; they were levelled by the equality of servitude;
and the dictates of Augustus were patiently ratified by the formal
consent of the tribes or centuries. Once, and once only, he experienced
a sincere and strenuous opposition. His subjects had resigned all
political liberty; they defended the freedom of domestic life. A law
which enforced the obligation, and strengthened the bonds of marriage,
was clamorously rejected; Propertius, in the arms of Delia, applauded
the victory of licentious love; and the project of reform was suspended
till a new and more tractable generation had arisen in the world. [30]
Such an example was not necessary to instruct a prudent usurper of the
mischief of popular assemblies; and their abolition, which Augustus
had silently prepared, was accomplished without resistance, and almost
without notice, on the accession of his successor. [31] Sixty thousand
plebeian legislators, whom numbers made formidable, and poverty secure,
were supplanted by six hundred senators, who held their honors, their
fortunes, and their lives, by the clemency of the emperor. The loss of
executive power was alleviated by the gift of legislative authority; and
Ulpian might assert, after the practice of two hundred years, that the
decrees of the senate obtained the force and validity of laws. In the
times of freedom, the resolves of the people had often been dictated by
the passion or error of the moment: the Cornelian, Pompeian, and Julian
laws were adapted by a single hand to the prevailing disorders; but the
senate, under the reign of the Caesars, was composed of magistrates and
lawyers, and in questions of private jurisprudence, the integrity of
their judgment was seldom perverted by fear or interest. [32]

[Footnote 27: Dionysius, with Arbuthnot, and most of the moderns,
(except Eisenschmidt de Ponderibus, &c., p. 137--140,) represent the
100,000 asses by 10,000 Attic drachmae, or somewhat more than 300 pounds
sterling. But their calculation can apply only to the latter times, when
the as was diminished to 1-24th of its ancient weight: nor can I believe
that in the first ages, however destitute of the precious metals, a
single ounce of silver could have been exchanged for seventy pounds
of copper or brass. A more simple and rational method is to value the
copper itself according to the present rate, and, after comparing
the mint and the market price, the Roman and avoirdupois weight, the
primitive as or Roman pound of c