OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

and completed by his immediate successors, may 3^^'not only amuse the fancy by the singular pictureof a great empire, but will tend to illustrate thesecret and internal cause of its rapid decay. Inthe pursuit of any remarkable institution, wemay be frequently led into the more early or themore recent times of the Roman history; but theproper limits of this enquiry will be includedwithin a period of about one hundred and thirtyyears, from the accession of Constantine to thepublication of theTheodosian code ; a from which,as well as from the Notitia of the east and west , 11we derive the most copious and authentic infor-mation of the state of the empire. This varietyof objects will suspend, for some time, the courseof the narrative; but the interruption will be cen-sured only by those readers who are insensibleto the importance of laws and manners, whilethey peruse, with eager curiosity, the transientintrigues of a court, or the accidental event of abattle.

The manly pride of the Romans, content with Hierachysubstantial power, had left to the vanity of the statedEast the forms and ceremonies of ostentatious

* The Theodosian Code was promulgated A. d. 438. See the Prole-gomena of Godefroy, c. i, p. 185.

b Pancirolus, in his elaborate commentary, assigns to the Notitia adate almost similar to that of the Theodosian code; but his proofs, orrather conjectures, are extremely feeble. I should be rather inclinedto place this useful work between the final division of the empire (a. d.395), and the successful invasion of Gaul by the Barbarians (a. d.407 ). See Histoire des Anciens Peoples de 1’Europe vom. vii, p 40.