stantine; but had he
seriously entertained such a design, it might have exceeded the measure
of his power to ratify, by an arbitrary edict, an institution which
must expect the sanction of time and of opinion. He revived, indeed,
the title of Patricians, but he revived it as a personal, not as an
hereditary distinction. They yielded only to the transient superiority
of the annual consuls; but they enjoyed the pre-eminence over all the
great officers of state, with the most familiar access to the person of
the prince. This honorable rank was bestowed on them for life; and as
they were usually favorites, and ministers who had grown old in
the Imperial court, the true etymology of the word was perverted
by ignorance and flattery; and the Patricians of Constantine were
reverenced as the adopted Fathers of the emperor and the republic. [98]

[Footnote 93: Intermarriages between the Patricians and Plebeians were
prohibited by the laws of the XII Tables; and the uniform operations of
human nature may attest that the custom survived the law. See in Livy
(iv. 1-6) the pride of family urged by the consul, and the rights of
mankind asserted by the tribune Canuleius.]

[Footnote 94: See the animated picture drawn by Sallust, in the
Jugurthine war, of the pride of the nobles, and even of the virtuous
Metellus, who was unable to brook the idea that the honor of the
consulship should be bestowed on the obscure merit of his lieutenant
Marius. (c. 64.) Two hundred years before, the race of the Metelli
themselves were confounded among the Plebeians of Rome; and from the
etymology of their name of Coecilius, there is reason to believe that
those haughty nobles derived their origin from a sutler.]

[Footnote 95: In the year of Rome 800, very few remained, not only of
the old Patrician families, but even of those which had been created by
Caesar and Augustus. (Tacit. Annal. xi. 25.) The family of Scaurus (a
branch of the Patrician Aemilii) was degraded so low that his father,
who exercised the trade of a charcoal merchant, left him only teu
slaves, and somewhat less than three hundred pounds sterling. (Valerius
Maximus, l. iv. c. 4, n. 11. Aurel. Victor in Scauro.) The family was
saved from oblivion by the merit of the son.]

[Footnote 96: Tacit. Annal. xi. 25. Dion Cassius, l. iii. p. 698.
The virtues of Agricola, who was created a Patrician by the emperor
Vespasian, reflected honor on that ancient order; but his ancestors had
not any