o obtained such irregular
powers, were insolent in their behavior, and arbitrary in their demands:
they affected to despise the subordinate tribunals, and they were
discontented, if their fees and profits did not twice exceed the sum
which they condescended to pay into the treasury. One instance of their
extortion would appear incredible, were it not authenticated by the
legislator himself. They exacted the whole payment in gold: but they
refused the current coin of the empire, and would accept only such
ancient pieces as were stamped with the names of Faustina or the
Antonines. The subject, who was unprovided with these curious medals,
had recourse to the expedient of compounding with their rapacious
demands; or if he succeeded in the research, his imposition was doubled,
according to the weight and value of the money of former times. [42]
III. "The municipal corporations, (says the emperor,) the lesser
senates, (so antiquity has justly styled them,) deserve to be considered
as the heart of the cities, and the sinews of the republic. And yet
so low are they now reduced, by the injustice of magistrates and the
venality of collectors, that many of their members, renouncing their
dignity and their country, have taken refuge in distant and obscure
exile." He urges, and even compels, their return to their respective
cities; but he removes the grievance which had forced them to desert
the exercise of their municipal functions. They are directed, under
the authority of the provincial magistrates, to resume their office
of levying the tribute; but, instead of being made responsible for the
whole sum assessed on their district, they are only required to produce
a regular account of the payments which they have actually received, and
of the defaulters who are still indebted to the public. IV. But Majorian
was not ignorant that these corporate bodies were too much inclined to
retaliate the injustice and oppression which they had suffered; and
he therefore revives the useful office of the defenders of cities. He
exhorts the people to elect, in a full and free assembly, some man of
discretion and integrity, who would dare to assert their privileges, to
represent their grievances, to protect the poor from the tyranny of the
rich, and to inform the emperor of the abuses that were committed under
the sanction of his name and authority.

[Footnote 40: See the laws of Majorian (they are only nine in number,
but very long, and various) a