] The
spontaneous offering was at length exacted as the debt of duty; and
instead of being confined to the occasion of a triumph, it was supposed
to be granted by the several cities and provinces of the monarchy,
as often as the emperor condescended to announce his accession, his
consulship, the birth of a son, the creation of a Caesar, a victory over
the Barbarians, or any other real or imaginary event which graced the
annals of his reign. The peculiar free gift of the senate of Rome was
fixed by custom at sixteen hundred pounds of gold, or about sixty-four
thousand pounds sterling. The oppressed subjects celebrated their own
felicity, that their sovereign should graciously consent to accept this
feeble but voluntary testimony of their loyalty and gratitude. [192]

[Footnote 191: See Lipsius de Magnitud. Romana, l. ii. c. 9. The
Tarragonese Spain presented the emperor Claudius with a crown of gold
of seven, and Gaul with another of nine, hundred pounds weight. I have
followed the rational emendation of Lipsius. * Note: This custom is of
still earlier date, the Romans had borrowed it from Greece. Who is not
acquainted with the famous oration of Demosthenes for the golden crown,
which his citizens wished to bestow, and Aeschines to deprive him
of?--G.]

[Footnote 192: Cod. Theod. l. xii. tit. xiii. The senators were supposed
to be exempt from the Aurum Coronarium; but the Auri Oblatio, which was
required at their hands, was precisely of the same nature.]

A people elated by pride, or soured by discontent, are seldom qualified
to form a just estimate of their actual situation. The subjects of
Constantine were incapable of discerning the decline of genius and manly
virtue, which so far degraded them below the dignity of their ancestors;
but they could feel and lament the rage of tyranny, the relaxation of
discipline, and the increase of taxes. The impartial historian,
who acknowledges the justice of their complaints, will observe some
favorable circumstances which tended to alleviate the misery of
their condition. The threatening tempest of Barbarians, which so soon
subverted the foundations of Roman greatness, was still repelled, or
suspended, on the frontiers. The arts of luxury and literature were
cultivated, and the elegant pleasures of society were enjoyed, by the
inhabitants of a considerable portion of the globe. The forms, the pomp,
and the expense of the civil administration contributed to restrain the
irregula