as
indulged by the senate, as Pompey had already been, in the permission
of devolving the execution of his great office on a sufficient number of
lieutenants. In rank and authority these officers seemed not inferior to
the ancient proconsuls; but their station was dependent and precarious.
They received and held their commissions at the will of a superior,
to whose auspicious influence the merit of their action was legally
attributed. [10] They were the representatives of the emperor. The
emperor alone was the general of the republic, and his jurisdiction,
civil as well as military, extended over all the conquests of Rome. It
was some satisfaction, however, to the senate, that he always delegated
his power to the members of their body. The imperial lieutenants were of
consular or praetorian dignity; the legions were commanded by senators,
and the praefecture of Egypt was the only important trust committed to a
Roman knight.

[Footnote 10: Under the commonwealth, a triumph could only be claimed by
the general, who was authorized to take the Auspices in the name of the
people. By an exact consequence, drawn from this principle of policy
and religion, the triumph was reserved to the emperor; and his most
successful lieutenants were satisfied with some marks of distinction,
which, under the name of triumphal honors, were invented in their
favor.]

Within six days after Augustus had been compelled to accept so very
liberal a grant, he resolved to gratify the pride of the senate by
an easy sacrifice. He represented to them, that they had enlarged
his powers, even beyond that degree which might be required by the
melancholy condition of the times. They had not permitted him to refuse
the laborious command of the armies and the frontiers; but he must
insist on being allowed to restore the more peaceful and secure
provinces to the mild administration of the civil magistrate. In the
division of the provinces, Augustus provided for his own power and for
the dignity of the republic. The proconsuls of the senate, particularly
those of Asia, Greece, and Africa, enjoyed a more honorable character
than the lieutenants of the emperor, who commanded in Gaul or Syria. The
former were attended by lictors, the latter by soldiers. [105] A law
was passed, that wherever the emperor was present, his extraordinary
commission should supersede the ordinary jurisdiction of the governor;
a custom was introduced, that the new conquests belonged to