What office of Confuls. §. 3. Lipfius cap. 7. de Magiftr. vet. Pop. Rom. has a we ought to differtation upon the Title and the Office of Confuls. understand Some derive their Name from the end or defign of the. by the Office; which was to confult and provide for the CiName and tizens. See Flor. lib. 1. c. 9. Others derive their Name from their Office, which is to confult; that is, ask the Senate. Others interpret 'em à judicando, which, in the Senfe of Quintilian l. 1. c. 9. is the fame thing as confulendo, from whence this Proverb, boni confulas, i.e. judices. But the Judgment of Lipfius about this Diversity is, that the first Etymology is more popular, the third more fubtle, the middle more true; becaufe 'twas the bufinefs of a Conful to interrogate and refer to the Senate; 'twas his part to enquire into their Judgment, as appears from Livy lib.7. Cicero lib. 3. de Leg. fays, Let there be two in the Regal Empire, and let 'em be called Prætors, Judges, Confuls, a Præeundo, Judicando. Confulendo: Let 'em have the chief Power of the Militia: Let 'em obey no one : Let the fafety of the People be their fupreme Law, &c. S. 4. As to the time of the year when the Confuls of the year were inftall'd, we find great variation according to the in which diverfity of times, which does not a little difturb Unithe Roman verfal Hiftory: however, we shall inftance in fome Confulsun- cafes from Dionyfius Halicarnaffeus and Livius. First dertook the of all therefore, who is he that cannot gather from Confulate the Character of the Regifugium (a Feaft amongst the of the time Romans) held on the 6th of the Calends of March, which he proves from Epitome Liviana cap. 47. And the fame Opinion is authoris'd by Ovid de Ponto lib. 4. Eleg. 9. and in his Faftor. lib. 1. as alfo by Lucan. $5. The Confulate ordinarily continued a year; of the time though fome think 'twas more than the common year; that the and although the Roman People conferr'd upon Afri- Confuls recanus a continual Confulate; yet fome Examples break mained_in not a General Rule: For the Confulare, (as favs Sene- their office. ca lib. de Ira, c. ult.), was an annual Honour, or as Tertullian has it, I. de Patien. in fine. the fleeting joy of one year. And ver the Ro man Peo ple. §. 6. There were ordinarily two Confuls, but in ex- of thenumtraordinary cafes they were fometimes more, one of ber of the the two dying,or being remov'd or at the Pleasure of the yearly ConCafars: For thus Julius Obfequens fpeaks of those that fuls that were remov'd; 'Tis evident that no one that had taken prefided oaway the Office of his Colleague lived a year. Lampridius in vit. Commodi, fpeaking of thofe that were unduly Elected, fays, This was the first time that 25 Confuls were chofen for one year, all the Provinces were fold, &c. And of extraordinary Confuls, Seneca thus writes; He made me a Conful, but not an ordinary one, &c. Suetoniusalfo in Domit. in fix Confulates he had but one that was ordinary. And Suetonias feems to refer to this in his Obfervations of the Emp. Augu ftus, viz. He also required that so often as a Confulate was given to him, he should have two Colleagues: And adds, Tet all crying out against him, he could not obtain that the Majefty should be more leffened; because he bore that Honour already not himself alone, but in ConjunEtion with the other. the Series §. 7. Those that anciently wrote of the Roman Af- of the cer fairs, were wont to note diligently their pair of tainty that Confuls, whom they digefted into four year claffes, may be atas is evident from Culpinianus's Monument, which tainedfrom four years they called Chronica Confularia; but we cannot be fo happy as to confult thefe Confularia of of Confuls and Signa the Confuls, fince time has wholly deftroyed thefe an- ture of the cient Writings, or miferably defac'd 'em. this is in fome meafure repair d by what we have left of Dionyfius Halicarnaffeus, Dion. Caffius, Titus Livius. Above all, the Capitoline Marbles difcovered in the laft Age conduce much towards it: For in the year of Chrift 1547, (as Calvifius has it) the Capitoline However Times. Tables That all the Tables written formerly out of the Minutes of the Senate by Verrius Flaccus the Grammarian, and publickly fet up in the Roman Forum by the Command of the Emperor Auguftus, and afterwards broken in pieces and difpers'd by the injury of Times, were loft and covered under Ground for a long time, till luckily they were met with and brought to light, and from thefe ancient Guides very many Antiquaries have endeavoured to correct the Roman Fafti or Calendars; but no one has been more fuccefsful in thofe Enquiries than Onuphrins, an Acquaintance of the Cardinal Alexander Farnefius, to whom thefe Tables were brought when first found For he afterwards published at Venice the Roman Fafti and Triumphs, from the time of Romulus, to that of Charles V. in the year 1557. But after all, the Alexandrian Chronicle, which carries the name of the Scicilian Calendars, is not to be wholly neglected: For this Book being taken from amongst the most ancient Writings, was first found inSicily, being part of the ancient Library of Hieronymus Surita, and fometimes cited by Scaliger under the Title of the Cafanbonian Code. This Book Antonins Auguftinus Auditor rota) firft brought with him from Sicily into Italy : Fr. Sylburgius bought it for fix pieces of Gold, and gave it to Hafchelius, who brought it to the Augustine Library; from whence it was published by Matth. Raderus. it 9.8. Some fufpect a Chafm of 4 pair of Confuls, and pairs of in the Roman Calendar; for we have more years Confuls calculated from the Solemnity of the Confulate, for every year fince than we have pairs of Confuls. This defect, the first In- feems, has given the beft Writers much trouble: ftitution of For, firft of all, there are fome who think that elthe Confuls ther the Names of fome Confuls were loft, or that answering there were Dictators put in the room of the Confuls; to the Moor that a Quadriennium (or fpace of four years) was numents of managed without Confuls; which Opinion, not to menAntiquity, tion other difficulties, feems to labour under this, viz. ted, do That it does not fufficiently appear in what place the Bot at this new pairs of Confuls are to be inferted. Befides, the Goday appear, vernment of Dictators was half-yearly, and not decreed nor are but by the Confuls. There are fome in the fecond place that guess, the Order of Confuls had refpect to known. the years of the City. I always fufpected, and I think already ci not without Ground (fays Onuphrias) the four years inferted in the Calendars, either of Dictators without Confuls, or without either Dictators or Confuls, because Livius, who wrote the History of thofe Times, found no Such thing in the Annals whence he made his Hiftory. Therefore I fometimes thought to fix the Building of Rome with C. Fabius Pictor in the 29th Olympi ad; that the order of Confuls might answer to the years of the City. But it feems not fafe to contradict the unanimous confent of the best Writers. Thirdly and latly, There are fome who feem, not without Ground, to fufpect that these doubts arose from the very corrupt Difpofition of the Romulian and Pompelian year; and because the Confuls did not enter upon their Office all at one time. §. 9. As 'twas laid before that there were four pair What we of Confuls mifling in the Calendars, fo we meet with ought to fome Authors, particularly Fohannes Georgius Herwart think of ab Hohenburg, the Author of Chronologia nova vc-b irOpini ra,&c.who will have the fame Calendars to abound with five pair of Confuls: But his advances are repugnant to ed that yetperfuad Univerfal Hiftory; and if his Hypothefis were admitted, there were it would rather difturb Chronology, than bring a five pair of ny Light into it: Befides the fame Authorities he Confuls in makes ufe of to advance his Hypothefis, he rejects them the Confuin other places: And therefore we alfo reject all that he lar Calen has faid upon this matter. dar. S. 10. The Confuls were marked in the Calendars of the time till the year of Chrift 541; but after Julius Calar, that the as he himself fpeaks, Rome bad only the fhadow of a Dignity of Common wealth, and only the Names of Confuls were the Confu retain'd: For then indeed, Omnia Cafar erat. For what betwixt the affectation of Popularity, and (mostly) the influence of their Autho ity, the Ca Tars drew the Confulate to themielv s fometines ufing force to it. And fo Suetonius remarks of Anguftus. At length in the 15th year of Fuftinian, in which Bafil us was Conful all alone, the Order of Confuls was wholly extinguished, and after this year, for 25 of the following years they wrote thus, in the ift, 2d, 3d, &c. years after the Confulate of Bafilius. Thus th late was in tife amongst the Ro mans the Character of the Confuls fell, and the Periods of the Roman Affairs were noted with the years of the the Emperors, and a little after with the years of Christ. The reaf S. 11. Cuftom at laft obtained, that upon the first why Jufti- day of the Confulate, the new Confuls were obliged to nian the exceflive Expences; and therefore Ca ar,as appears from Emperor the 105th Novella, endeavoured to reftrain them by a the dignity certain Law, in which he not only forbid 'em to throw of the Con-Gold about, but in general to do any thing fo immenfe Julate from and irregular: But when the Confuls again ambitiously the Senate. violated thefe Limits, fo that upon this account they took away often ruined their Families, or reduced them to extream neceffity, the Emperors thought fit to banish the Confular Dignity out of the Senate, as perceiving that Dignity to be ready to droop, which was hatch'd along with the Roman Republick, and had lafted almost a thousand years. See Juftinian in the Novella above-cited. The End of the Second Book. BOOK |