HISTORY OF ROMAN-1Chapter V: Sale Of The Empire To Didius Julianus. Part I.Public Sale Of The Empire To Didius Julianus By The PraetorianGuards - Clodius Albinus In Britain, Pescennius Niger In Syria,And Septimius Severus In Pannonia, Declare Against The MurderersOf Pertinax - Civil Wars And Victory Of Severus Over His ThreeRivals - Relaxation Of Discipline - New Maxims Of Government. The power of the sword is more sensibly felt in an extensivemonarchy, than in a small community. It has been calculated bythe ablest politicians, that no state, without being soonexhausted, can maintain above the hundredth part of its membersin arms and idleness. But although this relative proportion maybe uniform, the influence of the army over the rest of thesociety will vary according to the degree of its positivestrength. The advantages of military science and disciplinecannot be exerted, unless a proper number of soldiers are unitedinto one body, and actuated by one soul. With a handful of men,such a union would be ineffectual; with an unwieldy host, itwould be impracticable; and the powers of the machine would bealike destroyed by the extreme minuteness or the excessive weightof its springs. To illustrate this observation, we need onlyreflect, that there is no superiority of natural strength,artificial weapons, or acquired skill, which could enable one manto keep in constant subjection one hundred of hisfellow-creatures: the tyrant of a single town, or a smalldistrict, would soon discover that a hundred armed followers werea weak defence against ten thousand peasants or citizens; but ahundred thousand well-disciplined soldiers will command, withdespotic sway, ten millions of subjects; and a body of ten orfifteen thousand guards will strike terror into the most numerouspopulace that ever crowded the streets of an immense capital. The Praetorian bands, whose licentious fury was the firstsymptom and cause of the decline of the Roman empire, scarcelyamounted to the last- mentioned number 1 They derived theirinstitution from Augustus. That crafty tyrant, sensible thatlaws might color, but that arms alone could maintain, his usurpeddominion, had gradually formed this powerful body of guards, inconstant readiness to protect his person, to awe the senate, andeither to prevent or to crush the first motions of rebellion. Hedistinguished these favored troops by a double pay and superiorprivileges; but, as their formidable aspect would at once havealarmed and irritated the Roman people, three cohorts only werestationed in the capital, whilst the remainder was dispersed inthe adjacent towns of Italy. 2 But after fifty years of peaceand servitude, Tiberius ventured on a decisive measure, whichforever rivetted the fetters of his country. Under the fairpretences of relieving Italy from the heavy burden of militaryquarters, and of introducing a stricter discipline among theguards, he assembled them at Rome, in a permanent camp, 3 whichwas fortified with skilful care, 4 and placed on a commandingsituation. 5Footnote 1: They were originally nine or ten thousand men, (forTacitus and son are not agreed upon the subject,) divided into asmany cohorts. Vitellius increased them to sixteen thousand, andas far as we can learn from inscriptions, they never afterwardssunk much below that number. See Lipsius de magnitudine Romana,i. 4.Footnote 2: Sueton. in August. c. 49.Footnote 3: Tacit. Annal. iv. 2. Sueton. in Tiber. c. 37. DionCassius, l. lvii. p. 867.Footnote 4: In the civil war between Vitellius and Vespasian,the Praetorian camp was attacked and defended with all themachines used in the siege of the best fortified cities. Tacit.Hist. iii. 84.Footnote 5: Close to the walls of the city, on the broad summitof the Quirinal and Viminal hills. See Nardini Roma Antica, p.174. Donatus de Roma Antiqua, p. 46. Note: Not on both these hills: neither Donatus nor Nardinijustify this position. (Whitakers Review. p. 13.) At thenorthern extremity of this hill (the Viminal) are someconsiderable remains of a walled enclosure which bears all theappearance of a Roman camp, and therefore is generally thought tocorrespond with the Castra Praetoria. Cramers Italy 390. - M. Such formidable servants are always necessary, but oftenfatal to the throne of despotism. By thus introducing thePraetorian guards as it were into the palace and the senate, theemperors taught them to perceive their own strength, and theweakness of the civil government; to view the vices of theirmasters with familiar contempt, and to lay aside that reverentialawe, which distance only, and