power for nearly a thousand
years after it had been extinguished by Rome herself, was the site
selected for the new capital. Its boundary was traced by the emperor,
and its circumference measured some sixteen miles. In a general decay of
the arts no architect could be found worthy to decorate the new capital,
and the cities of Greece and Asia were despoiled of their most valuable
ornaments to supply this want of ability. In the course of eight or ten
years the city, with its beautiful forum, its circus, its imperial
palace, its theatres, baths, churches, and houses, was completed with
more haste than care. The dedication of the new Rome was performed with
all due pomp and ceremony, and a population was provided by the
expedient of summoning some of the wealthiest families in the empire to
take up their residence within its walls.

The gradual decay of Rome had eliminated that simplicity of manners
which was the just pride of the ancient republic. Under the autocratic
system of Diocletian, a hierarchy of dependents had sprung up. The rank
of each was marked with the most scrupulous exactness, and the purity of
the Latin language was debased by the invention of the deceitful titles
of your Sincerity, your Excellency, your Illustrious and Magnificent
Highness.

The officials of the empire were divided into three classes of the
Illustrious, Respectable, and Honourable. The consuls were still
annually elected, but obtained the semblance of their ancient authority,
not from the suffrages of the people, but from the whim of the emperor.
On the morning of January 1 they assumed the ensigns of their dignity,
and in the two capitals of the empire they celebrated their promotion to
office by the annual games. As soon as they had discharged these
customary duties, they retired into the shade of private life, to enjoy,
during the remainder of the year, the undisturbed contemplation of their
own greatness. Their names served only as the legal date of the year in
which they had filled the chair of Marius and of Cicero. The ancient
title of Patrician became now an empty honour bestowed by the emperor.
Four prefects held jurisdiction over as many divisions of the empire,
and two municipal prefects ruled Rome and Constantinople. The proconsuls
and vice-prefects belonged to the rank of Respectable, and the
provincial magistrates to the lower class of Honourable. In the military
system, eight master-generals exercised their jurisdiction o