als
and magistrates appointed by Aurelian continued to execute their
ordinary functions; and it is observed, that a proconsul of Asia was the
only considerable person removed from his office in the whole course of
the interregnum.

[Footnote 2: Vopiscus, our principal authority, wrote at Rome, sixteen
years only after the death of Aurelian; and, besides the recent
notoriety of the facts, constantly draws his materials from the Journals
of the Senate, and the original papers of the Ulpian library. Zosimus
and Zonaras appear as ignorant of this transaction as they were in
general of the Roman constitution.]

[Footnote 201: The interregnum could not be more than seven months;
Aurelian was assassinated in the middle of March, the year of Rome 1028.
Tacitus was elected the 25th September in the same year.--G.]

An event somewhat similar, but much less authentic, is supposed to have
happened after the death of Romulus, who, in his life and character,
bore some affinity with Aurelian. The throne was vacant during twelve
months, till the election of a Sabine philosopher, and the public peace
was guarded in the same manner, by the union of the several orders of
the state. But, in the time of Numa and Romulus, the arms of the people
were controlled by the authority of the Patricians; and the balance of
freedom was easily preserved in a small and virtuous community. [3] The
decline of the Roman state, far different from its infancy, was attended
with every circumstance that could banish from an interregnum the
prospect of obedience and harmony: an immense and tumultuous capital,
a wide extent of empire, the servile equality of despotism, an army
of four hundred thousand mercenaries, and the experience of frequent
revolutions. Yet, notwithstanding all these temptations, the discipline
and memory of Aurelian still restrained the seditious temper of the
troops, as well as the fatal ambition of their leaders. The flower of
the legions maintained their stations on the banks of the Bosphorus, and
the Imperial standard awed the less powerful camps of Rome and of the
provinces. A generous though transient enthusiasm seemed to animate the
military order; and we may hope that a few real patriots cultivated the
returning friendship of the army and the senate, as the only expedient
capable of restoring the republic to its ancient beauty and vigor.

[Footnote 3: Liv. i. 17 Dionys. Halicarn. l. ii. p. 115. Plutarch
in Numa, p. 60. The first