Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/404

380 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, and retirement? Can you desire that I should ever ■ find reason to regret the favourable opinion of the senate?" and accepts The reluctance of Tacitus, and it might possibly be the purple, sincere, was encountered by the affectionate obstinacy of the senate. Five hundred voices repeated at once, in eloquent confusion, that the greatest of the Roman princes, Numa, Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines, had ascended the throne in a very advanced season of life; that the mind, not the body, a sovereign, not a soldier, was the object of their choice ; -and that they expected from him no more than to guide by his wis- dom the valour of the legions. These pressing though tumultuary instances were seconded by a more regular oration of Metius Falconius, the next on the consular bench to Tacitus himself. He reminded the assembly of the evils which Rome had endured from the vices of headstrong and capricious youths ; congratulated them on the election of a virtuous and experienced senator ; and, with a manly, though perhaps a selfish freedom, exhorted Tacitus to remember the reasons of his ele- vation, and to seek a successor, not in his own family, but in the republic. The speech of Falconius was en- forced by a general acclamation. The emperor elect submitted to the authority of his country, and received the voluntary homage of his equals. The judgement of the senate was confirmed by the consent of the Ro- man people, and of the pretorian guards ^ Authority of The administration of Tacitus was not unworthy of the senate, jjjg |jfg ^nd principles. A grateful servant of the sen- ate, he considered that national council as the author, and himself as the subject of the laws "". He studied to heal the wounds which imperial pride, civil discord, and military violence had inflicted on the constitution ; •' Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 227. 1 Hist. August, p. 228. Tacitus addressed the pretorians by the appel- lation oi sanctissimi milites, and the people by that oi sacratissimi Quirites. "* In his manumissions he never exceeded the number of an hundred, as limited by the Caninian law, which was enacted under Augustus, and at length repealed by Justinian. See Casaubon ad locum Vopisci.