hundred governors might be
enumerated, who, with various success, erected the standard of revolt;
and though the innocent were too often sacrificed, the guilty might be
sometimes prevented, by the suspicious cruelty of their master. [125]
To secure his throne and the public tranquillity from these formidable
servants, Constantine resolved to divide the military from the civil
administration, and to establish, as a permanent and professional
distinction, a practice which had been adopted only as an occasional
expedient. The supreme jurisdiction exercised by the Praetorian
praefects over the armies of the empire, was transferred to the two
masters-general whom he instituted, the one for the cavalry, the other
for the infantry; and though each of these illustrious officers was more
peculiarly responsible for the discipline of those troops which were
under his immediate inspection, they both indifferently commanded in the
field the several bodies, whether of horse or foot, which were united
in the same army. [126] Their number was soon doubled by the division of
the east and west; and as separate generals of the same rank and title
were appointed on the four important frontiers of the Rhine, of the
Upper and the Lower Danube, and of the Euphrates, the defence of the
Roman empire was at length committed to eight masters-general of
the cavalry and infantry. Under their orders, thirty-five military
commanders were stationed in the provinces: three in Britain, six in
Gaul, one in Spain, one in Italy, five on the Upper, and four on the
Lower Danube; in Asia, eight, three in Egypt, and four in Africa.
The titles of counts, and dukes, [127] by which they were properly
distinguished, have obtained in modern languages so very different a
sense, that the use of them may occasion some surprise. But it should be
recollected, that the second of those appellations is only a corruption
of the Latin word, which was indiscriminately applied to any military
chief. All these provincial generals were therefore dukes; but no
more than ten among them were dignified with the rank of counts or
companions, a title of honor, or rather of favor, which had been
recently invented in the court of Constantine. A gold belt was the
ensign which distinguished the office of the counts and dukes; and
besides their pay, they received a liberal allowance sufficient
to maintain one hundred and ninety servants, and one hundred and
fifty-eight horses. They were str