18 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xxxvi " Your election, Conscript Fathers ! and the ordinance of the most valiant army, have made me your emperor. 44 May the propitious Deity direct and prosper the consuls and events of my administration, to your advantage, and to the public wel- fare ! For my own part, I did not aspire, I have submitted, to reign ; nor should I have discharged the obligations of a citizen, if I had refused, with base and selfish ingratitude, to support the weight of those labours which were imposed by the republic. Assist, therefore, the prince whom you have made ; partake the duties which you have enjoined ; and may our common en- deavours promote the happiness of an empire which I have ac- cepted from your hands. Be assured that, in our times, justice shall resume her ancient vigour, and that virtue shall become not only innocent but meritorious. Let none, except the authors themselves, be apprehensive of delations* 5 which, as a subject, I have always condemned, and, as a prince, will severely punish. Our own vigilance, and that of our father, the patrician Ricirner, shall regulate all military affairs, and provide for the safety of the Roman world, which we have saved from foreign and domestic enemies. 46 You now understand the maxims of my government : you may confide in the faithful love and sincere assurances of a prince who has formerly been the companion of your life and dangers, who still glories in the name of senator, and who is anxious that you should never repent of the judg- ment which you have pronounced in his favour." The emperor, who, amidst the ruins of the Roman world, revived the ancient 44 Imperatorem me factum, P. C, electionis vestree arbitrio, et fortissimi exer- citus ordinatione agnoscite (Novell. Majorian. tit. iii. p. 34, ad ealcem Cod. Theo- dos.). Sidonius proclaims the unanimous voice of the empire. Postquam ordine vobis Ordo omnis regnum dederat ; plebs, curia, miles, Et collega simul. — [Carm. 5] 386. This language is ancient and constitutional ; and we may observe that the clergy were not yet considered as a distinct order of the state. [The date of Majorian's elevation given in Fasti Vind. priores (p. 305), April 1, is difficult to reconcile, Martroye points out, with Majorian's announcement to the senate (as quoted above) in a Novel dated Jan. 11, 458. Martroye is inclined to place the accession towards the end of 457 (Genseric, p. 180).] 48 Either dtlationes or delationes would afford a tolerable reading ; but there is much more sense and spirit in the latter, to which I have therefore given the preference. 46 Ab externo hoste et a domestica clade liberavimus ; by the latter, Majorian must understand the tyranny of Avitus ; whose death he consequently avowed as a meritorious act. On this occasion, Sidonius is fearful and obscure ; he describes the twelve Caesars, the nations of Africa, &c, that he may escape the dangerous name of Avitus (305-369).
