attacked the person of the tyrant, without
aiming their blow at the authority of the emperor.

There appears, indeed, one memorable occasion, in which the senate,
after seventy years of patience, made an ineffectual attempt to
re-assume its long-forgotten rights. When the throne was vacant by the
murder of Caligula, the consuls convoked that assembly in the Capitol,
condemned the memory of the Caesars, gave the watchword liberty to
the few cohorts who faintly adhered to their standard, and during
eight-and-forty hours acted as the independent chiefs of a free
commonwealth. But while they deliberated, the praetorian guards had
resolved. The stupid Claudius, brother of Germanicus, was already in
their camp, invested with the Imperial purple, and prepared to support
his election by arms. The dream of liberty was at an end; and the
senate awoke to all the horrors of inevitable servitude. Deserted by
the people, and threatened by a military force, that feeble assembly
was compelled to ratify the choice of the praetorians, and to embrace the
benefit of an amnesty, which Claudius had the prudence to offer, and the
generosity to observe.

[See The Capitol: When the throne was vacant by the murder of Caligula,
the consuls convoked that assembly in the Capitol.]

II. The insolence of the armies inspired Augustus with fears of a still
more alarming nature. The despair of the citizens could only attempt,
what the power of the soldiers was, at any time, able to execute. How
precarious was his own authority over men whom he had taught to violate
every social duty! He had heard their seditious clamors; he dreaded
their calmer moments of reflection. One revolution had been purchased by
immense rewards; but a second revolution might double those rewards. The
troops professed the fondest attachment to the house of Caesar; but the
attachments of the multitude are capricious and inconstant. Augustus
summoned to his aid whatever remained in those fierce minds of Roman
prejudices; enforced the rigor of discipline by the sanction of law;
and, interposing the majesty of the senate between the emperor and the
army, boldly claimed their allegiance, as the first magistrate of the
republic.

During a long period of two hundred and twenty years from the
establishment of this artful system to the death of Commodus, the
dangers inherent to a military government were, in a great measure,
suspended. The soldiers were seldom roused to that fatal sen