alentinian to condemn the
exposition of new-born infants; and to establish fourteen skilful
physicians, with stipends and privileges, in the fourteen quarters
of Rome. The good sense of an illiterate soldier founded a useful and
liberal institution for the education of youth, and the support of
declining science. It was his intention, that the arts of rhetoric
and grammar should be taught in the Greek and Latin languages, in the
metropolis of every province; and as the size and dignity of the school
was usually proportioned to the importance of the city, the academies
of Rome and Constantinople claimed a just and singular preeminence. The
fragments of the literary edicts of Valentinian imperfectly represent
the school of Constantinople, which was gradually improved by subsequent
regulations. That school consisted of thirty-one professors in different
branches of learning. One philosopher, and two lawyers; five sophists,
and ten grammarians for the Greek, and three orators, and ten
grammarians for the Latin tongue; besides seven scribes, or, as they
were then styled, antiquarians, whose laborious pens supplied the public
library with fair and correct copies of the classic writers. The rule of
conduct, which was prescribed to the students, is the more curious, as
it affords the first outlines of the form and discipline of a modern
university. It was required, that they should bring proper certificates
from the magistrates of their native province. Their names, professions,
and places of abode, were regularly entered in a public register. The
studious youth were severely prohibited from wasting their time in
feasts, or in the theatre; and the term of their education was limited
to the age of twenty. The praefect of the city was empowered to chastise
the idle and refractory by stripes or expulsion; and he was directed to
make an annual report to the master of the offices, that the knowledge
and abilities of the scholars might be usefully applied to the public
service. The institutions of Valentinian contributed to secure the
benefits of peace and plenty; and the cities were guarded by the
establishment of the Defensors; freely elected as the tribunes and
advocates of the people, to support their rights, and to expose their
grievances, before the tribunals of the civil magistrates, or even
at the foot of the Imperial throne. The finances were diligently
administered by two princes, who had been so long accustomed to the
rigid