ed till the fatal
effects of tumult and faction forced the senate to invest him with a
perpetual consulship. Augustus, as well as his successors, affected,
however, to conceal so invidious a title.]

[Footnote 131: The note of M. Guizot on the tribunitian power applies
to the French translation rather than to the original. The former
has, maintenir la balance toujours egale, which implies much more than
Gibbon's general expression. The note belongs rather to the history of
the Republic than that of the Empire.--M]

To these accumulated honors, the policy of Augustus soon added the
splendid as well as important dignities of supreme pontiff, and of
censor. By the former he acquired the management of the religion, and
by the latter a legal inspection over the manners and fortunes, of the
Roman people. If so many distinct and independent powers did not exactly
unite with each other, the complaisance of the senate was prepared to
supply every deficiency by the most ample and extraordinary concessions.
The emperors, as the first ministers of the republic, were exempted
from the obligation and penalty of many inconvenient laws: they were
authorized to convoke the senate, to make several motions in the same
day, to recommend candidates for the honors of the state, to enlarge
the bounds of the city, to employ the revenue at their discretion, to
declare peace and war, to ratify treaties; and by a most comprehensive
clause, they were empowered to execute whatsoever they should judge
advantageous to the empire, and agreeable to the majesty of things
private or public, human of divine. [14]

[Footnote 14: See a fragment of a Decree of the Senate, conferring
on the emperor Vespasian all the powers granted to his predecessors,
Augustus, Tiberius, and Claudius. This curious and important monument is
published in Gruter's Inscriptions, No. ccxlii. * Note: It is also in
the editions of Tacitus by Ryck, (Annal. p. 420, 421,) and Ernesti,
(Excurs. ad lib. iv. 6;) but this fragment contains so many
inconsistencies, both in matter and form, that its authenticity may be
doubted--W.]

When all the various powers of executive government were committed to
the Imperial magistrate, the ordinary magistrates of the commonwealth
languished in obscurity, without vigor, and almost without business. The
names and forms of the ancient administration were preserved by Augustus
with the most anxious care. The usual number of consuls, praetors, and
tri