er
were more clearly understood; and the praefect, who seemed to have been
designed as a terror only to slaves and vagrants, was permitted to
extend his civil and criminal jurisdiction over the equestrian and noble
families of Rome. The praetors, annually created as the judges of law
and equity, could not long dispute the possession of the Forum with a
vigorous and permanent magistrate, who was usually admitted into the
confidence of the prince. Their courts were deserted, their number,
which had once fluctuated between twelve and eighteen, was gradually
reduced to two or three, and their important functions were confined to
the expensive obligation of exhibiting games for the amusement of the
people. After the office of the Roman consuls had been changed into a
vain pageant, which was rarely displayed in the capital, the praefects
assumed their vacant place in the senate, and were soon acknowledged
as the ordinary presidents of that venerable assembly. They received
appeals from the distance of one hundred miles; and it was allowed as
a principle of jurisprudence, that all municipal authority was derived
from them alone. In the discharge of his laborious employment, the
governor of Rome was assisted by fifteen officers, some of whom had been
originally his equals, or even his superiors. The principal departments
were relative to the command of a numerous watch, established as a
safeguard against fires, robberies, and nocturnal disorders; the custody
and distribution of the public allowance of corn and provisions; the
care of the port, of the aqueducts, of the common sewers, and of the
navigation and bed of the Tyber; the inspection of the markets,
the theatres, and of the private as well as the public works. Their
vigilance insured the three principal objects of a regular police,
safety, plenty, and cleanliness; and as a proof of the attention of
government to preserve the splendor and ornaments of the capital, a
particular inspector was appointed for the statues; the guardian, as
it were, of that inanimate people, which, according to the extravagant
computation of an old writer, was scarcely inferior in number to the
living inhabitants of Rome. About thirty years after the foundation
of Constantinople, a similar magistrate was created in that rising
metropolis, for the same uses and with the same powers. A perfect
equality was established between the dignity of the two municipal, and
that of the four Praetorian praefec