Those princes, whom the ostentation of gratitude or generosity permitted for a while to hold a precarious sceptre, were dismissed from their thrones, as soon as they had per formed their appointed task of fashioning to the yoke the vanquished nations.
The free states and cities which had embraced the cause of Rome were rewarded with a nominal alliance, and insensibly sunk into real servitude.

The public authority was every where exercised by the ministers of the senate and of the emperors, and that authority was absolute, and without control.

[291] But the same salutary maxims of government, which had secured the peace and obedience of Italy were extended to the most distant conquests.

A nation of Romans was gradually formed in the provinces, by the double expedient of introducing colonies, and of admitting the most faithful and deserving of the provincials to the freedom of Rome.
[Footnote 28: See Pausanias, l.vii.The Romans condescended to restore the names of those assemblies, when they could no longer be dangerous.] [Footnote 29: They are frequently mentioned by Caesar.

The Abbe Dubos attempts, with very little success, to prove that the assemblies of Gaul were continued under the emperors.