1848.] Inscriptions at Beirût. 589 ses ordinarium gessit." Hence his name appears as the consul of the year 33 after Christ. And again the same author says of Domitian (in vit. § 2), "in sex consulatibus non nisi unum ordinarium gessit, eumque, cedente et suffragante fratre." In the year 73 occurred this ordinary consulship of Domitian. The others may be found in Baiter's fasti consulares (at the end of Orelli's Cicero) or in similar lists. The same term is found not unfrequently in the Theodosian Code. Thus in law 12 de praetor. et quaest. Lib. VI. Tit. 4, we read "ita ut adsint decem e procerum numero qui ordinarii consules fuerint quique praefecturae gesserint dignitatem," etc. Examples from inscriptions will be presently adduced. Grados in line 4, and Habito in line 11, if they really belong to the stone, may be classed with senati, versorum, versis, and similar forms of the fourth declension to be found in Priscian (Krehl. 1. 268, Putsch. 711). In the eighth line one may conjecture that CONSTATIS ought to be written CONSTATIS, the A and N having coalesced, so to speak, like the N and T of the previous line. PRINCIRUM of line 9 is perhaps due to false copying. A word or two now respecting the purport and date of the inscription. Constantius and Constans were emperors together, after the death of their brother Constantine Junior, for ten years from 340 until 350, when Constans was slain by the cavalry of the usurper Magnentius. In the year 344, Leontius and Sallustius were consuls. The name of a Leontius, who is no doubt the same person with the consul and with the one mentioned in our inscription, appears in the inscriptions of several laws in the Theodosian code, which were given out between 338 and 344. In all of them except one where the name of office has probably fallen out of the text, he is addressed as P. P. or PF. P. i. e. praefect of the praetorium. In one (Lib. IX. Tit. 1, L. 7,) he is called Dometius Leontius. Gothofred several times declares that he was praefect of the praetorium for the East, I know not on what evidence, unless it be that a law in Lib. VII. Tit. 9, without date, addressed to him, may fairly be supposed to relate to the burdens, to which the eastern provincials were exposed from the presence of the army, during the wars of Coustantius with the Persians. Our inscription adds to the probability that the East was the sphere of his official duties. During the year 344 he held both the offices mentioned in the inscription, as appears from Leg. 3, de excusat. artif. Lib. XIII. Tit. 4, (Cod. Theodos. ed. Ritter, 6. 61). Leontius is said to have been raised by his merit through the several grades of honors "ad hos dignitatum apices." In order to take the full force of this expression and to understand what the rank of Leontius was in the empire, one or two things need to be said concerning the system of honors and offices introduced by Constantine. Having wisely supVOL. V. No. 19. 50 pressed the praetorian guard, he divested their praefects of all military power; and thenceforth the title was bestowed on the most important civil officers of the empire. There were four of them: Gaul, Britain and Spain were under the praefectus praetorio Galliarum; Italy and Africa were governed by the praefect of Italy; Illyricum, Macedonia and Greece by a third, who took his title from the first mentioned territory; and the fourth besides the East which gave him his title, held command over Thrace and Egypt and was more especially attached to the court. This was looked on as one of the highest honors to which a person not belonging to the imperial house could attain. Ammianus Marcellinus says (XXI. 16.) "cunctae castrenses et ordinariae potestates, ut honorum omnium apicem, priscae reverentiae more, praefectos semper suspexere praetorio." The officials of the empire were arranged by Constantine into five classes: the Illustres, Spectabiles, Clarissimi, Perfectissimi and Egregii, of which last rank little is said. Among the illustres the first dignitaries were consuls, patricii, praefecti praetorio, and magistri armorum or utriusque militiae or equitum and peditum, i. e. generalissimos of the cavalry or infantry, or of both. Patricius was a mere title of honor without office, attached to the person by imperial favor. Thus the consulate and praefecture were, as our inscription says, the apices dignitatum,' the highest offices which a subject could fill. The consulate is named last in the inscription because it stood foremost in dignity, although almost an empty name. In a law of the year 382, we have these words: "diversa culmina dignitatum consulatui cedere evidenti auctoritate decernimus," (Cod. Theod. Lib. VI. Tit. 6. ed. Ritter, 2. 73). The decree in honor of Leontius emanated from the province of Phoenice or Phoenicia. This province belonged to the diocese or superintendency of the East which was included in the Praefecture of the East. The decree is attributed to the province probably as having been passed by the governor, or consularis Phoenices and his assessors. It was obtained, we may suppose, at the request of citizens of Berytus, an important town of the province but not the metropolis; which rank at that time was assigned to Tyre. The expense was defrayed by the Ordo, i. e. Ordo decurionum or curia-the municipal senate of Berytus. Concerning the functions of these bodies, Savigny (Gesch. Röm. Rechts Vol. I. chap. 2) and Gothofred's praef. to Cod. Theod. XII. Tit. 1, may be consulted. The honor consisted in a statue of bronze clad in a toga to indicate the civil offices which Leontius had filled. When placed on its pedestal, which is the stone containing the present inscription, the statue was dedicated or formally declared to be set up in honor of Leontius by the senate which bore the expeuse. 1848.] Inscriptions at Beirût. 591 We may suppose that Leontius was either a native or a benefactor of Berytus. It may deserve perhaps to be brought into connection with the place where this statue was erected, that several persons of the same name seem to have been professors of law at Berytus, in the fourth and fifth centuries. If the name were a less common one, this would make it probable that they were natives of the place, belonging to a family in which the study of law became hereditary. I will close by citing several parallel passages from inscriptions. Line 1. We may restore the text by reading viro illustri. Compare Orelli, 1152. Fl. Ricimer V. I. magister utriusque militiae Patricius et Ex cons. ord. (i. e. ex consule ordinario), etc. Line 2. Consul ordinarius occurs, Orelli, 3159, 3183, 3188, (ex cons. ord.) 3191, 1187, and 1152 (u. s.). Lines 3-5. Orelli, 3159. Rufius Praetextatus Postumianus, etc. (then his honors are enumerated, then it is added) quos tantos ac tales honores primo aetates suae flore promeruit. 1139.—Materno Cynegio per omnes honorum gradus meritorum contemplatione provecto. Lines 7-8. For the proposal or consent of the emperor to honor some one, comp. Orelli, 3186.-huic senatus auctore M. Aur. Antonine, etc.-statuam poni habitu civili in foro Divi Trajani pecunia publica censuit. See also 3161 cited below, and 1139, where a statue is erected according to a decree of Theodosius and Arcadius. In this latter inscription DD. NN. is written out Domini Nostri. Constanti on the marble is written probably with the final letter I longer than the others to show its equivalence to ii. This is often the case. Comp. C. Schneider, 2. 60. For aeternorum principum, Comp. 3161.—sacro judicio aeterni principes -erigi collocarique jusserunt. Line 9. Comp. 3165, ordo splendidissimus Beneventanae civitatis, and other inscriptions. Line 10. Locatam. 3192. DD. NN. Valentinianus et Valens-statuam sub auro constitui locarique jusserunt. Line 11. Civili habitu occurs 3186 and 1139. The second inscription from a sarcophagus recently dug up at Beirut contains an elegiac distich of which the hexameter halts in the third foot. Θάρει, (τεθνηκότ' ἄρα πένθη,) τοῖς ἐπὶ τέκνοις I understand this inscription thus: His wife was ill and he was expecting to lose her. She recovered, however, and he died leaving her to take care of the children. "Take courage (dead then as it would seem are your sorrows) seeing you have left behind to take care of the children your wife whom you were just ready to mourn for." The parenthesis is awkward and the text suspicious. Mr. Sophocles of Harvard thinks that the poet wrote: Θάρσει· τέθνηκας γὰρ πενθητοῖς ἐπὶ τέκνοις, “ take courage, for at your decease you left a wife whom you loved in charge of children about whom you felt anxious." Mr. Hadley of Yale College suggests the following slight change in the first line: Θάρσει· τέθνη καὶ γὰρ ἀπενθής, τοῖς ἐπὶ τέκνοις, etc., by which a very good sense is elicited. The third is plain. "Cassia Lysias daughter of Philoxenus also called Claudia who lived, years months XI. (?). Sophron and Philadius" (erected this monument). Zapov is evidently wrong, and Pilάdios must be, it would seem, a proper name, of which I am unable to produce another example. The fourth and last inscription is very imperfectly copied. A correct copy by Berggren appears in Boeckh's Corpus, Vol. III. fasc. 1, No. 4530, and here follows: Τῆς τοῦ προσιόντος ἀνδρὸς ἐννοίας ἀεὶ σαφὴς ἔλεγχος ἡ πρόςοψις γείνεται, παρὰ γὰρ τὸ μεικρὸν γείνεται πλήρης χάρις. stipem aut benefiIgitur quum dubi "Sensus est:" says the editor, "viri qui te adeat ut cium a te postulet facies ipsa animum ejus declarat. tationi locus non sit, da ei prompte aut nihil prorsus da; nam tempus breve est, quo plena initur gratia." Versus extremas ita jam Heusinger interpretatus est in schedis. Titulum hunc Maundrellius putat ex ara esse, et pertinere ad coenam Domini, quoniam qui coenam Domini adirent, a veteribus sint dicti oi лgosióvτES. Minus id necessarium, neque causa in aperto. Quamquam videri potest Christianus esse titulus. In closing I will add an unpublished Latin inscription found by Dr. De Forest at ruins, near the village Bara. Nectareos succos Baccheïa munera cernis Quae bitis genuit aprico sole refecta. Baccheïa is found Virg. Georg. 2. 454. For b instead of v in bitis, comp. Freund's Wörterbuch under the letter B. Genuit with long i, is excused by the arsis. It may be doubted whether apricus was ever used by the Latin poets as an epithet of the sun itself. 1848.1 Words of Frederick William IV. 593 ARTICLE XIII. LITERARY AND THEOLOGICAL MISCELLANIES. THEOLOGY and Politics have many points in common. Civil government is a Divine Institution. The authority of the law of the land rests upon the fact that the State is an ordinance of God. One sound political principle therefore is, the divine right of the State, not the divine right of kings, nor the divine right of the aristocracy, nor the divine right of the democracy, but the divine right of the State, whether the authority of the State be expressed through one, through a few, or through the many. In a time when the forms of government in many countries of the old world are rapidly changing, whatever tends to throw light upon the relation of ruler and people in those countries in which monarchical government still exists, is not without interest or value. We present our readers with a translation of the speech of Frederick William IV. king of Prussia, to the Estates of Prussia, on the 15th of October, 1840, when they were assembled to give their oath of allegiance to him as successor to the throne. It may, perhaps, have an interest both because it illustrates the character of the distinguished person whose sentiments are therein expressed, and because it furnishes a subject of comparison with the spirit of recent events in that country. As the privy-counsellor Mathis was reading the preamble to the oath, his majesty the king arose and addressed the Estates as follows: "It was formerly the custom that the Estates of Germany did not give their allegiance, until the safeguard for their allegiance had been received. I will in like manner adhere to this custom. I know, indeed, and I avow it, that I have my crown from God alone, and that it comports me well to say, Woe to him who touches it. But I know also, and confess it before you all, that I wear my crown as a fief from the Most High, and that to Him must I give account of every day and of every hour of my government. Whoever desires an assurance for the future, to him I give these words. A better assurance can neither I, nor any man upon earth give. It presses more heavily and binds more firmly than all coronationoaths, than all promises inscribed upon brass or parchment, for it flows from life, and has its source in faith. Whoever of you, whose desire is not for a so-called glorious government, which resounds to posterity with the clash of arms and the noise of trumpets, but who is contented with a simple, paternal, genuine German government, let him have confidence in me, and with me let hitn trust in God that He will bless the vows which daily I offer to Him, and make them serviceable and rich in blessing to our beloved father-land." |