[158] Yet the annual consulship still lived in the minds of the people; they fondly expected its speedy restoration; they applauded the gracious condescension of successive princes, by whom it was assumed in the first year of their reign; and three centuries elapsed, after the death of Justinian, before that obsolete dignity, which had been suppressed by custom, could be abolished by law.

[159] The imperfect mode of distinguishing each year by the name of a magistrate, was usefully supplied by the date of a permanent aera: the creation of the world, according to the Septuagint version, was adopted by the Greeks; [160] and the Latins, since the age of Charlemagne, have computed their time from the birth of Christ.

[161] [Footnote 156: Cassiodor.

Variarum Epist.vi.1.Jornandes, c.

57, p.
696, dit.Grot.Quod summum bonum primumque in mundo decus dicitur.] [Footnote 157: See the regulations of Justinian, (Novell.