e Senate,
prostrate and powerless, still had external dignity, like the British
House of Peers. There were six hundred senators, each of whom possessed
more than one million two hundred thousand sesterces--about $50,000, when
that sum must have represented an amount equal to a million of dollars in
gold, at the present time, and some of whom had an income of one thousand
pounds a day, the spoil of the provinces they had administered.

(M1037) The Roman Senate, so august under the republic, still continued,
with crippled legislative powers, to wield important functions, since the
ordinary official business was performed by them. The provinces were
governed by men selected from senatorial ranks. They wore the badges of
distinction; they had the best places in the circus and theatre; they
banqueted in the capitol at the public charge; they claimed the right to
elect emperors.

(M1038) The equestrian order also continued to farm the revenues of the
provinces, and to furnish judges. The knights retained external
decorations, were required to possess property equal to one-third of the
senators, and formed an aristocratic class.

(M1039) The consuls, too, ruled, but with delegated powers from the
emperor. They were his eyes, and ears, and voice, and hands; but neither
political experience nor military services were required as qualifications
of the office. They wore the wreath of laurel on their brow, the striped
robe of white and purple, and were attended with lictors. All citizens
made way for them, and dismounted when they passed, and rose in their
presence. The praetors, too, continued to be the supreme judges, and the
quaestors regulated the treasury. The tribunes existed also, but without
their former independence. The prefect of the city was a new office, and
overshadowed all other offices--appointed by the emperor as his lieutenant,
his most efficient executive minister, his deputy in his absence from the
city.

(M1040) A standing army, ever the mark of despotism, became an imperial
institution. At the head of this army were the praetorian guards, who
protected the person of the emperor, and had double pay over that of the
ordinary legionaries. They had a regular camp outside the city, and were
always on hand to suppress tumults. Twenty-five legions were regarded as
sufficient to defend the empire, and each legion was composed of six
thousand one hundred foot and seven hundred and twenty-six horse. They
were recrui