Tiberius meantime, while securing to himself the
substance of imperial power, allowed the Senate some shadow of
STATUS OF PRIESTS, OF SANCTUARIES |
its old constitution
by referring to its investigation certain demands of the provinces. In the
Greek cities license and impunity in establishing sanctuaries were on the
increase. Temples were thronged with the vilest of the slaves; the same
refuge screened the debtor against his creditor, as well as men suspected of
capital offences. No authority was strong enough to check the turbulence of
a people which protected the crimes of men as much as the worship of the
gods.
It was accordingly decided that the different states were to send
their charters and envoys to
Rome. Some voluntarily
relinquished privileges which they had groundlessly usurped; many trusted to
old superstitions, or to their services to the Roman people. It was a grand
spectacle on that day, when the Senate examined grants made by our
ancestors, treaties with allies, even decrees of kings who had flourished
before
Rome's ascendancy, and the forms of worship of the very deities, with
full liberty as in former days, to ratify or to alter.