e choice of the people.
As long as the emperors condescended to disguise the servitude which
they imposed, the consuls were still elected by the real or apparent
suffrage of the senate. From the reign of Diocletian, even these
vestiges of liberty were abolished, and the successful candidates who
were invested with the annual honors of the consulship, affected to
deplore the humiliating condition of their predecessors. The Scipios and
the Catos had been reduced to solicit the votes of plebeians, to pass
through the tedious and expensive forms of a popular election, and to
expose their dignity to the shame of a public refusal; while their own
happier fate had reserved them for an age and government in which the
rewards of virtue were assigned by the unerring wisdom of a gracious
sovereign. In the epistles which the emperor addressed to the two
consuls elect, it was declared, that they were created by his sole
authority. Their names and portraits, engraved on gilt tables of ivory,
were dispersed over the empire as presents to the provinces, the cities,
the magistrates, the senate, and the people. Their solemn inauguration
was performed at the place of the Imperial residence; and during a
period of one hundred and twenty years, Rome was constantly deprived of
the presence of her ancient magistrates. On the morning of the first of
January, the consuls assumed the ensigns of their dignity. Their dress
was a robe of purple, embroidered in silk and gold, and sometimes
ornamented with costly gems. On this solemn occasion they were attended
by the most eminent officers of the state and army, in the habit of
senators; and the useless fasces, armed with the once formidable axes,
were borne before them by the lictors. The procession moved from the
palace to the Forum or principal square of the city; where the consuls
ascended their tribunal, and seated themselves in the curule chairs,
which were framed after the fashion of ancient times. They immediately
exercised an act of jurisdiction, by the manumission of a slave, who was
brought before them for that purpose; and the ceremony was intended
to represent the celebrated action of the elder Brutus, the author
of liberty and of the consulship, when he admitted among his
fellow-citizens the faithful Vindex, who had revealed the conspiracy of
the Tarquins. The public festival was continued during several days in
all the principal cities in Rome, from custom; in Constantinople,
from imita