He was the universal guardian of the public and private
interests which composed the great edifice of the social system as then
existing amongst his subjects. Above all, and out of his own private
purse, he supported the heraldries of his dominions--the peerage,
senatorial or praetorian, and the great gentry or chivalry of the Equites.
These were classes who would have been dishonored by the censorship of a
less august comptroller. And, for the classes below these,--by how much
they were lower and more remote from his ocular superintendence,--by so
much the more were they linked to him in a connection of absolute
dependence. Caesar it was who provided their daily food, Caesar who provided
their pleasures and relaxations. He chartered the fleets which brought
grain to the Tiber--he bespoke the Sardinian granaries whilst yet
unformed--and the harvests of the Nile whilst yet unsown. Not the
connection between a mother and her unborn infant is more intimate and
vital, than that which subsisted between the mighty populace of the Roman
capital and their paternal emperor. They drew their nutriment from him;
they lived and were happy by sympathy with the motions of his will; to him
also the arts, the knowledge, and the literature of the empire looked for
support.
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