the provinces of Africa, either as president or
consular, and deserved, by his administration, the honor of a brass
statue. 3. He was appointed vicar, or vice-praefect, of Macedonia. 4.
Quaestor. 5. Count of the sacred largesses. 6. Praetorian praefect of
the Gauls; whilst he might yet be represented as a young man. 7. After a
retreat, perhaps a disgrace of many years, which Mallius (confounded by
some critics with the poet Manilius; see Fabricius Bibliothec. Latin.
Edit. Ernest. tom. i.c. 18, p. 501) employed in the study of the Grecian
philosophy he was named Praetorian praefect of Italy, in the year 397.
8. While he still exercised that great office, he was created, it the
year 399, consul for the West; and his name, on account of the infamy of
his colleague, the eunuch Eutropius, often stands alone in the Fasti. 9.
In the year 408, Mallius was appointed a second time Praetorian praefect
of Italy. Even in the venal panegyric of Claudian, we may discover the
merit of Mallius Theodorus, who, by a rare felicity, was the intimate
friend, both of Symmachus and of St. Augustin. See Tillemont, Hist. des
Emp. tom. v. p. 1110-1114.]

[Footnote 122: Mamertinus in Panegyr. Vet. xi. [x.] 20. Asterius apud
Photium, p. 1500.]

[Footnote 123: The curious passage of Ammianus, (l. xxx. c. 4,) in which
he paints the manners of contemporary lawyers, affords a strange
mixture of sound sense, false rhetoric, and extravagant satire. Godefroy
(Prolegom. ad. Cod. Theod. c. i. p. 185) supports the historian by
similar complaints and authentic facts. In the fourth century, many
camels might have been laden with law-books. Eunapius in Vit. Aedesii,
p. 72.]

III. In the system of policy introduced by Augustus, the governors,
those at least of the Imperial provinces, were invested with the
full powers of the sovereign himself. Ministers of peace and war, the
distribution of rewards and punishments depended on them alone, and
they successively appeared on their tribunal in the robes of civil
magistracy, and in complete armor at the head of the Roman legions.
[124] The influence of the revenue, the authority of law, and the
command of a military force, concurred to render their power supreme and
absolute; and whenever they were tempted to violate their allegiance,
the loyal province which they involved in their rebellion was scarcely
sensible of any change in its political state. From the time of Commodus
to the reign of Constantine, near one