public, not unlike the
aristocracy of Algiers, where the militia, possessed of the sovereignty,
creates and deposes a magistrate, who is styled a Dey. Perhaps, indeed,
it may be laid down as a general rule, that a military government is, in
some respects, more republican than monarchical. Nor can it be said that
the soldiers only partook of the government by their disobedience and
rebellions. The speeches made to them by the emperors, were they not at
length of the same nature as those formerly pronounced to the people
by the consuls and the tribunes? And although the armies had no regular
place or forms of assembly; though their debates were short, their
action sudden, and their resolves seldom the result of cool reflection,
did they not dispose, with absolute sway, of the public fortune? What
was the emperor, except the minister of a violent government, elected
for the private benefit of the soldiers?

"When the army had elected Philip, who was Praetorian praefect to the
third Gordian, the latter demanded that he might remain sole emperor;
he was unable to obtain it. He requested that the power might be equally
divided between them; the army would not listen to his speech. He
consented to be degraded to the rank of Caesar; the favor was refused
him. He desired, at least, he might be appointed Praetorian praefect;
his prayer was rejected. Finally, he pleaded for his life. The army, in
these several judgments, exercised the supreme magistracy." According to
the historian, whose doubtful narrative the President De Montesquieu
has adopted, Philip, who, during the whole transaction, had preserved
a sullen silence, was inclined to spare the innocent life of his
benefactor; till, recollecting that his innocence might excite a
dangerous compassion in the Roman world, he commanded, without regard to
his suppliant cries, that he should be seized, stripped, and led away
to instant death. After a moment's pause, the inhuman sentence was
executed.

Chapter VII: Tyranny Of Maximin, Rebellion, Civil Wars, Death Of
Maximin.--Part III.

On his return from the East to Rome, Philip, desirous of obliterating
the memory of his crimes, and of captivating the affections of
the people, solemnized the secular games with infinite pomp and
magnificence. Since their institution or revival by Augustus, they had
been celebrated by Claudius, by Domitian, and by Severus, and were now
renewed the fifth time, on the accomplishment of the full p