XVII. CHAP. their minute and intricate detail) confifted of two diftinct operations; the refolving the general impofition into its conftituent parts, which were affeffed on the provinces, the cities, and the individuals of the Roman world; and the collecting the feparate contributions of the individuals, the cities, and the provinces, till the accumulated fums were poured into the Imperial treafuries. But as the account between the monarch and the fubject was perpetually open, and as the renewal of the demand anticipated the perfect difcharge of the preceding obligation, the weighty machine of the finances was moved by the fame hands round the circle of its yearly revolution. Whatever was honourable or important in the administration of the revenue, was committed to the wisdom of the præfects, and their provincial representatives; the lucrative functions were claimed by a crowd of fubordinate officers, fome of whom depended on the treasurer, others on the governor of the province; and who, in the inevitable conflicts of a perplexed jurifdiction, had frequent opportunities of difputing with each other the spoils of the people. The laborious offices, which could be productive only of envy and reproach, of expence and danger, were impofed on the Decurions, who formed the corporations of the cities, and whom the feverity of the Imperial laws had condemned to fuftain the burthens of civil fociety 172. The 172 The title concerning the Decurions (1. xii. tit. i.) is the most ample in the whole Theodofian Code; fince it contains not lefs than one hundred and ninety-two diftinct laws to ascertain the duties and privileges of that ufeful order of citizens. 7 whole XVII. whole landed property of the empire (without ex- CHAP. cepting the patrimonial eftates of the monarch) was the object of ordinary taxation; and every new purchafer contracted the obligations of the former proprietor. An accurate cenfus 173, or furvey, was the only equitable mode of afcertaining the proportion which every citizen fhould be obliged to contribute for the public fervice; and from the well-known period of the indictions, there is reafon to believe that this difficult and expenfive operation was repeated at the regular dif tance of fifteen years. The lands were measured by furveyors, who were fent into the provinces ; their nature, whether arable or pasture, or vineyards or woods, was diftinctly reported; and an eftimate was made of their common value from the average produce of five years. The numbers of flaves and of cattle conftituted an effential part of the report; an oath was adminiftered to the proprietors, which bound them to disclose the true state of their affairs; and their attempts to prevaricate, or elude the intention of the legislator, were feverely watched, and punished as a capital crime, which included the double gilt of treafon and facrilege 74, A large portion of the tribute 173 Habemus enim et hominum númerum qui delati funt, et àgrûm modum. Eumenius in Panegyr. Vet. viii. 6. See Cod. Theod. 1. xiii. tit. x, xi. with Godefroy's Commentary. 174 Siquis facrilegâ vitem falce fucciderit, aut feracium Ramorum foetus hebetaverit, quo declinet fidem Cenfuum, et mentiatur callide paupertatis ingenium, mox dete&tus capitale fubibit exitium, et bona ejus in Fisci jura migrabunt. Cod. Theod. 1. xiii. tit. xi, leg. 1. Although this law is not without its ftudied obfcurity, it is, however, clear enough to prove the minuteness of the inquifition, and the difproportion of the penalty. G 3 was CHA P. was paid in money; and of the current coin of the XVII, empire, gold alone could be legally accepted 175. The remainder of the taxes, according to the proportions determined by the annual indiction, was furnished in a manner ftill more direct, and still more oppreffive. According to the different nature of lands, their real produce, in the various articles of wine or oil, corn or barley, wood or iron, was tranfported by the labour or at the expence of the provincials to the Imperial maga zines, from whence they were occafionally diftri buted, for the use of the court, of the army, and of the two capitals, Rome and Conftantinople. The commiffioners of the revenue were fo fre quently obliged to make confiderable purchases, that they were strictly prohibited from allowing any compenfation, or from receiving in money the value of thofe fupplies which were exacted in kind. In the primitive fimplicity of fmall communities, this method may be well adapted to collect, the almost voluntary offerings of the people; but it is at once fufceptible of the utmost latitude and of the utmost strictness, which in a corrupt and abfolute monarchy muft introduce a perpetual contest between the power of oppreffion and the arts of fraud 17. The agriculture of the Roman 175 The aftonifhment of Pliny would have ceafed. Equidem mirror P. R. victis gentibus argentum femper imperitaffe non aurum. Hift. Natur. xxxiii. 15. 176 Some precautions were taken (see Cod. Theod. 1. xi. tit, ii, and Cod. Juftinian. l. x. tit. xxvii, leg, 1, 2, 3.) to restrain the magiftrates from the abuse of their authority, either in the exaction or in the purchase of corn: but thofe who had learning enough to read Roinan provinces was infenfibly ruined, and, in CHA P. the progrefs of defpotifm, which tends to difap- XVII. point its own purpose, the emperors were obliged to derive fome merit from the forgiveness of debts, or the remiffion of tributes, which their subjects were utterly incapable of paying. According to the new divifion of Italy, the fertile and happy province of Campania, the scene of the early victories and of the delicious retirements of the citizens of Rome, extended between the fea and the Appenine from the Tyber to the Silarus. Within fixty years after the death of Conftantine, and on the evidence of an actual furvey, an exemption was granted in favour of threehundred and thirty thousand English acres of defert and uncultivated land; which amounted to oneeighth of the whole furface of the province. As the footsteps of the Barbarians had not yet been feen in Italy, the caufe of this amazing defolation, which is recorded in the laws, can be afcribed only to the administration of the Roman emperors 1??. 177 Either from defign or from accident, the mode of affeffment feemed to unite the fubftance of a read the orations of Cicero against Verres (iii. de Frumento), might inftru&t themselves in all the various arts of oppreffion, with regard to the weight, the price, the quality, and the carriage. The avarice of an unlettered governor would fupply the ignorance of precept or precedent. 177 Cod. Theod. 1. xi. tit. xxviii. leg. 2. published the 24th of March, A.D. 395., by the emperor Honorius, only two months after the death of his father Theodofius. He speaks of 528,042 Roman jugera, which I have reduced to the English measure. The jugerum contained 28,800 fquare Roman feet. Affeffed in the form of a capi tation. CHAP. land-tax with the forms of a capitation 178. The district, expreffed the number of tributary sub- 178 Godefroy (Cod. Theod. tom. vi. p. 116.) argues with weight and learning on the subject of the capitation; but while he explains the caput, as a fare or measure of property, he too abfolutely excludes the idea of a perfonal affeffment. 179 Quid profuerit (Julianus) anhelantibus extremâ penuria Gal. lis, hinc maxime claret, quod primitus partes eas ingreffus, pro ca. pitibus fingulis tributi nomine vicenos quinos aureos reperit flagitari ; difcedens vero feptenos tantum munera univerfa complentes. Aminian. l. xvi. c. 5. |