OF THE ROMAN EMPIRF-.

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public and private discourse; and a monument chap.of servitude became in his hands a title and in-centive of liberty. The decree of the senate,which granted the most ample prerogatives tothe emperor Vespasian , had been inscribed on acopperplate still extant in the choir of the churchof St. John Lateran .’ A numerous assembly ofnobles and plebeians was invited to this politi-cal lecture, and a convenient theatre was erect-ed for their reception. The notary appeared, ina magnificent and mysterious habit, explainedthe inscription by a version and commentary,*and descanted with eloquence and zeal on theancient glories of the senate and people, fromwhom all legal authority was derived. The su-pine ignorance of the nobles was incapable ofdiscerning the serious tendency of such repre-sentations: they might sometimes chastise withwords and blows the plebeian reformer; but hewas often suffered in the Colonna palace toamuse the company with his threats and pre-dictions; and the modern Brutus h was conceal-ed under the mask of folly and the character ofa buffoon. While they indulged their contempt,

* The fragments of the Lex Regia may be found in the Inscriptionsof Grater, tom i, p. 242, and at the end of the Tacitus of Ernesti, withsome learned notes of the editor, tom. ii.

* I cannot overlook a stupenduous and laughable blunder of Rienzi.

The Lex Regia empowers Vespasian to enlarge the Pomoerium, a wordfamiliar to every antiquary. It was not so to the tribune; he con-founds it with pvmariutn an orchard, translates lo Jardino de Romacioene Italia , and is copied by the less excusable ignorance of the La-tin translator (p. 40G) and the French historian (p. 33). Even thelearning of Muratori has slumbered over the passage.

b Priori ( Bruto ) tamen similior, juvenis uterque, longe ingenio quamcujus simulationem induerat, ut sub hoc obtentu liberator ilie P. R.aperiretur tempore suo Iile regibus,hie tyranniscontemptus (Opp.p. 63G).