pe, (A.D. 412, February 8, at C. P.,) died 124
years, A.D. 485, (Marin. in Vita Procli, c. 36.)]

[Footnote 152: The life of Proclus, by Marinus, was published by
Fabricius (Hamburg, 1700, et ad calcem Bibliot. Latin. Lond. 1703.) See
Saidas, (tom. iii. p. 185, 186,) Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec. l. v. c. 26
p. 449--552,) and Brucker, (Hist. Crit. Philosoph. tom. ii. p. 319--326)]

[Footnote 153: The life of Isidore was composed by Damascius, (apud
Photium, sod. ccxlii. p. 1028--1076.) See the last age of the Pagan
philosophers, in Brucker, (tom. ii. p. 341--351.)]

[Footnote 154: The suppression of the schools of Athens is recorded by
John Malala, (tom. ii. p. 187, sub Decio Cos. Sol.,) and an anonymous
Chronicle in the Vatican library, (apud Aleman. p. 106.)]

[Footnote 155: Agathias (l. ii. p. 69, 70, 71) relates this curious
story Chosroes ascended the throne in the year 531, and made his first
peace with the Romans in the beginning of 533--a date most compatible
with his young fame and the old age of Isidore, (Asseman. Bibliot.
Orient. tom. iii. p. 404. Pagi, tom. ii. p. 543, 550.)]

About the same time that Pythagoras first invented the appellation of
philosopher, liberty and the consulship were founded at Rome by the
elder Brutus. The revolutions of the consular office, which may be
viewed in the successive lights of a substance, a shadow, and a name,
have been occasionally mentioned in the present History. The first
magistrates of the republic had been chosen by the people, to exercise,
in the senate and in the camp, the powers of peace and war, which were
afterwards translated to the emperors. But the tradition of ancient
dignity was long revered by the Romans and Barbarians. A Gothic
historian applauds the consulship of Theodoric as the height of
all temporal glory and greatness; [156] the king of Italy himself
congratulated those annual favorites of fortune who, without the cares,
enjoyed the splendor of the throne; and at the end of a thousand years,
two consuls were created by the sovereigns of Rome and Constantinople,
for the sole purpose of giving a date to the year, and a festival to the
people. But the expenses of this festival, in which the wealthy and
the vain aspired to surpass their predecessors, insensibly arose to the
enormous sum of fourscore thousand pounds; the wisest senators declined
a useless honor, which involved the certain ruin of their families, and
to this reluctance I should impute t