ent of the historian Olympiodorus, ap. Photium, p. 197.]

[Footnote 27: The sons of Alypius, of Symmachus, and of Maximus, spent,
during their respective praetorships, twelve, or twenty, or forty,
centenaries, (or hundred weight of gold.) See Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p.
197. This popular estimation allows some latitude; but it is difficult
to explain a law in the Theodosian Code, (l. vi. leg. 5,) which fixes
the expense of the first praetor at 25,000, of the second at 20,000,
and of the third at 15,000 folles. The name of follis (see Mem. de
l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxviii. p. 727) was equally applied to
a purse of 125 pieces of silver, and to a small copper coin of the value
of 1/2625 part of that purse. In the former sense, the 25,000 folles
would be equal to 150,000 L.; in the latter, to five or six ponuds
sterling The one appears extravagant, the other is ridiculous. There
must have existed some third and middle value, which is here understood;
but ambiguity is an excusable fault in the language of laws.]

[Footnote 28: Nicopolis...... in Actiaco littore sita possessioris
vestra nunc pars vel maxima est. Jerom. in Praefat. Comment. ad Epistol.
ad Titum, tom. ix. p. 243. M. D. Tillemont supposes, strangely enough,
that it was part of Agamemnon's inheritance. Mem. Eccles. tom. xii. p.
85.]

[Footnote 29: Seneca, Epist. lxxxix. His language is of the declamatory
kind: but declamation could scarcely exaggerate the avarice and luxury
of the Romans. The philosopher himself deserved some share of the
reproach, if it be true that his rigorous exaction of Quadringenties,
above three hundred thousand pounds which he had lent at high interest,
provoked a rebellion in Britain, (Dion Cassius, l. lxii. p. 1003.)
According to the conjecture of Gale (Antoninus's Itinerary in Britain,
p. 92,) the same Faustinus possessed an estate near Bury, in Suffolk and
another in the kingdom of Naples.]

[Footnote 30: Volusius, a wealthy senator, (Tacit. Annal. iii. 30,)
always preferred tenants born on the estate. Columella, who received
this maxim from him, argues very judiciously on the subject. De Re
Rustica, l. i. c. 7, p. 408, edit. Gesner. Leipsig, 1735.]

The opulent nobles of an immense capital, who were never excited by
the pursuit of military glory, and seldom engaged in the occupations of
civil government, naturally resigned their leisure to the business
and amusements of private life. At Rome, commerce was always held
in