mselves,
be apprehensive of _delations_, which, as a subject, I have always
condemned, and, as a prince, will severely punish. Our own vigilance,
and that of our father, the patrician Ricimer, shall regulate all
military affairs, and provide for the safety of the Roman world, which
we have saved from foreign and domestic enemies. You now understand
the maxims of my government; you may confide in the faithful love and
sincere assurances of a prince who has formerly been the companion of
your life and dangers; who still glories in the name of senator, and
who is anxious that you should never repent the judgment which you have
pronounced in his favor." The emperor, who, amidst the ruins of the
Roman world, revived the ancient language of law and liberty, which
Trajan would not have disclaimed, must have derived those generous
sentiments from his own heart; since they were not suggested to his
imitation by the customs of his age, or the example of his predecessors.

The private and public actions of Majorian are very imperfectly known:
but his laws, remarkable for an original cast of thought and expression,
faithfully represent the character of a sovereign who loved his people,
who sympathized in their distress, who had studied the causes of the
decline of the empire, and who was capable of applying (as far as such
reformation was practicable) judicious and effectual remedies to the
public disorders. His regulations concerning the finances manifestly
tended to remove, or at least to mitigate, the most intolerable
grievances. I. From the first hour of his reign, he was solicitous
(I translate his own words) to relieve the _weary_ fortunes of the
provincials, oppressed by the accumulated weight of indictions and
superindictions. With this view he granted a universal amnesty, a final
and absolute discharge of all arrears of tribute, of all debts, which,
under any pretence, the fiscal officers might demand from the people.
This wise dereliction of obsolete, vexatious, and unprofitable claims,
improved and purified the sources of the public revenue; and the subject
who could now look back without despair, might labor with hope and
gratitude for himself and for his country. II. In the assessment and
collection of taxes, Majorian restored the ordinary jurisdiction of the
provincial magistrates; and suppressed the extraordinary commissions
which had been introduced, in the name of the emperor himself, or of the
Praetorian praefects