[Footnote 84: The Anecdotes (c. 11 - 14, 18, 20 - 30) supply many
facts and more complaints.
Note: The work of Lydus de Magistratibus (published by Hase
at Paris, 1812, and reprinted in the new edition of the Byzantine
Historians,) was written during the reign of Justinian. This
work of Lydus throws no great light on the earlier history of the
Roman magistracy, but gives some curious details of the changes
and retrenchments in the offices of state, which took place at
this time. The personal history of the author, with the account
of his early and rapid advancement, and the emoluments of the
posts which he successively held, with the bitter disappointment
which he expresses, at finding himself, at the height of his
ambition, in an unpaid place, is an excellent illustration of
this statement. Gibbon has before, c. iv. n. 45, and c. xvii. n.
112, traced the progress of a Roman citizen to the highest honors
of the state under the empire; the steps by which Lydus reached
his humbler eminence may likewise throw light on the civil
service at this period. He was first received into the office of
the Praetorian praefect; became a notary in that office, and made
in one year 1000 golden solidi, and that without extortion. His
place and the influence of his relatives obtained him a wife with
400 pounds of gold for her dowry. He became chief chartularius,
with an annual stipend of twenty-four solidi, and considerable
emoluments for all the various services which he performed. He
rose to an Augustalis, and finally to the dignity of Corniculus,
the highest, and at one time the most lucrative office in the
department. But the Praetorian praefect had gradually been
deprived of his powers and his honors. He lost the
superintendence of the supply and manufacture of arms; the
uncontrolled charge of the public posts; the levying of the
troops; the command of the army in war when the emperors ceased
nominally to command in person, but really through the Praetorian
praefect; that of the household troops, which fell to the
magister aulae. At length the office was so completely stripped
of its power, as to be virtually abolished, (see de Magist. l.
iii. c. 40, p. 220, &c.) This diminution of the office of the
praefect destroyed the emoluments of his subordinate officers,
and Lydus not only drew no revenue from his dignity, but expended
upon it all the gains of his former services.
Lydus gravely refers this calamitous, and, as he considers
it, fatal degradation of the Praetorian office to the alteration
in the style of the official documents from Latin to Greek; and
refers to a prophecy of a certain Fonteius, which connected the
ruin of the Roman empire with its abandonment of its language.
Lydus chiefly owed his promotion to his knowledge of Latin! - M.]