heir abilities (unless they were employed in more effective
offices) were of little moment; and their names served only as the legal
date of the year in which they had filled the chair of Marius and of
Cicero. Yet it was still felt and acknowledged, in the last period
of Roman servitude, that this empty name might be compared, and even
preferred, to the possession of substantial power. The title of consul
was still the most splendid object of ambition, the noblest reward of
virtue and loyalty. The emperors themselves, who disdained the faint
shadow of the republic, were conscious that they acquired an additional
splendor and majesty as often as they assumed the annual honors of the
consular dignity. [92]

[Footnote 85: See Claudian in Cons. Prob. et Olybrii, 178, &c.; and
in iv. Cons. Honorii, 585, &c.; though in the latter it is not easy to
separate the ornaments of the emperor from those of the consul. Ausonius
received from the liberality of Gratian a vestis palmata, or robe of
state, in which the figure of the emperor Constantius was embroidered.

Cernis et armorum proceres legumque potentes:
Patricios sumunt habitus; et more Gabino
Discolor incedit legio, positisque parumper
Bellorum signis, sequitur vexilla Quirini. Lictori cedunt aquilae, ridetque
togatus Miles, et in mediis effulget curia castris.
--Claud. in iv. Cons. Honorii, 5.
--strictaque procul radiare secures.
--In Cons. Prob. 229]

[Footnote 87: See Valesius ad Ammian. Marcellin. l. xxii. c. 7.]

[Footnote 88:

Auspice mox laeto sonuit clamore tribunal;
Te fastos ineunte quater; solemnia ludit
Omina libertas; deductum Vindice morem
Lex servat, famulusque jugo laxatus herili
Ducitur, et grato remeat securior ictu.
--Claud. in iv Cons. Honorii, 611]

[Footnote 89: Celebrant quidem solemnes istos dies omnes ubique
urbes quae sub legibus agunt; et Roma de more, et Constantinopolis
de imitatione, et Antiochia pro luxu, et discincta Carthago, et domus
fluminis Alexandria, sed Treviri Principis beneficio. Ausonius in Grat.
Actione.]

[Footnote 90: Claudian (in Cons. Mall. Theodori, 279-331) describes,
in a lively and fanciful manner, the various games of the circus,
the theatre, and the amphitheatre, exhibited by the new consul. The
sanguinary combats of gladiators had already been prohibited.]

[Footnote 91: Procopius in Hist. Arcana, c. 26.]

[Footnote 92: In Consulatu honos s