- tences, but the Court which set it aside did so at its own
peril.[1]
The Senate of Constantinople, created in imitation of that of Rome, was designed by Constantine rather to grace his new capital than to exercise any of the functions of government.[2] Like the new order of patricians, the position of Senator was mainly an honorary and not an executive rank. All the members enjoyed the title of Clarissimus, that of the third grade of nobility, and assembled under the presidency of the Praefect of the city.[3] As a body the Senate was treated with great ostensible consideration by the Emperor, and was never referred to in the public acts without expressions of the highest esteem, such as "the Venerable," "the Most Noble Order," "amongst whom we reckon ourselves."[4] This public parade of their importance, however, endowed them with a considerable moral power in the popular idea; and the subscription of the impotent Senate was not seldom demanded by a prudent monarch to give a wider sanction to his acts of oppression or cruelty.[5] During an interregnum*
- ↑ They had much the force of a decree nisi, to be made absolute only in the quarter where all the circumstances were known. The Codes are full of warnings against acting too hastily on the Emperor's rescript; thus Constantine says, "Contra jus Rescripta non valeant," but his son on the same page, "Multabuntur Judices qui Rescripta contempserint." They had to steer between Scylla and Charybdis; in most cases, however, an easy task enough in Byzantine administration; Cod. Theod., I, i, 1, 5.
- ↑ Julian, in his zeal for constitutional government, tried to make it a real power in the state, but his effort was quietly ignored after his short career by his successors; Zosimus, iii, 11.
- ↑ In theory the Consul (Cod. Theod., VI, vi), but practically the P.U.; ibid., ii, and Godefroy's paratitlon; cf. Cassiodorus, Var. Epist., i, 42, 43, etc.
- ↑ Cod. Theod., VI, xxiii, 1; XII, i, 122; IX, ii, 1, etc.
- ↑ Ammianus, xxviii, 1; Cod., I, xiv. Thus even Theodosius based
