[Footnote: The fact is, that the
emperor was more of a sacred and divine creature in his lifetime than
after his death. His consecrated character as a living ruler was a truth;
his canonization, a fiction of tenderness to his memory.]
To this view of the imperial character and relations must be added one
single circumstance, which in some measure altered the whole for the
individual who happened to fill the office. The emperor _de facto_
might be viewed under two aspects: there was the man, and there was the
office. In his office he was immortal and sacred: but as a question might
still be raised, by means of a mercenary army, as to the claims of the
particular individual who at any time filled the office, the very sanctity
and privilege of the character with which he was clothed might actually be
turned against himself; and here it is, at this point, that the character
of Roman emperor became truly and mysteriously awful. Gibbon has taken
notice of the extraordinary situation of a subject in the Roman empire who
should attempt to fly from the wrath of the crown. Such was the ubiquity
of the emperor that this was absolutely hopeless.
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