the philosopher, and the magistrate. The _Institutes_ of
Justinian are divided into four books: they proceed, with no
contemptible method, from (1), _Persons_, to (2) _Things_, and from
things to (3) _Actions_; and the Article IV of _Private Wrongs_ is
terminated by the principles of _Criminal Law_.[29]

I. The distinction of ranks and _persons_ is the firmest basis of a
mixed and limited government. The perfect equality of men is the point
in which the extremes of democracy and despotism are confounded; since
the majesty of the prince or people would be offended, if any heads were
exalted above the level of their fellow-slaves or fellow-citizens. In
the decline of the Roman Empire, the proud distinctions of the republic
were gradually abolished, and the reason or instinct of Justinian
completed the simple form of an absolute monarchy. The Emperor could not
eradicate the popular reverence which always waits on the possession of
hereditary wealth or the memory of famous ancestors. He delighted to
honor with titles and emoluments his generals, magistrates, and
senators; and his precarious indulgence communicated some rays of their
glory to the persons of their wives and children. But in the eye of the
law all Roman citizens were equal, and all subjects of the empire were
citizens of Rome. That inestimable character was degraded to an obsolete
and empty name. The voice of a Roman could no longer enact his laws or
create the annual ministers of his power: his constitutional rights
might have checked the arbitrary will of a master, and the bold
adventurer from Germany or Arabia was admitted, with equal favor, to the
civil and military command which the citizen alone had been once
entitled to assume over the conquests of his fathers. The first Caesars
had scrupulously guarded the distinction of _ingenuous_ and _servile_
birth, which was decided by the condition of the mother; and the candor
of the laws was satisfied if _her_ freedom could be ascertained during a
single moment between the conception and the delivery. The slaves who
were liberated by a generous master immediately entered into the middle
class of _libertines_ or freedmen; but they could never be enfranchised
from the duties of obedience and gratitude: whatever were the fruits of
their industry, their patron and his family inherited the third part, or
even the whole of their fortune if they died without children and
without a testament.

Justinian respected the