enjoyed at Court, we might have expected that he would have been
clothed with the Praefecture before he attained the fifty-third year
of his age. And, in fact, he hints in the letter composed by him, in
which he informs himself of his own elevation[55], that that elevation
had been somewhat too long delayed, though the reason which he alleges
for the delay (namely, that the people might greet the new Praefect
the more heartily[56]) is upon the face of it not the true cause.

[Footnote 55: Var. ix. 24.]

[Footnote 56: 'Diutius quidem differendo pro te cunctorum vota
lassavimus, ut benevolentiam in te probaremus generalitatis, et
cunctis desiderabilior advenires.']

[Sidenote: Office of the Praetorian Praefect.]

The majesty of the Praetorian Praefect's office is fully dwelt upon
and its functions described in a letter in the following
collection[57], to which the reader is referred. Originally only the
chief officer of those Praetorian troops in Rome by whom the Emperor
was guarded, until, as was so often the case, he was in some fit of
petulance by the same pampered sentinels dethroned, the Praefectus
Praetorio had gradually become more and more of a judge, less and less
of a soldier. In the great changes wrought by Constantine the
Praetorian guards disappeared--somewhat in the same fashion after
which the Janissaries were removed by Sultan Mahmoud. The Praetorian
Praefect's dignity, however, survived, and though he lost every shred
of military command he became or continued to be the first civil
servant of the Empire. Cassiodorus is fond of comparing him to Joseph
at the Court of Pharaoh, nor is the comparison an inapt one. In the
Constantinople of our own day the Grand Vizier holds a position not
altogether unlike that which the Praefect held in the Court of
Arcadius and Theodosius. 'The office of this Praefect,' said one who
had spent his life as one of his subordinates[58],' is like the Ocean,
encircling all other offices and ministering to all their needs. The
Consulate is indeed higher in rank than the Praefecture, but less in
power. The Praefect wears a _mandye_, or woollen cloak, dyed with the
purple of Cos, and differing from the Emperor's only in the fact that
it reaches not to the feet but to the knees. Girt with his sword he
takes his seat as President of the Senate. When that body has
assembled, the chiefs of the army fall prostrate before the Praefect,
who raises them and kisses each in turn, in order