with one hand the seal,
and with the other the standard, of the empire. The ambition of the
praefects, always formidable, and sometimes fatal to the masters whom
they served, was supported by the strength of the Praetorian bands; but
after those haughty troops had been weakened by Diocletian, and finally
suppressed by Constantine, the praefects, who survived their fall,
were reduced without difficulty to the station of useful and obedient
ministers. When they were no longer responsible for the safety of the
emperor's person, they resigned the jurisdiction which they had hitherto
claimed and exercised over all the departments of the palace. They were
deprived by Constantine of all military command, as soon as they had
ceased to lead into the field, under their immediate orders, the flower
of the Roman troops; and at length, by a singular revolution, the
captains of the guards were transformed into the civil magistrates
of the provinces. According to the plan of government instituted by
Diocletian, the four princes had each their Praetorian praefect; and after
the monarchy was once more united in the person of Constantine, he still
continued to create the same number of Four Praefects, and intrusted to
their care the same provinces which they already administered. 1. The
praefect of the East stretched his ample jurisdiction into the three
parts of the globe which were subject to the Romans, from the cataracts
of the Nile to the banks of the Phasis, and from the mountains of Thrace
to the frontiers of Persia. 2. The important provinces of Pannonia,
Dacia, Macedonia, and Greece, once acknowledged the authority of the
praefect of Illyricum. 3. The power of the praefect of Italy was not
confined to the country from whence he derived his title; it extended
over the additional territory of Rhaetia as far as the banks of the
Danube, over the dependent islands of the Mediterranean, and over that
part of the continent of Africa which lies between the confines of
Cyrene and those of Tingitania. 4. The praefect of the Gauls comprehended
under that plural denomination the kindred provinces of Britain and
Spain, and his authority was obeyed from the wall of Antoninus to the
foot of Mount Atlas.

After the Praetorian praefects had been dismissed from all military
command, the civil functions which they were ordained to exercise over
so many subject nations, were adequate to the ambition and abilities of
the most consummate ministers. T