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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1888 Excerpt:...limits to which they were restricted, and even to graciously use the senatorial machinery as an instrument of their own government. To men of the first century 'libertas' still meant the constitutional independence of the republican authorities as against the encroachments of the 'princeps'; to those of the second it meant only personal security for life and property. The distinguishing features of imperial rule in the age of the Antonines, the increasing personal activity of the ' princeps,' the elaboration of a purely imperial administrative system, the extension of imperial control over every department of public life, and along with this the half-contemptuous toleration extended to the powerless republican machinery, are features which first clearly appear under the rule of the Flavii. The accession of Septimius Severus, as Dr. Herzog rightly holds, marks the commencement of a fresh stage. But all important as the third century is for the general history of the empire, it is not equally so for the development of the imperial system. Changes no doubt there were, but for the most part, following the lines laid down in the preceding century, they were in the direction of a further development of the imperial administrative service, and a more complete exclusion from imperial affairs of the senate and of the republican magistrates. The new position of the princeps as an absolute ruler was, as Dr. Herzog has admirably pointed out (p. 459), at once confirmed and justified by lawyers like Papinian and CJlpian, Orientals by birth, who wrote up the imperial prerogative with Eastern zeal. The courtesy with which Severus Alexander treated the senate implies no change in policy; nor did the fact that the senate was on a few occasions allowed to select the 'princeps...