ictly prohibited from interfering
in any matter which related to the administration of justice or the
revenue; but the command which they exercised over the troops of their
department, was independent of the authority of the magistrates.
About the same time that Constantine gave a legal sanction to the
ecclesiastical order, he instituted in the Roman empire the nice balance
of the civil and the military powers. The emulation, and sometimes the
discord, which reigned between two professions of opposite interests
and incompatible manners, was productive of beneficial and of pernicious
consequences. It was seldom to be expected that the general and the
civil governor of a province should either conspire for the disturbance,
or should unite for the service, of their country. While the one delayed
to offer the assistance which the other disdained to solicit, the troops
very frequently remained without orders or without supplies; the public
safety was betrayed, and the defenceless subjects were left exposed to
the fury of the Barbarians. The divided administration which had been
formed by Constantine, relaxed the vigor of the state, while it secured
the tranquillity of the monarch.

[Footnote 124: See a very splendid example in the life of Agricola,
particularly c. 20, 21. The lieutenant of Britain was intrusted with
the same powers which Cicero, proconsul of Cilicia, had exercised in the
name of the senate and people.]

[Footnote 125: The Abbe Dubos, who has examined with accuracy (see
Hist. de la Monarchie Francoise, tom. i. p. 41-100, edit. 1742) the
institutions of Augustus and of Constantine, observes, that if Otho had
been put to death the day before he executed his conspiracy, Otho would
now appear in history as innocent as Corbulo.]

[Footnote 126: Zosimus, l. ii. p. 110. Before the end of the reign of
Constantius, the magistri militum were already increased to four. See
Velesius ad Ammian. l. xvi. c. 7.]

[Footnote 127: Though the military counts and dukes are frequently
mentioned, both in history and the codes, we must have recourse to the
Notitia for the exact knowledge of their number and stations. For the
institution, rank, privileges, &c., of the counts in general see Cod.
Theod. l. vi. tit. xii.--xx., with the commentary of Godefroy.]

The memory of Constantine has been deservedly censured for another
innovation, which corrupted military discipline and prepared the ruin
of the empire. The nineteen years wh