. The favorite servants, who obtained such irregular
powers, were insolent in their behavior, and arbitrary in their demands:
they affected to despise the subordinate tribunals, and they were
discontented, if their fees and profits did not twice exceed the sum
which they condescended to pay into the treasury. One instance of their
extortion would appear incredible, were it not authenticated by the
legislator himself. They exacted the whole payment in gold: but they
refused the current coin of the empire, and would accept only such
ancient pieces as were stamped with the names of Faustina or the
Antonines. The subject, who was unprovided with these curious medals,
had recourse to the expedient of compounding with their rapacious
demands; or if he succeeded in the research, his imposition was doubled,
according to the weight and value of the money of former times. III.
"The municipal corporations, (says the emperor,) the lesser senates, (so
antiquity has justly styled them,) deserve to be considered as the heart
of the cities, and the sinews of the republic. And yet so low are
they now reduced, by the injustice of magistrates and the venality of
collectors, that many of their members, renouncing their dignity and
their country, have taken refuge in distant and obscure exile." He
urges, and even compels, their return to their respective cities; but
he removes the grievance which had forced them to desert the exercise of
their municipal functions. They are directed, under the authority of the
provincial magistrates, to resume their office of levying the tribute;
but, instead of being made responsible for the whole sum assessed on
their district, they are only required to produce a regular account of
the payments which they have actually received, and of the defaulters
who are still indebted to the public. IV. But Majorian was not ignorant
that these corporate bodies were too much inclined to retaliate the
injustice and oppression which they had suffered; and he therefore
revives the useful office of the _defenders of cities_. He exhorts the
people to elect, in a full and free assembly, some man of discretion and
integrity, who would dare to assert their privileges, to represent their
grievances, to protect the poor from the tyranny of the rich, and to
inform the emperor of the abuses that were committed under the sanction
of his name and authority.

The spectator who casts a mournful view over the ruins of ancient
Rome, is