he frequent chasms in the last age
of the consular Fasti. The predecessors of Justinian had assisted from
the public treasures the dignity of the less opulent candidates; the
avarice of that prince preferred the cheaper and more convenient method
of advice and regulation. [157] Seven processions or spectacles were
the number to which his edict confined the horse and chariot races,
the athletic sports, the music, and pantomimes of the theatre, and
the hunting of wild beasts; and small pieces of silver were discreetly
substituted to the gold medals, which had always excited tumult and
drunkenness, when they were scattered with a profuse hand among the
populace. Notwithstanding these precautions, and his own example,
the succession of consuls finally ceased in the thirteenth year of
Justinian, whose despotic temper might be gratified by the silent
extinction of a title which admonished the Romans of their ancient
freedom. [158] Yet the annual consulship still lived in the minds of the
people; they fondly expected its speedy restoration; they applauded the
gracious condescension of successive princes, by whom it was assumed in
the first year of their reign; and three centuries elapsed, after
the death of Justinian, before that obsolete dignity, which had been
suppressed by custom, could be abolished by law. [159] The imperfect
mode of distinguishing each year by the name of a magistrate, was
usefully supplied by the date of a permanent aera: the creation of the
world, according to the Septuagint version, was adopted by the Greeks;
[160] and the Latins, since the age of Charlemagne, have computed their
time from the birth of Christ. [161]

[Footnote 156: Cassiodor. Variarum Epist. vi. 1. Jornandes, c. 57, p.
696, dit. Grot. Quod summum bonum primumque in mundo decus dicitur.]

[Footnote 157: See the regulations of Justinian, (Novell. cv.,) dated
at Constantinople, July 5, and addressed to Strategius, treasurer of the
empire.]

[Footnote 158: Procopius, in Anecdot. c. 26. Aleman. p. 106. In
the xviiith year after the consulship of Basilius, according to the
reckoning of Marcellinus, Victor, Marius, &c., the secret history was
composed, and, in the eyes of Procopius, the consulship was finally
abolished.]

[Footnote 159: By Leo, the philosopher, (Novell. xciv. A.D. 886-911.)
See Pagi (Dissertat. Hypatica, p. 325--362) and Ducange, (Gloss, Graec
p. 1635, 1636.) Even the title was vilified: consulatus codicilli..
vilescunt,