numerous
army of privileged persons, who, as the servants of the court, had
obtained for themselves and families a right to decline the authority
of the ordinary judges. The correspondence between the prince and his
subjects was managed by the four scrinia, or offices of this minister of
state. The first was appropriated to memorials, the second to epistles,
the third to petitions, and the fourth to papers and orders of a
miscellaneous kind. Each of these was directed by an inferior master of
respectable dignity, and the whole business was despatched by a
hundred and forty-eight secretaries, chosen for the most part from the
profession of the law, on account of the variety of abstracts of reports
and references which frequently occurred in the exercise of their
several functions. From a condescension, which in former ages would have
been esteemed unworthy the Roman majesty, a particular secretary was
allowed for the Greek language; and interpreters were appointed to
receive the ambassadors of the Barbarians; but the department of foreign
affairs, which constitutes so essential a part of modern policy, seldom
diverted the attention of the master of the offices. His mind was more
seriously engaged by the general direction of the posts and arsenals
of the empire. There were thirty-four cities, fifteen in the East,
and nineteen in the West, in which regular companies of workmen were
perpetually employed in fabricating defensive armor, offensive weapons
of all sorts, and military engines, which were deposited in the
arsenals, and occasionally delivered for the service of the troops. 3.
In the course of nine centuries, the office of quaestor had experienced
a very singular revolution. In the infancy of Rome, two inferior
magistrates were annually elected by the people, to relieve the consuls
from the invidious management of the public treasure; [145] a similar
assistant was granted to every proconsul, and to every praetor, who
exercised a military or provincial command; with the extent of conquest,
the two quaestors were gradually multiplied to the number of four, of
eight, of twenty, and, for a short time, perhaps, of forty; [146] and
the noblest citizens ambitiously solicited an office which gave them
a seat in the senate, and a just hope of obtaining the honors of the
republic. Whilst Augustus affected to maintain the freedom of election,
he consented to accept the annual privilege of recommending, or rather
indeed of nomin