, the bread by which the Quirites live.'

19. FORMULA OF THE COUNT OF THE CHIEF PHYSICIANS.

[Sidenote: Comes Archiatrorum.]

'The doctor helps us when all other helpers seem to fail. By his art
he finds out things about a man of which he himself is ignorant; and
his prognosis of a case, though founded on reason, seems to the
ignorant like prophecy.

'It is disgraceful that there should be a president of the lascivious
pleasures of the people (Tribunus Voluptatum) and none of this healing
art. Excellent too may your office be in enabling you to control the
squabbles of the doctors. They ought not to quarrel. At the beginning
of their exercise of their art they take a sort of priestly oath to
hate wickedness and to love purity. Take then this rank of Comes
Archiatrorum, and have the distinguished honour of presiding over so
many skilled practitioners and of moderating their disputes.

'Leave it to clumsy men to ask their patients "if they have had good
sleep; if the pain has left them." Do you rather incline the patient
to ask you about his own malady, showing him that you know more about
it than he does. The patient's pulse, the patient's water, tell to a
skilled physician the whole story of his disease.

'Enter our palace unbidden; command us, whom all other men obey; weary
us if you will with fasting, and make us do the very opposite of that
which we desire, since all this is your prerogative.'

20. FORMULA OF THE OFFICE OF A CONSULAR, AND ITS EXCELLENCY.

[Sidenote: Consularis.]

'You bear among your trappings the axes and the rods of the Consul, as
a symbol of the nature of the jurisdiction which you exercise in the
Provinces.

'In some Provinces you even wear the _paenula_ (military cloak) and
ride in the _carpentum_ (official chariot), as a proof of your
dignity.

'You must not think that because your office is allied to that of
Consul any lavish expenditure by way of largesse is necessary. By no
means; but it is necessary that you should abstain from all unjust
gains. Nothing is worse than a mixture of rapacity and prodigality.

'Respect the property of the Provincials, and your tenure of office
will be without blame.

'Receive therefore, for this Indiction, the office of Consular in such
and such a Province, and let your moderation appear to all the
inhabitants.'

21. FORMULA OF THE GOVERNOR (RECTOR) OF A PROVINCE.

[The distinction between the powers of a Rector and those of a
Consular