Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.—Part VI

The name and use of the _indictions_, 170 which serve to
ascertain the chronology of the middle ages, were derived from
the regular practice of the Roman tributes. 171 The emperor
subscribed with his own hand, and in purple ink, the solemn
edict, or indiction, which was fixed up in the principal city of
each diocese, during two months previous to the first day of
September. And by a very easy connection of ideas, the word
_indiction_ was transferred to the measure of tribute which it
prescribed, and to the annual term which it allowed for the
payment. This general estimate of the supplies was proportioned
to the real and imaginary wants of the state; but as often as the
expense exceeded the revenue, or the revenue fell short of the
computation, an additional tax, under the name of
_superindiction_, was imposed on the people, and the most
valuable attribute of sovereignty was communicated to the
Prætorian præfects, who, on some occasions, were permitted to
provide for the unforeseen and extraordinary exigencies of the
public service. The execution of these laws (which it would be
tedious to pursue in their minute and intricate detail) consisted
of two distinct operations: the resolving the general imposition
into its constituent parts, which were assessed on the provinces,
the cities, and the individuals of the Roman world; and the
collecting the separate contributions of the individuals, the
cities, and the provinces, till the accumulated sums were poured
into the Imperial treasuries. But as the account between the
monarch and the subject was perpetually open, and as the renewal
of the demand anticipated the perfect discharge of the preceding
obligation, the weighty machine of the finances was moved by the
same hands round the circle of its yearly revolution. Whatever
was honorable or important in the administration of the revenue,
was committed to the wisdom of the præfects, and their provincia.
representatives; the lucrative functions were claimed by a crowd
of subordinate officers, some of whom depended on the treasurer,
others on the governor of the province; and who, in the
inevitable conflicts of a perplexed jurisdiction, had frequent
opportunities of disputing with each other the spoils of the
people. The laborious offices, which could be productive only of
envy and reproach, of expense and danger, were imposed on the
_Decurions_, who formed the corporations of the cities, and whom
the severity of the Imperial laws had condemned to sustain the
burdens of civil society. 172 The whole landed property of the
empire (without excepting the patrimonial estates of the monarch)
was the object of ordinary taxation; and every new purchaser
contracted the obligations of the former proprietor. An accurate
_census_, 173 or survey, was the only equitable mode of
ascertaining the proportion which every citizen should be obliged
to contribute for the public service; and from the well-known
period of the indictions, there is reason to believe that this
difficult and expensive operation was repeated at the regular
distance of fifteen years. The lands were measured by surveyors,
who were sent into the provinces; their nature, whether arable or
pasture, or vineyards or woods, was distinctly reported; and an
estimate was made of their common value from the average produce
of five years. The numbers of slaves and of cattle constituted an
essential part of the report; an oath was administered 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 severely watched, and punished
as a capital crime, which included the double guilt of treason
and sacrilege. 174 A large portion of the tribute was paid in
money; and of the current coin of the 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 still more direct, and still more oppressive.
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 transported by the labor or at the expense of the
provincials 17511 to the Imperial magazines, from whence they
were occasionally distributed for the use of the court, of the
army, and of two capitals, Rome and Constantinople. The
commissioners of the revenue were so frequently obliged to make
considerable purchases, that they were strictly prohibited from
allowing any compensation, or from receiving in money the value
of those supplies which were exacted in kind. In the primitive
simplicity of small communities, this method may be well adapted
to collect the almost voluntary offerings of the people; but it
is at once susceptible of the utmost latitude, and of the utmost
strictness, which in a corrupt and absolute monarchy must
introduce a perpetual contest between the power of oppression and
the arts of fraud. 176 The agriculture of the Roman provinces was
insensibly ruined, and, in the progress of despotism which tends
to disappoint its own purpose, the emperors were obliged to
derive some merit from the forgiveness of debts, or the remission
of tributes, which their subjects were utterly incapable of
paying. According to the new division 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 sea and the Apennine, from the Tiber to the Silarus.
Within sixty years after the death of Constantine, and on the
evidence of an actual survey, an exemption was granted in favor
of three hundred and thirty thousand English acres of desert and
uncultivated land; which amounted to one eighth of the whole
surface of the province. As the footsteps of the Barbarians had
not yet been seen in Italy, the cause of this amazing desolation,
which is recorded in the laws, can be ascribed only to the
administration of the Roman emperors. 177

170 (return) [ The cycle of indictions, which may be traced as
high as the reign of Constantius, or perhaps of his father,
Constantine, is still employed by the Papal court; but the
commencement of the year has been very reasonably altered to the
first of January. See l’Art de Verifier les Dates, p. xi.; and
Dictionnaire Raison. de la Diplomatique, tom. ii. p. 25; two
accurate treatises, which come from the workshop of the
Benedictines. —— It does not appear that the establishment of the
indiction is to be at tributed to Constantine: it existed before
he had been created _Augustus_ at Rome, and the remission granted
by him to the city of Autun is the proof. He would not have
ventured while only _Cæsar_, and under the necessity of courting
popular favor, to establish such an odious impost. Aurelius
Victor and Lactantius agree in designating Diocletian as the
author of this despotic institution. Aur. Vict. de Cæs. c. 39.
Lactant. de Mort. Pers. c. 7—G.]

171 (return) [ The first twenty-eight titles of the eleventh book
of the Theodosian Code are filled with the circumstantial
regulations on the important subject of tributes; but they
suppose a clearer knowledge of fundamental principles than it is
at present in our power to attain.]

172 (return) [ The title concerning the Decurions (l. xii. tit.
i.) is the most ample in the whole Theodosian Code; since it
contains not less than one hundred and ninety-two distinct laws
to ascertain the duties and privileges of that useful order of
citizens. * Note: The Decurions were charged with assessing,
according to the census of property prepared by the tabularii,
the payment due from each proprietor. This odious office was
authoritatively imposed on the richest citizens of each town;
they had no salary, and all their compensation was, to be exempt
from certain corporal punishments, in case they should have
incurred them. The Decurionate was the ruin of all the rich.
Hence they tried every way of avoiding this dangerous honor; they
concealed themselves, they entered into military service; but
their efforts were unavailing; they were seized, they were
compelled to become Decurions, and the dread inspired by this
title was termed _Impiety_.—G. ——The Decurions were mutually
responsible; they were obliged to undertake for pieces of ground
abandoned by their owners on account of the pressure of the
taxes, and, finally, to make up all deficiencies. Savigny chichte
des Rom. Rechts, i. 25.—M.]

173 (return) [ Habemus enim et hominum numerum qui delati sunt,
et agrun modum. Eumenius in Panegyr. Vet. viii. 6. See Cod.
Theod. l. xiii. tit. x. xi., with Godefroy’s Commentary.]

174 (return) [ Siquis sacrilegâ vitem falce succiderit, aut
feracium ramorum fœtus hebetaverit, quo delinet fidem Censuum, et
mentiatur callide paupertatis ingenium, mox detectus capitale
subibit exitium, et bona ejus in Fisci jura migrabunt. Cod.
Theod. l. xiii. tit. xi. leg. 1. Although this law is not without
its studied obscurity, it is, however clear enough to prove the
minuteness of the inquisition, and the disproportion of the
penalty.]

175 (return) [ The astonishment of Pliny would have ceased.
Equidem miror P. R. victis gentibus argentum semper imperitasse
non aurum. Hist Natur. xxxiii. 15.]

17511 (return) [ The proprietors were not charged with the
expense of this transport in the provinces situated on the
sea-shore or near the great rivers, there were companies of
boatmen, and of masters of vessels, who had this commission, and
furnished the means of transport at their own expense. In return,
they were themselves exempt, altogether, or in part, from the
indiction and other imposts. They had certain privileges;
particular regulations determined their rights and obligations.
(Cod. Theod. l. xiii. tit. v. ix.) The transports by land were
made in the same manner, by the intervention of a privileged
company called Bastaga; the members were called Bastagarii Cod.
Theod. l. viii. tit. v.—G.]

176 (return) [ Some precautions were taken (see Cod. Theod. l.
xi. tit. ii. and Cod. Justinian. l. x. tit. xxvii. leg. 1, 2, 3)
to restrain the magistrates from the abuse of their authority,
either in the exaction or in the purchase of corn: but those who
had learning enough to read the orations of Cicero against
Verres, (iii. de Frumento,) might instruct themselves in all the
various arts of oppression, with regard to the weight, the price,
the quality, and the carriage. The avarice of an unlettered
governor would supply the ignorance of precept or precedent.]

177 (return) [ Cod. Theod. l. 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, Theodosius. He speaks of
528,042 Roman jugera, which I have reduced to the English
measure. The jugerum contained 28,800 square Roman feet.]

Either from design or from accident, the mode of assessment
seemed to unite the substance of a land tax with the forms of a
capitation. 178 The returns which were sent of every province or
district, expressed the number of tributary subjects, and the
amount of the public impositions. The latter of these sums was
divided by the former; and the estimate, that such a province
contained so many _capita_, or heads of tribute; and that each
_head_ was rated at such a price, was universally received, not
only in the popular, but even in the legal computation. The value
of a tributary head must have varied, according to many
accidental, or at least fluctuating circumstances; but some
knowledge has been preserved of a very curious fact, the more
important, since it relates to one of the richest provinces of
the Roman empire, and which now flourishes as the most splendid
of the European kingdoms. The rapacious ministers of Constantius
had exhausted the wealth of Gaul, by exacting twenty-five pieces
of gold for the annual tribute of every head. The humane policy
of his successor reduced the capitation to seven pieces. 179 A
moderate proportion between these opposite extremes of
extraordinary oppression and of transient indulgence, may
therefore be fixed at sixteen pieces of gold, or about nine
pounds sterling, the common standard, perhaps, of the impositions
of Gaul. 180 But this calculation, or rather, indeed, the facts
from whence it is deduced, cannot fail of suggesting two
difficulties to a thinking mind, who will be at once surprised by
the _equality_, and by the _enormity_, of the capitation. An
attempt to explain them may perhaps reflect some light on the
interesting subject of the finances of the declining empire.

178 (return) [ 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 share or measure of property, he
too absolutely excludes the idea of a personal assessment.]

179 (return) [ Quid profuerit (_Julianus_) anhelantibus extremâ
penuriâ Gallis, hinc maxime claret, quod primitus partes eas
ingressus, pro _capitibus_ singulis tributi nomine vicenos quinos
aureos reperit flagitari; discedens vero septenos tantum numera
universa complentes. Ammian. l. xvi. c. 5.]

180 (return) [ In the calculation of any sum of money under
Constantine and his successors, we need only refer to the
excellent discourse of Mr. Greaves on the Denarius, for the proof
of the following principles; 1. That the ancient and modern Roman
pound, containing 5256 grains of Troy weight, is about one
twelfth lighter than the English pound, which is composed of 5760
of the same grains. 2. That the pound of gold, which had once
been divided into forty-eight _aurei_, was at this time coined
into seventy-two smaller pieces of the same denomination. 3. That
five of these aurei were the legal tender for a pound of silver,
and that consequently the pound of gold was exchanged for
fourteen pounds eight ounces of silver, according to the Roman,
or about thirteen pounds according to the English weight. 4. That
the English pound of silver is coined into sixty-two shillings.
From these elements we may compute the Roman pound of gold, the
usual method of reckoning large sums, at forty pounds sterling,
and we may fix the currency of the _aureus_ at somewhat more than
eleven shillings. * Note: See, likewise, a Dissertation of M.
Letronne, “Considerations Génerales sur l’Evaluation des Monnaies
Grecques et Romaines” Paris, 1817—M.]

I. It is obvious, that, as long as the immutable constitution of
human nature produces and maintains so unequal a division of
property, the most numerous part of the community would be
deprived of their subsistence, by the equal assessment of a tax
from which the sovereign would derive a very trifling revenue.
Such indeed might be the theory of the Roman capitation; but in
the practice, this unjust equality was no longer felt, as the
tribute was collected on the principle of a _real_, not of a
_personal_ imposition. 18011 Several indigent citizens
contributed to compose a single _head_, or share of taxation;
while the wealthy provincial, in proportion to his fortune, alone
represented several of those imaginary beings. In a poetical
request, addressed to one of the last and most deserving of the
Roman princes who reigned in Gaul, Sidonius Apollinaris
personifies his tribute under the figure of a triple monster, the
Geryon of the Grecian fables, and entreats the new Hercules that
he would most graciously be pleased to save his life by cutting
off three of his heads. 181 The fortune of Sidonius far exceeded
the customary wealth of a poet; but if he had pursued the
allusion, he might have painted many of the Gallic nobles with
the hundred heads of the deadly Hydra, spreading over the face of
the country, and devouring the substance of a hundred families.
II. The difficulty of allowing an annual sum of about nine pounds
sterling, even for the average of the capitation of Gaul, may be
rendered more evident by the comparison of the present state of
the same country, as it is now governed by the absolute monarch
of an industrious, wealthy, and affectionate people. The taxes of
France cannot be magnified, either by fear or by flattery, beyond
the annual amount of eighteen millions sterling, which ought
perhaps to be shared among four and twenty millions of
inhabitants. 182 Seven millions of these, in the capacity of
fathers, or brothers, or husbands, may discharge the obligations
of the remaining multitude of women and children; yet the equal
proportion of each tributary subject will scarcely rise above
fifty shillings of our money, instead of a proportion almost four
times as considerable, which was regularly imposed on their
Gallic ancestors. The reason of this difference may be found, not
so much in the relative scarcity or plenty of gold and silver, as
in the different state of society, in ancient Gaul and in modern
France. In a country where personal freedom is the privilege of
every subject, the whole mass of taxes, whether they are levied
on property or on consumption, may be fairly divided among the
whole body of the nation. But the far greater part of the lands
of ancient Gaul, as well as of the other provinces of the Roman
world, were cultivated by slaves, or by peasants, whose dependent
condition was a less rigid servitude. 183 In such a state the
poor were maintained at the expense of the masters who enjoyed
the fruits of their labor; and as the rolls of tribute were
filled only with the names of those citizens who possessed the
means of an honorable, or at least of a decent subsistence, the
comparative smallness of their numbers explains and justifies the
high rate of their capitation. The truth of this assertion may be
illustrated by the following example: The Ædui, one of the most
powerful and civilized tribes or _cities_ of Gaul, occupied an
extent of territory, which now contains about five hundred
thousand inhabitants, in the two ecclesiastical dioceses of Autun
and Nevers; 184 and with the probable accession of those of
Châlons and Maçon, 185 the population would amount to eight
hundred thousand souls. In the time of Constantine, the territory
of the Ædui afforded no more than twenty-five thousand _heads_ of
capitation, of whom seven thousand were discharged by that prince
from the intolerable weight of tribute. 186 A just analogy would
seem to countenance the opinion of an ingenious historian, 187
that the free and tributary citizens did not surpass the number
of half a million; and if, in the ordinary administration of
government, their annual payments may be computed at about four
millions and a half of our money, it would appear, that although
the share of each individual was four times as considerable, a
fourth part only of the modern taxes of France was levied on the
Imperial province of Gaul. The exactions of Constantius may be
calculated at seven millions sterling, which were reduced to two
millions by the humanity or the wisdom of Julian.

18011 (return) [ Two masterly dissertations of M. Savigny, in the
Mem. of the Berlin Academy (1822 and 1823) have thrown new light
on the taxation system of the Empire. Gibbon, according to M.
Savigny, is mistaken in supposing that there was but one kind of
capitation tax; there was a land tax, and a capitation tax,
strictly so called. The land tax was, in its operation, a
proprietor’s or landlord’s tax. But, besides this, there was a
direct capitation tax on all who were not possessed of landed
property. This tax dates from the time of the Roman conquests;
its amount is not clearly known. Gradual exemptions released
different persons and classes from this tax. One edict exempts
painters. In Syria, all under twelve or fourteen, or above
sixty-five, were exempted; at a later period, all under twenty,
and all unmarried females; still later, all under twenty-five,
widows and nuns, soldiers, veterani and clerici—whole dioceses,
that of Thrace and Illyricum. Under Galerius and Licinius, the
plebs urbana became exempt; though this, perhaps, was only an
ordinance for the East. By degrees, however, the exemption was
extended to all the inhabitants of towns; and as it was strictly
capitatio plebeia, from which all possessors were exempted it
fell at length altogether on the coloni and agricultural slaves.
These were registered in the same cataster (capitastrum) with the
land tax. It was paid by the proprietor, who raised it again from
his coloni and laborers.—M.]

181 (return) [

Geryones nos esse puta, monstrumque tributum, Hîc _capita_ ut
vivam, tu mihi tolle _tria_. Sidon. Apollinar. Carm. xiii.

The reputation of Father Sirmond led me to expect more
satisfaction than I have found in his note (p. 144) on this
remarkable passage. The words, suo vel _suorum_ nomine, betray
the perplexity of the commentator.]

182 (return) [ This assertion, however formidable it may seem, is
founded on the original registers of births, deaths, and
marriages, collected by public authority, and now deposited in
the _Contrôlee General_ at Paris. The annual average of births
throughout the whole kingdom, taken in five years, (from 1770 to
1774, both inclusive,) is 479,649 boys, and 449,269 girls, in all
928,918 children. The province of French Hainault alone furnishes
9906 births; and we are assured, by an actual enumeration of the
people, annually repeated from the year 1773 to the year 1776,
that upon an average, Hainault contains 257,097 inhabitants. By
the rules of fair analogy, we might infer, that the ordinary
proportion of annual births to the whole people, is about 1 to
26; and that the kingdom of France contains 24,151,868 persons of
both sexes and of every age. If we content ourselves with the
more moderate proportion of 1 to 25, the whole population will
amount to 23,222,950. From the diligent researches of the French
Government, (which are not unworthy of our own imitation,) we may
hope to obtain a still greater degree of certainty on this
important subject * Note: On no subject has so much valuable
information been collected since the time of Gibbon, as the
statistics of the different countries of Europe but much is still
wanting as to our own—M.]

183 (return) [ Cod. Theod. l. v. tit. ix. x. xi. Cod. Justinian.
l. xi. tit. lxiii. Coloni appellantur qui conditionem debent
genitali solo, propter agriculturum sub dominio possessorum.
Augustin. de Civitate Dei, l. x. c. i.]

184 (return) [ The ancient jurisdiction of (_Augustodunum_) Autun
in Burgundy, the capital of the Ædui, comprehended the adjacent
territory of (_Noviodunum_) Nevers. See D’Anville, Notice de
l’Ancienne Gaule, p. 491. The two dioceses of Autun and Nevers
are now composed, the former of 610, and the latter of 160
parishes. The registers of births, taken during eleven years, in
476 parishes of the same province of Burgundy, and multiplied by
the moderate proportion of 25, (see Messance Recherches sur la
Population, p. 142,) may authorizes us to assign an average
number of 656 persons for each parish, which being again
multiplied by the 770 parishes of the dioceses of Nevers and
Autun, will produce the sum of 505,120 persons for the extent of
country which was once possessed by the Ædui.]

185 (return) [ We might derive an additional supply of 301,750
inhabitants from the dioceses of Châlons (_Cabillonum_) and of
Maçon, (_Matisco_,) since they contain, the one 200, and the
other 260 parishes. This accession of territory might be
justified by very specious reasons. 1. Châlons and Maçon were
undoubtedly within the original jurisdiction of the Ædui. (See
D’Anville, Notice, p. 187, 443.) 2. In the Notitia of Gaul, they
are enumerated not as _Civitates_, but merely as _Castra_. 3.
They do not appear to have been episcopal seats before the fifth
and sixth centuries. Yet there is a passage in Eumenius (Panegyr.
Vet. viii. 7) which very forcibly deters me from extending the
territory of the Ædui, in the reign of Constantine, along the
beautiful banks of the navigable Saône. * Note: In this passage
of Eumenius, Savigny supposes the original number to have been
32,000: 7000 being discharged, there remained 25,000 liable to
the tribute. See Mem. quoted above.—M.]

186 (return) [ Eumenius in Panegyr Vet. viii. 11.]

187 (return) [ L’Abbé du Bos, Hist. Critique de la M. F. tom. i.
p. 121]

But this tax, or capitation, on the proprietors of land, would
have suffered a rich and numerous class of free citizens to
escape. With the view of sharing that species of wealth which is
derived from art or labor, and which exists in money or in
merchandise, the emperors imposed a distinct and personal tribute
on the trading part of their subjects. 188 Some exemptions, very
strictly confined both in time and place, were allowed to the
proprietors who disposed of the produce of their own estates.
Some indulgence was granted to the profession of the liberal
arts: but every other branch of commercial industry was affected
by the severity of the law. The honorable merchant of Alexandria,
who imported the gems and spices of India for the use of the
western world; the usurer, who derived from the interest of money
a silent and ignominious profit; the ingenious manufacturer, the
diligent mechanic, and even the most obscure retailer of a
sequestered village, were obliged to admit the officers of the
revenue into the partnership of their gain; and the sovereign of
the Roman empire, who tolerated the profession, consented to
share the infamous salary, of public prostitutes. 18811 As this
general tax upon industry was collected every fourth year, it was
styled the _Lustral Contribution:_ and the historian Zosimus 189
laments that the approach of the fatal period was announced by
the tears and terrors of the citizens, who were often compelled
by the impending scourge to embrace the most abhorred and
unnatural methods of procuring the sum at which their property
had been assessed. The testimony of Zosimus cannot indeed be
justified from the charge of passion and prejudice; but, from the
nature of this tribute it seems reasonable to conclude, that it
was arbitrary in the distribution, and extremely rigorous in the
mode of collecting. The secret wealth of commerce, and the
precarious profits of art or labor, are susceptible only of a
discretionary valuation, which is seldom disadvantageous to the
interest of the treasury; and as the person of the trader
supplies the want of a visible and permanent security, the
payment of the imposition, which, in the case of a land tax, may
be obtained by the seizure of property, can rarely be extorted by
any other means than those of corporal punishments. The cruel
treatment of the insolvent debtors of the state, is attested, and
was perhaps mitigated by a very humane edict of Constantine, who,
disclaiming the use of racks and of scourges, allots a spacious
and airy prison for the place of their confinement. 190

188 (return) [ See Cod. Theod. l. xiii. tit. i. and iv.]

18811 (return) [ The emperor Theodosius put an end, by a law. to
this disgraceful source of revenue. (Godef. ad Cod. Theod. xiii.
tit. i. c. 1.) But before he deprived himself of it, he made sure
of some way of replacing this deficit. A rich patrician,
Florentius, indignant at this legalized licentiousness, had made
representations on the subject to the emperor. To induce him to
tolerate it no longer, he offered his own property to supply the
diminution of the revenue. The emperor had the baseness to accept
his offer—G.]

189 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 115. There is probably as much
passion and prejudice in the attack of Zosimus, as in the
elaborate defence of the memory of Constantine by the zealous Dr.
Howell. Hist. of the World, vol. ii. p. 20.]

190 (return) [ Cod. Theod. l. xi. tit vii. leg. 3.]

These general taxes were imposed and levied by the absolute
authority of the monarch; but the occasional offerings of the
_coronary gold_ still retained the name and semblance of popular
consent. It was an ancient custom that the allies of the
republic, who ascribed their safety or deliverance to the success
of the Roman arms, and even the cities of Italy, who admired the
virtues of their victorious general, adorned the pomp of his
triumph by their voluntary gifts of crowns of gold, which after
the ceremony were consecrated in the temple of Jupiter, to remain
a lasting monument of his glory to future ages. The progress of
zeal and flattery soon multiplied the number, and increased the
size, of these popular donations; and the triumph of Cæsar was
enriched with two thousand eight hundred and twenty-two massy
crowns, whose weight amounted to twenty thousand four hundred and
fourteen pounds of gold. This treasure was immediately melted
down by the prudent dictator, who was satisfied that it would be
more serviceable to his soldiers than to the gods: his example
was imitated by his successors; and the custom was introduced of
exchanging these splendid ornaments for the more acceptable
present of the current gold coin of the empire. 191 The
spontaneous offering was at length exacted as the debt of duty;
and instead of being confined to the occasion of a triumph, it
was supposed to be granted by the several cities and provinces of
the monarchy, as often as the emperor condescended to announce
his accession, his consulship, the birth of a son, the creation
of a Cæsar, a victory over the Barbarians, or any other real or
imaginary event which graced the annals of his reign. The
peculiar free gift of the senate of Rome was fixed by custom at
sixteen hundred pounds of gold, or about sixty-four thousand
pounds sterling. The oppressed subjects celebrated their own
felicity, that their sovereign should graciously consent to
accept this feeble but voluntary testimony of their loyalty and
gratitude. 192

191 (return) [ See Lipsius de Magnitud. Romana, l. ii. c. 9. The
Tarragonese Spain presented the emperor Claudius with a crown of
gold of seven, and Gaul with another of nine, _hundred_ pounds
weight. I have followed the rational emendation of Lipsius. *
Note: This custom is of still earlier date, the Romans had
borrowed it from Greece. Who is not acquainted with the famous
oration of Demosthenes for the golden crown, which his citizens
wished to bestow, and Æschines to deprive him of?—G.]

192 (return) [ Cod. Theod. l. xii. tit. xiii. The senators were
supposed to be exempt from the _Aurum Coronarium;_ but the _Auri
Oblatio_, which was required at their hands, was precisely of the
same nature.]

A people elated by pride, or soured by discontent, are seldom
qualified to form a just estimate of their actual situation. The
subjects of Constantine were incapable of discerning the decline
of genius and manly virtue, which so far degraded them below the
dignity of their ancestors; but they could feel and lament the
rage of tyranny, the relaxation of discipline, and the increase
of taxes. The impartial historian, who acknowledges the justice
of their complaints, will observe some favorable circumstances
which tended to alleviate the misery of their condition. The
threatening tempest of Barbarians, which so soon subverted the
foundations of Roman greatness, was still repelled, or suspended,
on the frontiers. The arts of luxury and literature were
cultivated, and the elegant pleasures of society were enjoyed, by
the inhabitants of a considerable portion of the globe. The
forms, the pomp, and the expense of the civil administration
contributed to restrain the irregular license of the soldiers;
and although the laws were violated by power, or perverted by
subtlety, the sage principles of the Roman jurisprudence
preserved a sense of order and equity, unknown to the despotic
governments of the East. The rights of mankind might derive some
protection from religion and philosophy; and the name of freedom,
which could no longer alarm, might sometimes admonish, the
successors of Augustus, that they did not reign over a nation of
Slaves or Barbarians. 193

193 (return) [ The great Theodosius, in his judicious advice to
his son, (Claudian in iv. Consulat. Honorii, 214, &c.,)
distinguishes the station of a Roman prince from that of a
Parthian monarch. Virtue was necessary for the one; birth might
suffice for the other.]