[Footnote: Very remarkable it is, and a fact
which speaks volumes as to the democratic constitution of the Roman army,
in the midst of that aristocracy which enveloped its parent state in a
civil sense, that although there was a name for a _common soldier_ (or
_sentinel_, as he was termed by our ancestors)--viz. _miles gregarius_, or
_miles manipularis_--there was none for an _officer_; that is to say, each
several rank of officers had a name; but there was no generalization to
express the idea of an officer abstracted from its several species or
classes.] It cannot much surprise us that this department of the public
service should gradually have gone to ruin or decay. Under the senate and
people, under the auspices of those awful symbols--letters more
significant and ominous than ever before had troubled the eyes of man,
except upon Belshazzar's wall--S.P.Q.R., the officers of the Roman army
had been kept true to their duties, and vigilant by emulation and a
healthy ambition. But, when the ripeness of corruption had by dissolving
the body of the State brought out of its ashes a new mode of life, and had
recast the aristocratic republic, by aid of its democratic elements then
suddenly victorious, into a pure autocracy--whatever might be the
advantages in other respects of this great change, in one point it had
certainly injured the public service, by throwing the higher military
appointments, all in fact which conferred any authority, into the channels
of court favor--and by consequence into a mercenary disposal.
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