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tizens, to denote their rank, their honours , 1 andperhaps the claim of a pure and patrician descent;but they float on the surface, without a series ora substance; the titles of men, not the orders ofgovernment ; 11 and it is only from the year ofChrist one thousand one hundred and forty-four,that the establishment of the senate is dated, asa glorious era, in the acts of the city. A newconstitution was hastily framed by private am-bition, or popular enthusiasm; nor could Rome ,in the twelfth century, produce an antiquaryto explain, or a legislator to restore, the har-mony and proportions of the ancient model.The assembly of a free, of an armed people willever speak in loud and weighty acclamations.But the regular distribution of the thirty-fivetribes, the nice balance of the wealth and num-bers of the centuries, the debates of the adverseorators, and the slow operation of votes and bal-lots, could not easily be adapted by a blind mul-titude, ignorant of the arts, and insensible of thebenefits, of legal government. It was proposed

1 As late as the tenth century, the Greek emperors conferred on thedukes of Venice, Naples, Amalphi, &c. the title of iwaror, or consuls(see Chron. Sagornini, passim); and the successors of Charlemagne would not abdicate any of their prerogative*. But, in general, thenames of consul and senator, which may be found among the French and Germans, signify no more than count and lord ( Signeur , Ducange ,Glossar .). The monkish writers are often ambitious of fine classicwords.

k The most constitutional form is a diploma of Otho III (A. D. 998).Consulibus senates populique Romani ; but the act is probably spuri-ous. At the coronation of Henry I , A. D 1014, the historian Ditbmar(apud Muratori, dissert, xxiii) describes him, a senatoribus duodecimvallatum, quorum sex rasi barbS, alii prolix, mystice incedebant cumbaculis. The seuate is mentioned in the panegyric of Berengarin*(p. 40G).

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LXIX.