ty of appointmentgave place to the union of dig-nities. 1 By the expedient of honorary codicils,theemperors, who were fond of multiplying theirfavours, might sometimes gratify the vanity,though not the ambition, of impatient courtiers.*
1. As long as the Roman consuls were the first con.,magistrates of a free state, they derived their rightto power from the choice of the people. As longas theemperors condescended to disguise theser-vitude which they imposed, the consuls werestill elected by the real or apparent suffrage ofthe senate. From the reign of Diocletian eventhese vestiges of liberty were abolished, and thesuccessful candidates who were invested withtheannua! honours of the consulship, affected todeplore the humiliating condition of their pre-decessors. The Scipios and the Catos had beenreduced to solicit the votes of plebeians, to passthrough the tedious and expensive forms of a po-pular election, and to expose their dignity to theshame of a public refusal; while their own hap-pier fate had reserved them for an age and go-vernment in which the rewards of virtue wereassigned by the unerring wisdom of a gracioussovereign. 1 In the epistles which the emperor ad-dressed to the two consuls elect, it was declared,
• Cod. Theodos. 1. vi, tit. vi. The rules of precedency are ascer-tained with the most minute accuracy by the emperors, and illustratedwith equal prolixity by their learned interpreter
* Cod. Theodos. 1. vi, lit. xxii.
1 Ausonius (in Gratiarum Actione) basely expatiates on this unwor-thy topic, which is managed by Mamertinus (Panegyr. Vet. xi, 16-19)with somewhat more freedom and ingenuity.