CHAP. XX.
to the two consuls elect, it was declared, that they were created by his sole authority[1]. Their names and portraits, engraved on gilt tablets of ivory, were dispersed over the empire as presents to the provinces, the cities, the magistrates, the senate, and the people[2]. Their solemn inauguration was performed at the place of the imperial residence; and during a period of one hundred and twenty years, Rome was constantly deprived of the presence of her ancient magistrates[3]. On the morning of the first of January, the consuls assumed the ensigns of their dignity. Their dress was a robe of purple, embroidered in silk and gold, and sometimes ornamented with costly gems[4]. On this solemn occasion they were attended by the most eminent officers of the state and army, in the habit of senators ; and the useless fasces, armed with the once formidable axes, were borne before them by the lictors[5].
- ↑ Cum de consulibus in annum cieandis solus mecum volutarem...... te consulem et designavi, et declaravi, et priorem nuncupavi; are some of the expressions employed by the emperor Gratian to his preceptor the poet Ausonius.
- ↑ Immanesque....... dentes
Qui secti ferro in tabulas auroque micantes,
Inscripti rulilum cœlato console nomen
Per proceres et vuigus eant.
Claud, in ii Cons. Stilichon. 456.Montfaucon has represented some of these tablets or dypticks. See Supplement à I'Antiquité expliquée, tom. iii. p. 220.
- ↑ Consule lætatur post piurima sæcula viso
Pallanteus apex : agnoscunt rostra curules
Auditas quondam proavis : desuetaque cingit
Regius auratis Fora fascibus Ulpia lictor.
Claud, in vi Cons. Honorii, 643.From the reign of Cams to the sixth consulship of Honorius, there was an interval of one hundred and twenty years, during which the emperors were always absent from Rome on the first day of January. See the Chronologie de Tillemont, tom. iii. iv. and v.
- ↑ See Claudian in Cons. Prob. et Olybrii 178, etc. and in iv Cons. Ho- norii, 585, etc.; though in the latter it is not easy to separate the orna- ments ot the emperor from those of the consul. Ausonius received, from the liberality of Gratian, a veitis palmata, or robe of state, in which the figure of the emperor Constantius was embroidered.
- ↑ Cernis et armorum proceres legumque potentes :
Patricios sumunt habitus; et more Gabino
Discolor incedit legio, positisque parum per
Bellorum signis, sequitur vexilla Quirini.
Lictori cedunt aquila;, ridetque tngatus
Miles, et in mediis effulget curia caslris.
Claud, in iv Cons. Honorii, 5.
——— strictasque procul radiare secures.
In Coos. Prob. 229.
