the principate; and in a wondrous manner, among the praetorian cohorts and the soldiers of the urban prefecture, they seem to have found a primacy, by whom a humble service was rendered to you. Thus, in the favour of a great honour, a certain injustice comes from the laws, while he is set over the watches of others who is declared to have done his soldiering elsewhere. The deputy (adjutor) of the master, too, is presented to our gaze, so that by a vicarious lot of the benefit we may choose his protection who furnishes us with faithful solace.
This dignity, then, illustrious by so many titles, opulent with so many insignia, we commit to you to be governed, by that indiction, with becoming gravity, so that all things you do may seem to have been done by the master: for nothing of morals is left over, if—which God forbid—anything be sinned against by so great a maturity. Wholly pleasing are the names that forthwith designate the actions, when all ambiguity is removed from the hearer, where it is comprehended in the title what is being done. For the words testify that to preside over the royal gifts—the count of the sacred largesses—are the very indications of the matter. Which was truly comely, truly in every way exquisite, to make a dignity set apart in the department of royal gifts, and to call it the honour of another, while it is established that we confer the gifts.
An innocent function, a duty of piety—ever to bring forward that whereby the fame of the prince may be increased. To do military service amid royal gifts, and to have a dignity from public largesse, is assuredly a great felicity. Other judges serve the remaining virtues of the ruler: this alone is one that ministers only to the moments of piety. For through it nothing rigorous is carried out, nothing severe is by chance decreed, but it complies then, when prayers are poured forth on our behalf. Through you we raise up the fortunes of suppliants; on the Kalends of January we bestow gifts in abundance, and the public gladness is your military service.
But this our liberality you adorn with another service, that the figure of our countenance may be imprinted upon the customary metals, and you make coinage to remind the ages to come of our times. O great inventions of the prudent! O praiseworthy institutions of the men of old! that the image of princes should seem to feed the subjects through commerce—princes whose counsels cease not to keep vigil for the safety of all. But to this, so to speak, gift-giving dignity, we add also the place of the primiceriate, the herald of our largesse, the token of public felicity, so that through you we may bestow honours, through whom we also confer the largesses of our money:
deservedly, since both are bestowed with a like grace and ought to be administered by one judge, things that are seen to be joined with equal praise. But it is too little a thing that the provincial judges are subject to your dignity: you confirm the documents of the very nobles, since a thing is not believed perfected unless it has been completed by you according to solemn form. The sacred vestment, too, is known to have been anciently committed to you, lest anything that pertains to royal splendour should obey your arrangements less well. The cares of the shores, too, with the incidental provision of profit, you administer. The merchants, who are established to be necessary for human life, are manifestly subject to this power.
For whatever in garments, whatever in bronze, whatever in silver, whatever in gems human ambition can hold precious, comply with your arrangements, and to your judgment flow together those who have come from the farthest parts of the world. The traffic in salt, too, antiquity not ineptly assigned to you, among silken garments and the most precious pearl, that it might evidently show forth your wisdom, to whom such kinds of merchandise were assigned to serve. Wherefore, by that indiction, we confer upon you the dignities of the count of the sacred largesses and of the primiceriate, so that you may be adorned with many praises, you who are girt about with a multitude of honours.
Use, then, your titles solemnly; and if usage has taken away anything from you of the ancient privilege, it has assuredly left behind very many things which you ought to vindicate, since the care of the two dignities is indeed glorious, but their custody is also laborious—dignities which bring you abundant fruit of comeliness, if they are cultivated with upright morals. The count of the private estates, as the very appellation of the name is felt to sound forth, is reported once to have governed the private substance of princes through the care of the accountants (rationales).
And because the dignity of a judge could not be exercised among men bound by the lowest conditions, this office also took up other titles by prudent deliberation, lest the Latin dignity should seem to have its cause only with slaves; rather, it busied itself the more happily with urban affairs once it had decently laid aside the cases of country folk. For what could the public laws first accomplish among slaves, who had no legal standing before the laws? There no advocate was present, the parties did not contend against one another in solemn pleading; the council-chamber was thrown into confusion by unpolished disorder, and was called a court by an abuse of the term, where the sayings of the wise were not cited by the parties.
Now this dignity occupies itself with the cases of free men, and is truly held to be a lawful magistrate, since it is felt to be able to adjudicate concerning the fortunes of the freeborn. First, against wicked lusts and the depraved appetites of the human race, the custody of this office is decreed to you as a public parent, lest anyone defile himself by a shameful union, while showing no reverence for kindred blood. For public gravity, weighing the matter, has distinguished the sanctity of nearness and the grace of conjugal union, because something far different is owed to the natural bond of kinship than what we may indulge to bodily license. Against these offenses you are chosen as the sole and self-restrained inquisitor, so that, while you pursue such disgraces, you may attain the heralds of chastity.
Equal laws have moreover entrusted the sacred repose of the dead to your conscience: that no one should strip tombs clad in marble, that no one should with irreligious rashness lay hands on the beauty of their columns, that no one should by a wicked search uncover the ashes of others, consumed whether by the length of time or by the devouring flame; that the body, which once had left behind worldly troubles, should not again suffer human treachery. For although corpses do not feel theft, he is known to be a stranger to all piety who is shown to have taken anything away from the dead. See what has been entrusted to you: the chastity of the living and the security of the dead. You have also, throughout the provinces, no small amount from the perpetual right of tributes.
You appoint canonicarii, you admonish the proprietors, and you share no small rights with the other judges. You do not allow ownerless goods to lie vacant; thus what a usurper might have seized, you cause our treasury to obtain by just gains. You lawfully give precedence over us to the next of kin of the deceased, because in this case the person of the prince comes after all others; yet from this we wish not to acquire, provided there be those who ought to possess what is left behind. Deposited monies too, which through long age have lost their rightful owners, are by your inquiry applied to our treasuries, so that we, who suffer all men to possess what is their own, may have others' property gladly offered to us. For he loses without loss what is found, who does not forfeit his own.