The victims of a bad
Emperor were taken usually from among the nobles; many of them were little
better, than their destroyer; and his murders were confined, almost
invariably, within the walls of Rome: but the benefits of the Imperial
system were extended into all the provinces; and the judgment-seat of
Caesar was the protection of innumerable citizens. Many were the mistakes,
many the misfortunes, deplorable the mischiefs, of the Imperial
administration; I wish neither to deny, nor to conceal them: but here I
must content myself with speaking broadly, with presenting a superficial
view of things; and, upon the whole, the system of the Emperors was less
bad than the decayed and inadequate government, out of which it was
developed. For the change from the Republic to the Empire was hardly a
revolution; and the venerable names and forms of the old organisation were
religiously preserved. Still, the Consuls were elected, the Senate met and
legislated, Praetors and Legates went forth into the provinces, the
Legions watched upon the frontiers, the lesser Magistrates performed their
office; but above them was Caesar, directing all things, controlling all
things; the _Imperator_ and Universal Tribune, in whose name all was done;
the "Praesens Divus," on whom the whole depended; at once the master of
the Imperial Commonwealth, and the minister of the Roman People.
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