The Illustrious.2.The Spectabiles, or Respectable.

And, 3.

the Clarissimi; whom we may translate by the word Honorable.

In the times of Roman simplicity, the last-mentioned epithet was used only as a vague expression of deference, till it became at length the peculiar and appropriated title of all who were members of the senate, [77] and consequently of all who, from that venerable body, were selected to govern the provinces.

The vanity of those who, from their rank and office, might claim a superior distinction above the rest of the senatorial order, was long afterwards indulged with the new appellation of Respectable; but the title of Illustrious was always reserved to some eminent personages who were obeyed or reverenced by the two subordinate classes.