To begin with, all freedom in the choice of
professions
came to an
end.
end.
Cambridge Medieval History - v1 - Christian Roman Empire and Teutonic Kingdoms
542 (#572) ############################################
542
Benedictine Nuns. Conclusion
St Boniface's correspondence with several Anglo-Saxon nuns, both in
England and in Germany, reveals the high standards of education
and of life that prevailed in the English nunneries. Communities of
Benedictine nuns have in all ages been predominantly ladies, recruited
from the upper classes, and the life is specially adapted for them.
Naturally it has been a more secluded life than that of the monks; but
the great Benedictine nunneries have always exercised considerable
religious and social influence.
In the foregoing pages the ideals of the various phases of early
monasticism have been set forth. It is not pretended that these ideals
have always been realised by monks. But it is right to estimate a
system in large measure by its ideals, except where failure adequately
to realise them has predominated. That this has been the case with
Christian monachism as a whole will hardly now be contended by any
historian.
1
## p. 543 (#573) ############################################
543
CHAPTER XIX.
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF THE ROMAN
EMPIRE IN THE FOURTH CENTURY.
THE ancients saw in the stupendous destiny of the Roman State the
clue to the history of the Universe and a revelation of the plans of
Providence in regard to the world. “ Italy," wrote Pliny the elder in
the time of Vespasian, “has been selected by Deity in order to collect
dispersed power, to soften customs and to unite by the communion of one
language the various and barbarous dialects of so many nations, to
bestow on men the intercourse of ideas and humanity, in a word—that
all the races of the world should have one fatherland” (Hist. Nat. 11. 6).
For Christians the conquest of the world by Rome had even a deeper
meaning. “Jesus was born in the reign of Augustus, who as it were
associated in one monarchy the immense multitude of men dispersed
about the earth, because a plurality of kingdoms would have been an
obstacle to the diffusion of Christ's doctrine through the whole world"
(Origen, c. Celsum, 11. 30). But Augustus was a heathen and his
a
successors persecuted Christianity, so that the Roman Empire served the
Gospel for a long while unconsciously and in spite of its desires. This
conception of universal history made a further stride when Constantine
the Great proclaimed Christianity the religion of the State. “In
ancient times," says Eusebius of Caesarea, “the world was divided
according to countries and nations into a multitude of commonwealths,
tyrannies, principalities. Hence constant wars and the devastations and
depredations following thereon. . . . The origin of these divisions may
certainly be ascribed to the diversity of the gods worshipped by men.
But when the instrument of salvation, the most holy body of Christ. . .
was raised. . . against the demons, forthwith the cause of demons has
vanished and states, principalities, tyrannies, commonwealths have passed
away. . . . One God has been announced to the whole of mankind, one
empire obtained sway over all men—the Roman Empire” (Eusebius,
Panegyric of Constantine, c. 16).
But the unification of the inhabited world (oikovuévn) which forms
the meaning and the greatness of the Roman Empire, is a process pre-
a
CH. XIX.
## p. 544 (#574) ############################################
544
Barbarians in the Empire
common
senting two different sides to the observer. Kelts, Iberians, Rhaetians,
Moors, Illyrians, Thracians were to some extent civilised by the culture of
Greece and Rome, and achieved by its help a great advance in economic
and civic organisation as well as in education ; Syrians, Egyptians, the
inhabitants of Asia Minor only modified to a certain extent their manners
and views in order to meet the requirements of the Empire. But if the
intermixture of tribes and their permeation by Graeco-Roman culture
was in one sense a great progress, it was at the same time, but from
another point of view, a decline; it was accompanied by a lowering of
the level of the culture which exerted the civilising influence. While
conquering barbarism and native peculiarities, Graeco-Roman culture
assumed various traits from its vanquished opponents, and became gross
and vulgar in its turn. In the words of a biographer of Alexander
Severus : good and bad were promiscuously thrust into the Empire,
noble and base, and numbers of barbarians (Hist. Aug. Alex. Sev. 64).
The unification and transformation of tribes standing on low grades
of civilisation leads to consequences characterised by one
feature, the simplification of aims—degeneration. This process is
concealed for a while by the political and economic advantages follow-
ing on the establishment of the Empire. The creation of a central
authority, upholding peace and intercourse (Pax Romana), the con-
junction of the different parts of the world into one economic system
enlivened by free trade, the spread of citizenship and civil culture in
wider and wider circles of population—all these benefits produced for a
time a rise of prosperity which counterbalanced the excess of barbarous,
imperfectly assimilated elements.
But a series of political misfortunes set in rather rapidly in the
third century :' invasions of barbarians, conflicts between rival can-
didates to the throne, competition between armies and provinces put
an end to order and prosperity and threatened the very existence of the
Empire. In these calamities the barbarisation of Roman culture became
more and more manifest, a backward movement began in all directions,
a backward movement, however, which was by no means a mere falling
back into previous conditions, but gave rise to new and interesting
departures.
It suffices to glance at the names of the Roman citizens of the
Empire in order to notice that we are in very mixed company. Instead
of the nomina and cognomina of earlier days we find strange barbaric
appellations hardly whitewashed by the adjunction of us or er at the end.
A T. Tammonius Saeni Tammoni filius Vitalis, and a Blescius Diovicus
do not look very pure “Quirites. " Such barbarians had first of all to
learn Latin as the common tongue of the Western Empire, and they did
learn to use Latin. But what Latin ! As St Jerome has it: “ Latin
language gets transformed according to countries and to epochs. ” Com-
mon speech, the lingua vulgaris, with a former Kelt, Iberian or Rhaetian
&
a
a
## p. 545 (#575) ############################################
Romance Languages
545
became gradually a new Romance language, the sounds and forms of
which were deflected from the original Latin in consequence of the
physiological and intellectual peculiarities of Kelts, Iberians, Rhaetians.
We may be allowed to give a few instances of this curious process of
transformation from the well-known history of French phonetics and
grammar. The Latin u was kept up in Italian but softened into the
French u (ü), e. g. durus-duro-dur, and we cannot wonder at that,
because the population of Gaul when yet speaking Keltic sounded u as ü
and not somewhat like the English oo in “poor. " The French“ liaison,"
”
the habit of sounding the otherwise mute consonant at the end of a
word before a vowel in order to avoid a “hiatus,” may be traced to the
Keltic habit of joining separate words into compounds. In Keltic
dialects the accent makes one or the other syllable so prominent that
other syllables become indistinct and may get slurred over. This stress
put on the accentuated syllable has called forth in French a charac-
teristic deterioration of unaccentuated parts of words. Sometimes whole
groups of sounds disappear, as in “ Août ” (Augustus), sometimes they
are represented only by a mute e as in “ vie" (vita). The French habit
of marking the last syllable by an accent even in the pronunciation of
Latin goes back ultimately to this trait. In reading the Latin text of
the Salic Law we are struck by the complete dislocation of the system
of declensions—the ablative case is constantly used instead of the accusa-
tive, the accusative instead of the nominative, etc. But this degeneration
was prepared by the practice of vulgar Latin even in the first and
second centuries when the genitive case disappeared. The dative followed
suit somewhat later.
It is not however to be supposed that Latin was imposed even in its
vulgarised forms on the entire population of the Empire. It is needless
to remind the reader of the fact that in the whole eastern half Greek
was the language of the educated classes. But both in the East and in
the West there were many backward regions in which vernacular speech
held its own stubbornly against Greek and Latin. The Copts, Arabs,
Syrians, Armenians never gave up their native languages, and the
oriental undercurrents continued to play an important part in the
social life of Asia and Egypt. There are many vestiges of a similar
persistency of barbarian custom and speech in the West. Roman law
admitted expressly that valid deeds could be executed in Punic and,
judging from the story about a sister of Septimius Severus, Punic must
have been very prevalent among well-to-do families of knightly rank in
Africa : when the lady in question came to visit her brother in Rome,
the Emperor had often to blush on account of her imperfect knowledge
of Latin. The letters and sermons of St Augustine shew that this state
of things had by no means disappeared in romanised Africa in the fifth
century: the great African bishop repeatedly urged the necessity for
dignitaries of the Church to be acquainted with Punic, and he had
C. MED, H. VOL. I. CH. XIX.
35
## p. 546 (#576) ############################################
546
National Survivals and Revivals
2
а
66
а
Pila
d
recourse himself to illustrations drawn from this language. In Spain and
Gascony one living remnant of pre-Roman civilisation has survived to
our days in the “ Es-c-aldunac" speech of the Basques, the offspring of
the Iberian race, while Brittany exhibits another block of pre-Roman
custom in the speech and manners of its Breton population. St Jerome
testifies to the fact that in the neighbourhood of Trèves, one of the
mightiest centres of Roman civilisation, a Keltic dialect was spoken by
the peasants in the fourth century, so that a person reared there pos-
sessed a clue to the speech of the Galatians, the Keltic tribe of Asia
Minor. In the Latinised north-west of the Balkan peninsula the
vernacular Illyrian was never driven out or destroyed, and the present
speech of the Albanians is directly derived from it in spite of a sprinkling
of Latin words and expressions. In the west of England Keltic speech
and custom runs on uninterruptedly through the ages of Roman, Saxon
and Norman conquest. Not to speak of Welsh, which has borrowed
many Latin words, especially technical terms, but remains a purely
Keltic language, Cornish was spoken in Cornwall up to the eighteenth
century, while in Cumberland and Westmorland the custom of shep-
herds to count their sheep in Keltic numerals was the last vestige of the
separate existence of
Welsh ” population.
These traces of stubborn national life forming a kind of barbarian
subsoil to Roman culture are important in many ways: they help us not
only to understand the history of dialects and of folklore, but they
account for a good many spontaneous outbursts of barbarism in the
seemingly pacified and romanised provinces of the Empire at a time
when the iron hand of the rulers began to relax its grip over the con-
quered populations. Berber, Punic, Iberian, Illyrian and Keltic tribes
come forward again in the calamitous years of the fourth and fifth
centuries. Usurpers, riotous soldiers and brigands gather strength from
national aspirations, and in the end the disruption of the Empire becomes
inevitable on account of internal strife as well as of foreign invasions.
Nowhere perhaps has this subliminal life of the province to account for so
much as in England, where the arts and crafts of Rome were introduced
in the course of three centuries and a half of gradual occupation and
Latin itself was widely spoken by the upper classes, but where never-
theless the entire fabric of Roman rule crumbled down so rapidly during
the fifth century, and Kelts were left to fight with the Teutons for the
remnants of what had been one of the fair provinces of Rome.
A transformation similar to that expressed in language is clearly
perceivable in the history of Art. Christianity introduced into the
world a powerful new factor, the strength of which may be gauged in
the paintings of the Catacombs and in the rise of new styles of archi-
tecture-the Byzantine and the Romanesque. Thus we have to deal not
with mere deterioration and decay, but also with the lowering of the level
of culture and the barbarisation of art which make themselves felt in
lonel
## p. 547 (#577) ############################################
Barbarisation of culture. Commercial Intercourse
547
a
various ways. When Rome had to raise a triumphal arch to the con-
queror of Maxentius, a great part of the reliefs for its adornment were
carried over from the Arch of Trajan, while some sculptures were added
by contemporary artists. And the latter perpetuate the decay of art
and of aesthetic taste. The figures are distorted, the faces deformed.
On the so-called discus of Theodosius the symbolical figures of the lower
part were copied from ancient originals and are handsome. The upper
half was filled with representations of living people, and it is evident
that the gross, flat, ugly faces, the heavy embroidered uniforms were
reproduced with fidelity, while the handling of the figures strikes the
observer by its clumsiness and faulty designs. The chief thing in the
pictorial and plastic arts of the third and fourth centuries is not beauty
or expression, but size and costly material. Gallienus, whose unfortunate
reign was nicknamed the “period of the thirty tyrants,” ordered a statue
of himself 200 feet in height: it was planned on such a scale that a child
was able to ascend by a winding staircase to the top of the Emperor's
lance. Instead of marble, precious porphyry, a stone exceedingly difficult
to cut, was used for plastic purposes ; the contractor and polisher were
more important persons than the sculptor for the purpose of making
statues of this material.
It is of special importance for us to notice the gradual degeneration
or rather transformation of economic life. Towards the beginning of
our era a great circuit of industrial and commercial intercourse is formed
under the protection of the Empire: it reminds us in some ways of the
world-market of the present time. The different provinces exchanged
goods and developed specialities fitting into one whole through mutual
support; the excellent roads made quick exchanges possible, considerable
capital sought employment in productive enterprises, firm political
power and mutual confidence fostered the growth of credit. From the
third century onwards the picture changes. The subjection of conquered
peoples by Roman citizens ceases and the greater part of the population
of the Empire is admitted to the rights of citizenship. This meant that
masses of people, over whom governors, publicans and contractors had exer-
cised almost uncontrolled sway, were enabled to come forward with their
interests and legal claims. Provincial forces began to assert themselves,
and in husbandry local needs and the requirements of small people made
themselves more and more felt. As a consequence, the wide organisation
of world intercourse gives way before more direct and modest economic
problems—each social group has to look out primarily for itself in
regard to food, clothing, housing, furniture. On the other hand the
supply of slaves gets more and more hampered by the fact that wars of
conquest cease. In the beginning of the third century we hear already
of a price of 200 aurei or 500 denarii of full ancient coinage for a slave
(Dig. iv. 4, 51)-a very high price indeed, which shews indirectly how
a
CA. XIX.
35_2
## p. 548 (#578) ############################################
548
Commercial Intercourse
a
In an
difficult it was to get slaves. During the protracted defensive wars
which had to be fought on all the frontiers prisoners were frequently
made, but these Germans, Slavs, Huns were difficult to manage and
made clumsy labourers when settled for agricultural purposes : it was
more profitable to leave them a certain independence on their plots, and
therefore to cut up large estates into small holdings. Lastly, the rise
of provincial and local interests and the change in the condition of the
labouring classes coincided with the terrible political calamities which I
have already had occasion to mention. The dislocation of the com-
monwealth rendered all widely extended economic plans insecure and
contributed by itself to the tendency of each separate locality to live its
own life and to work for its own needs without much help from the
outside. As a result of the working of these different causes society falls
back from a complicated system of commercial intercourse to the simpler
forms of “natural economy. ” This movement is not arrested by the
restoration of the Empire in the fourth century, but rather strengthened
by it. Political power is indeed restored, but it has to be maintained
by straining every nerve in social life, and this straining hampers free
movement and free contract, fastens every one to a certain place and to a
certain calling
Exposition of the whole world and of nations” translated
from Greek in the time of Constantius (soon after 345) much attention
is still paid to the economic intercourse between the different parts of
the Empire. Greece itself is said to be unable to satisfy its own needs,
but in regard to many of the other provinces it is expressly noted that
they are sufficient unto themselves. Besides, most of them produce
goods which are exported to other places. Ascalon and Gaza, for
example, are said to provide excellent wine for Syria and Egypt;
Scythopolis, Laodicea (in Syria), Byblus, Tyre, Berytus send out linen
wares all round the world, while Caesarea, Tyre, Sarepta and Neapolis
are famous in the same way for their purple-dyed tissues. Egypt
supplies Constantinople and the Eastern provinces with corn and has
a monopoly in the production of papyrus. From Cappadocia furs are
obtained, from Galatia different kinds of clothing. Laodicea in Phrygia
has given a name to garments of a special kind. Asia and the Helles-
pont produce corn, wine and oil; in Macedonia and Dalmatia, iron
and lead mines are noted ; in Dardania (Illyria) pastoral pursuits are
prevalent and bacon and cheese are sent to market, while Epirus is
distinguished by its large fishing trade. The Western provinces are not
described in such a minute way but fine Italian wines are mentioned,
the trade of Arles for imports into Gaul is noted, and Spain is extolled
on account of its oil, cloth, bacon and mules. Oil is also said to be
largely supplied by the African province, while clothing and cattle come
from Numidia. Pannonia and Mauretania are the only provinces
mentioned as carrying on the slave trade.
## p. 549 (#579) ############################################
Diocletian's Edict as to Prices
549
Some forty-five years before this commercial geography of the
Empire was drawn up, another curious document shews the imperial
authorities engaged in a wearisome struggle in order to protect easy
intercourse and to ward off the rise of prices—I mean the famous edict
of Diocletian and of his companion Emperors establishing maximum
prices in the Empire. Such measures are not taken without cogent
reasons and, indeed, we are told that prices had risen enormously,
although it is hardly probable that the reason of the dearth had to be
sought in the iniquities of the rulers (Lactantius, de mortibru perse-
cutorum, c. 7). The enactment itself dilates on the evil greed of
avaricious producers and vendors, and declares in the name of the
“fathers of human kind” that justice has to arbitrate and to intervene.
The Emperors are especially incensed at the hard bargains which are
extorted from soldiers quartered in the provinces or moving along the
roads : prices are screwed up on such occasions not to four or eight
times the ordinary value, but to an extent that could not be expressed
in words. If such things happen in times of abundance what is to be
expected from seasons when actual want is experienced? Without
attempting to fix normal prices the Emperors threaten with capital
punishment merchants engaged in supplying the different provinces
with wares : Lactantius reports that blood flowed and that the
impossibility of enforcing cheapness by the hands of executioners was
only recognised after fruitless attempts to terrorise tradesmen into
submission.
Let us look, however, at some of the details of the edict, fragments
of which have been preserved in several copies in the Balkan peninsula,
Asia Minor and Egypt, viz. , in the provinces under the direct sway of
Diocletian.
Traces of commercial intercourse of the same kind as that described
in the Expositio frequently meet the eye. We hear again of the high
class wines of Italy, of linen vestments from Laodicea, Scythopolis,
Byblus, of purple-dyed garments manufactured on the Syrian coast and
fetching very high prices, and of somewhat less expensive kinds from
Miletus : a piece of purple linen for ornamental stripes (clavi) weighing
six ounces may be sold for 13,000, 23,000 and even 32,000 denarii,
50,000 of the latter corresponding to one pound of gold' Cloth
garments came from Laodicea in Phrygia, from Modena in Italy and in
the shape of coarse, warm mantles from Flanders. In a word the lines
of commercial intercourse are clearly traced, but the difficulties en-
countered by trade under new conditions are also very
visible. Some
comparisons with extant valuations of goods ordered for soldiers enable
us to form a judgment as to the Auctuations of prices which Diocletian's
enactment tried to moderate. We hear, e. g. , that in one
case 80
1 Roughly equivalent to £46 present coinage.
a
CH. XIX.
## p. 550 (#580) ############################################
550
Economic Compulsion
pounds of bacon were estimated at 1 solidus (6000 copper denarii) and
in another instance 20 pounds at 1000 denarii. According to the tariff
of Diocletian the maximum price for bacon of the best kind would have
been in the first instance 96,000, and in the second 16,000 copper
denarii, the latter being about 16 times more than the ordinary
price.
It is important to notice that while the ordinary agricultural
labourer is not allowed to receive higher wages than 25 silver denarii
(about 120 copper denarii) per day besides board, the maximum price of
a double sextarius (roughly, about a quart) of wheat was fixed at 100
silver denarii, and that of a pound of pork at 12 silver denarii.
One cannot wonder at the failure of Diocletian's attempt, which
according to contemporary testimony only increased the evils it was
meant to suppress, the penalties against the merchants leading to
concealment of goods and interruptions of trade. But it is charac-
teristic of the methods of compulsory legislation constantly employed
by the emperors of the fourth century that Julian made a similar and
quite as unsuccessful attempt to coerce the citizens of Antioch into
fair trade.
It is impossible to suppose that such measures were dictated by a
kind of “ Caesar madness," prompting the rulers of the civilised world to
affirm their will and wisdom as against economic laws. However faulty
in its conception, the policy indicated by the edicts of Diocletian and
Julian had its roots in a well-meaning though ineffectual desire to
regulate trade and to protect fair intercourse. It may be likened, as
most attempts to impose maximum limits to prices, to the police super-
vision of trade in necessaries of life practised in besieged cities. The
emperors and their bureaucracy had come to look on the whole civilised
world subject to their authority as upon a besieged city, in which all
civil professions had to conform to military rule.
The same kind of evolution from free intercourse to compulsion may
be observed in the legislation on commercial and industrial corporations.
Roman law passed through several stages in this respect. At the time
of the Republic guilds of artisans and merchants could be formed by
private agreement if their statutes and activity did not infringe the
laws of the State (Gaius in Dig. XLVII. 22, 4). During the civil con-
ficts of the last years of the Republic and in the early Empire organised
corporations were several times dissolved and forbidden on account of
the political agitation carried on by their members, and from Augustus'
time concession by the Senate and confirmation by the Prince had to be
applied for when a new college or guild had to be formed. But police
supervision by the State did not alter the main feature of the cor-
porations, namely their spontaneous origin in the needs of society and
the wish of private persons to carry on profitable trade and to form
unions for mutual support and social intercourse. The imperial Govern-
## p. 551 (#581) ############################################
Corporations
551
ment was often inclined to repress these spontaneous tendencies, as we
may gather, e. g. , from Trajan's correspondence with Pliny.
The first indication of a further change in the relations between
government and corporations may be noticed in the reign of Alexander
Severus. This Emperor, instead of restricting the rise of trade guilds,
actually favoured the formation of corporations of wine merchants,
grocers, shoemakers and other crafts (Lampridius, Alexander Severus,
33). We may suspect that at this time, that is in the second quarter
of the third century, the Government began to perceive a slackening in
the energy of trade and commerce and chose to exert its authority in
patronising trade guilds. The restoration of imperial power under
Aurelian brought about another and more powerful attempt in the same
direction. One of the measures of this Emperor was the assumption of
a wide-reaching guardianship over the alimentation of Rome. The
supply of corn from Egypt was increased ; lists of paupers (proletarii)
entitled to be fed by the State were drawn up, and the privilege of
living at the cost of the commonwealth was made hereditary; instead of
corn bread was distributed, and along with bread-oil, salt and pork.
In connexion with this system of alimentation of the poorer classes in
Rome Aurelian reorganised the service of the merchants responsible for
the transport of corn on the Nile and on the Tiber. This throws light
on the immediate reason for the transformation of corporations in the
ensuing age: trades and crafts which had a bearing on vital needs of
social intercourse were taken under the tutelage of the Empire and
carried on henceforth, not as free professions but as compulsory services.
This is clearly seen in the legislation of Constantine and remains
characteristic of the legal treatment of trade during the whole of the
fourth and of the fifth century.
In the Lex Julia of 747 u. c. enacted by Augustus the principle
was already formulated that a combination of individual workmen or
traders into a college had to be warranted not only by their wishes and
interests but by public utility. The public element assumes now a
preponderating influence. Bakers are authorised to form a craft guild
not because they see an advantage in being organised in this way, but
because the State wants their services in regulating the trade in bread
and providing for the needs of the inhabitants of cities. The result
of this enlisting of trades and crafts into public service is a system
entirely at variance with our conceptions of supply and demand, and of
economic intercourse.
To begin with, all freedom in the choice of professions came to an
end. Corporations are required to hold their members to their occupa-
tions all through life. All attempts of single members to leave their
place of abode and customary work are considered as a flight from duty
and severely forbidden. In 395, e. g. , Arcadius and Honorius decree
heavy fines against powerful people who conceal and protect fugitive
CH. XIX.
## p. 552 (#582) ############################################
552
The Navicularii
corn.
members of curiae and collegia. For each one of the latter the patron
has to pay a fine of a pound of gold (C. Th. xn. 1, 147). The codices
are full of enactments against fugitives of this kind, and such legislation
would prove, by itself, that a régime of caste was being gradually
established in the Empire. It is certain that the invasions of barbarians,
such as those of Alaric for example, contributed powerfully to scatter
the working population, but, apart from these, one of the motives of
Alight was the heavy burden of taxation'. It is probable that the
initiative in regard to the measures of stern compulsion came not from
the bureaucrats of the Empire, but from the corporations themselves
which were made liable to the requirements of the State in case of the
flight of their members. Of course, the consistent enforcement of such
a policy actually blocked the natural selection of professions and the
development of independent enterprise.
Let us, to take a concrete example, attend somewhat closer to the
discipline imposed on the important college of navicularii. During the
first two centuries of our era the term designated all shipowners
engaged in the carrying trade by sea; gradually it came to mean
shippers employed by the State for the transport of goods, especially of
Most of the corn necessary for the population of Rome was
derived from Egypt and Africa, and we hear of a large fleet starting
from Alexandria for the purpose of carrying over the supply. There is
good evidence to shew that during the second century A. D. the college
was composed of men who had joined it as voluntary members and sought
the privileges which were conceded to it in return for its services to the
State. All this appears changed in the fourth century. The navicularii
are to devote themselves primarily to the transport of goods belonging
to the State, more particularly corn and oil for Rome and Constanti-
nople, while African navicularii were bound to bring wood for fuel to
the public baths of Rome. The Egyptian navicularii received their
cargo from the collectors of the annona, the corn tribute in the province.
The season for the
voyages of their ships was reckoned from the first of
April to the 15th of October, the other months being held free on
account of stormy weather. Each navicularius had to send his ships to
the feet once in two years. When the ship weighed anchor it had to
proceed by the shortest route and not to stop anywhere without absolute
necessity. Should one of the ships of the corn fleet be delayed in a port
the governor and Senate of the place were bound, if necessary, to use
force, in order to send the merchants out to sea again. Outside these
official journeys they had the right to move on their own behalf, but
evidently their right did not outweigh the uncomfortable limitations
imposed on them during their service period, as we find the emperors
endeavouring in every way to keep the navicularii to their task and to
prevent them from slipping out of the college. A curious letter of
1 Ammianus Marcellinus, xxxi. 6, § 6.
## p. 553 (#583) ############################################
Decay of Municipal Institutions
553
.
St Augustine tells how the bishop refused to accept the bequest of a
certain Bonifacius, an African navicularius, on behalf of the see of
Hippo. Bonifacius had disinherited his son and wanted to pass over
his property to the Church. St Augustine refuses to accept the gift,
because he does not wish to entangle the Church with the dealings of the
navicularii. In case of shipwreck the Government would order an inquiry,
the sailors rescued from the wreck would be put to torture, the Church
would have to pay for the lost cargo, etc. The members of the college
evidently had to be rich men and, sometimes, if there were gaps to be
filled, the State would compel rich men to join the corpus naviculari-
orum. The service was hereditary, and if any member absconded, his
property was forfeited to the college. These facts may be sufficient to
shew to what extent the commerce of those days suffered under the
stringent discipline imposed by the requirements of the State, and what
a queer mixture of a business man and of an official a shipowner of those
days was. I may add that, although we know most about navicularii,
bakers, purveyors of pork and similar merchants engaged in supplying
the capitals with food. The provisioning of the smaller towns and the
management of all crafts and trades were carried on more or less on
similar principles.
An important chapter in the history of the decline and fall of the
Empire is constituted by the gradual decay of municipal institutions.
The ancient world took a long time to exchange its organisation of free
cities for that of a great power, governed by a centralised bureaucracy.
Even after the conquest of its provinces the Roman commonwealth
remained substantially a confederation of cities, and municipal auto-
nomy prospered for a long while. We see the cities of the first
and second centuries vying one with the other in local patriotism,
in the munificence of leading citizens, in generous contributions of
private men towards the welfare of poorer classes, public health and
order. The economic progress brought about by the establishment
of the Empire made itself felt primarily in the increased activity
and prosperity of city life. But threatening symptoms begin to
appear even in the second century A. D. Municipal self-government
bereft of its political significance, restricted to the sphere of local
interests and local ambitions, is apt to degenerate into corrupt and
spendthrift practices : the wealthier provincial citizens ruin themselves
by lavish expenditure on pageants and distributions, municipal enter-
prise in matters of building and philanthropy often turns out to be
extravagant and inefficient. The emperors find no other means of
remedying such defects than the institution of curators of different kinds
--curatores rei publicae, curatores kalendari—commissioners for the cor-
rection of the condition of free cities (ad corrigendum statum liberarum
civitatum). In the correspondence between Pliny and Trajan the
.
imperial commissioner is already seen to interfere in the most minute
CH. XIX.
## p. 554 (#584) ############################################
554
Growth of Centralisation
questions of city administration and, at the same time, he is constantly
applying for direction to his imperial master. The ideal of centralisation
is clearly expressed in this intimate intercourse of two well-meaning and
talented statesmen : the Emperor appears in the light of an omniscient
and all-powerful Providence watching over all the dealings and doings
of his innumerable subjects. In order to embody such an ideal the
central power had to surround itself with helpers and executive officers,
and Hadrian laid the foundations of a Civil Service more comprehensive
and better organised than the rudimentary administrative institutions
of the Commonwealth and of the early Empire. Later on Diocletian
and Constantine multiplied the number of bureaucratic organs and com-
bined them into one whole by the bands of constant supervision and
iron discipline. But even before this ultimate completion of bureaucracy
in the fourth century, in the very beginnings of the system of central
tutelage, a kind of vicious circle formed itself: central authority was
called upon to interfere on account of the deplorable defects of munici-
pal administration, while municipal life was disturbed and atrophied by
constant interference from above. It is impossible to say precisely what
was cause and what was effect in this case : the process was, as it happens
in many diseases, a constant flow of action and reaction. The jurists of
the third century find already a characteristic formula for corporative
town organisation in an analogy with the condition of a minor under
tutelage, and this analogy is followed up into all sorts of particulars as
to rights and duties. No wonder that for many citizens municipal life
loses its interest, that they try to eschew the burdens of unremunerated
and costly local administration, and that as early as the time of the
Severi compulsion has sometimes to be used to bring together a sufficient
number of unwilling magistrates and members of municipal senates
(Dig. , L. 1, 38, 6; L. 2, 2, 8).
A circumstance which in itself would have hardly been sufficient
to overthrow municipal organisation, certainly contributed to divert
people's minds from the customary trend of local patriotism and to make
the performance of certain duties difficult-I mean the spread of Chris-
tianity. Municipal institutions were intertwined with cults of Roman
and local gods including religious devotion to the Deity of the Emperors.
The new faith, on the other hand, did not admit of sacrifices or prayer
to the false gods of heathendome hence a conflict which did not admit of
a ready solution. Let us listen to the somewhat exaggerated statement
of Tertullian—“We concede,” he says, “ that a Christian may without
endangering salvation assume the honour and title of public functions-
if he does not offer sacrifices nor authorise sacrifices, if he does not
furnish victims, if he does not entrust anybody with the upkeep of
temples, if he does not take part in the management of their income, if
he does not give games either at his own or at the public expense, if he
does not preside at them, if he does not announce or arrange any festival,
## p. 555 (#585) ############################################
Christianity and Municipal Functions
555
if he avoids all kinds of oath and abstains, while exercising power, from
giving sentence in regard to the life or the honour of men, decisions as to
money matters being excepted; if he does not proclaim edicts, nor act
as a judge, nor put people into prison or inflict torture on them. But
is all this possible? " As a matter of fact the heathen State did certainly
not go out of its way to make all these exceptions possible, and conflicts
between law and religious conviction arose every day. On many occasions
Christians of a softer mould submitted to what they considered to be
inevitable, and performed most of the duties challenged by the fiery
African. The Church had to work out a penitentiary code for those
among its members who had sullied themselves by heathen practices (see
e. g. the canons of the Synod of Elvira in Spain). Sometimes again the more
firm among the Christians made a stubborn stand and were martyrised
for their protest as enemies of the Roman State. Altogether there can
.
be no doubt that the inherent contradiction between Christian religion
and the pagan practices of municipal life did put an extra strain on the
latter and could not but increase the disorder which was setting in.
The bold step taken by Constantine in recognising Christianity as a
state religion saved the situation to some extent, but it could not do
away at a stroke with all the pagan elements of municipal life: the
strife between religions assumed a new aspect, and as the vital connexion
between local self-government and local cults was never restored, that
unity of conception which marked antiquity when at its best had to
be replaced by a deep dualism tending towards new solutions of
political and moral problems. The greatest representative of conquering
Christianity, St Augustine, recognises the defeat of the material world
of antiquity and has to fashion his ideals according to a scheme of
two cities in which only the heavenly one appeals to his devotion and
energy.
Apart from this complication arising out of peculiarities of religious
history, the middle class of the citizens was undergoing a transformation
similar to that of the merchants and craftsmen. When the chaotic con-
ditions of the second half of the third century were arrested by the
statesmanship and military power of Aurelian and Diocletian, the policy
of compulsion was brought to bear with full weight on the well-to-do
inhabitants of cities. They were mostly not only houseowners in our
sense, but also owners of lands in the vicinity of the towns, although
distinctions which it is somewhat difficult for us at the present time to
formulate in detail were drawn between them and the possessores or land-
owners properly so called. However, the bulk of the well-to-do townsmen
was considered as a separate class, the curiales, out of which the actual
members of city senates, the decuriones, as well as its executive officials
and justices, were selected. Yet the connexion between the curiales
group and the actual office-holders was so close, there were so few
members of the former who had not to serve in one way or the other,
CH. XIX.
## p. 556 (#586) ############################################
556
The Curiales
that the enactments of the Codes currently confuse the two distinct
terms-curiales and decuriones. This confusion of itself points to
the overburdening of the middle class in the towns with service. And
we find indeed that its members are compelled to take over without
salary the various personal munera, or charges, of local government, to
administer the town, to act as petty justices, to take part in deputations,
to arrange games, to inspect public buildings, to provide fuel for baths,
to superintend postal and transport service (cursus publicus), to collect
rates, etc.
The most burdensome of their obligations were connected with the
collection of taxes. They were chiefly responsible for assessing the
town population, and out of their number were selected the inspectors
of public stores (horrea) and the decemprimi (Sexám potoi), who had
to collect the land tax and the tribute in kind (annona). Both
heathen and Christian authors testify to the crushing burden of taxation
during the fourth and fifth centuries, and the unfortunate curiales, who
were made the instruments of collection under the watchful and extor-
tionate supervision of state officials, were not only suffering from the
unpopularity of their functions, but had constantly to fall back on their
own resources in order to make good deficiencies and arrears. The
decemprimi were primarily responsible as collectors, and when they
vacated their office they had to nominate their successors and to
stand surety for their good behaviour. Not content with this the
provincial authorities commonly made the town, that is, primarily the
town senate (curia), liable for deficiencies in the full sum required. The
emperors sometimes intervened to forbid such collective liability
(C. Th. xi. 7, 2; C. Just. xi. 59, 16), but on other occasions they
enforced it in the most sweeping manner, as for instance when
Aurelian, and later on Constantine, decreed that the town senates
(ordines) should be made responsible for the taxes of deserted estates,
and in case they should be unable to support the burden it should be
distributed among the various local districts and estates (C. Just. XI.
59, 1).
In consequence of such oppressive burdens laid on the curiales we
witness the curious spectacle of widely spread attempts on the part of
the citizens to escape into more privileged professions—into the clergy
or the army—and even of their flight into the country, where they were
sometimes glad to live and work as simple coloni. The Codex Theo-
dosianus and the Codex Justinianus are full of enactments forbidding the
curiales to leave the place of their birth, condemning them to a hereditary
subjection to municipal charges (munera), in fact turning their con-
dition into a kind of serfdom. All the sons of a curialis had to follow
their father's career, they were deemed curiales from the date of their
birth (C. Th. xII. 1, 122). If there was not a sufficient number of
persons of this class to uphold all its obligations, owners of estates
## p. 557 (#587) ############################################
The Curia and Compulsion
557
ressions
(possessores), denizens (incolae), well-to-do plebeians were pressed into it.
The wretched townspeople were suspected of wanting to escape by flight
from their onerous condition and had to apply to the governor for special
leave of absence when they left the place of their birth for the sake of
business or travel. If one of them wanted to change permanently his
place of abode he was bound to provide a substitute or to leave a great
part of his fortune to the curia. This epoch of imperial legislation does
away, for fiscal and administrative purposes, with some of the funda-
mental principles of Roman law in its better times. A curialis, though
a Roman citizen in the exercise of full civil rights, is unable freely to
bequeath his fortune to another Roman citizen belonging to a different
city: property passing out of the jurisdiction of one curia into that of
another is charged with a heavy special payment to the former senate, and
in fact remains “ obnoxious” to it (C. Th. xii. 1, 107); a later constitu-
tion enacted that at least one-fourth of the property should remain in
the hands of the original curia. If a curialis wanted to sell land or
slaves employed in the cultivation of his estate he had to obtain leave
from the governor of the province (C. Th. xII. 3, 1). Heiresses were
much hampered in the right to marry strangers outside their late father's
curia and had in such cases to relinquish one-fourth part of their
property.
The climax of this legislation of servitude is reached when the
emperors actually condemn people for some crime or misdemeanour to be
enrolled as members of a curia : sons of veterans, e. g. who, by chopping
off their fingers, had rendered themselves unfit to serve in the army,
were stuck into the curia, and the same fate awaited unworthy
ecclesiastics.
The policy of compulsion and the spread of caste were undoubtedly
responsible to a great extent for another social process of great moment,
namely, for the formation of the colonate, an institution destined to play
an important part in medieval peasant life. Its roots stretch far back
into the earlier history of Roman husbandry. Columella, a writer on
agriculture of the first century A. D. , instructs his readers that it is
advantageous for owners of estates of insufficient fertility and difficult
cultivation to employ free farmers, coloni, instead of slaves. The
tenants were sometimes settled on the métayer system (colonia partiaria),
the farmer sharing crops with the owner. Juridically the relation was
regulated by the rules of the law of lease (locatio conductio) and the Digest
often refers to the various problems arising under this contract; custom
and tacit agreement played a great part in the treatment of such
questions in practice. By the side of contractual relations between
private landlords and tenants stood administrative regulations as to the
management of vast domains of the Crown and of the private patrimony
of the Emperor. Crowds of tenants were settled on these estates who
had to look for a guarantee to the possession of their holdings rather to
CH. XIX.
## p. 558 (#588) ############################################
558
The Colonate
the equity and properly understood interest of their imperial masters
than to formal contractual right. Lastly, a good many slaves were put
into a position similar to that of the tenants of free birth, and as a
matter of fact, it got to be more and more difficult to distinguish
between coloni by contract and quasi-coloni by long usage and customary
tenure. One trait which tended to reduce the distance between the
different groups was the heavy indebtedness of most free farmers: they
had often to take their agricultural outfit from the landowner along
with the farm ; in case of economic difficulties they turned to him as to
their natural protector and a capitalist near at hand, and when once
debts had been made, it was exceedingly difficult to pay them off.
Fourth-century legislation approaches these relations in its usual
despotic manner. A law of Constantine dated A. D. 332 gives us the first
glimpse of a new order of men standing between the free and the unfree
and treated, in fact, as serfs of the glebe. It runs thus : “With whom-
soever a colonus belonging to someone else (alieni juris) may be discovered,
let the new patron not only restore the colonus to the place of his
birth (origini), but let him also pay the tax for the time of his absence.
As for the coloni themselves who contemplate flight, let them be put
into fetters after the manner of slaves, so that they should perform
duties worthy of freemen on the strength of a servile condemnation”
(C. Th. v. 17, 1). But from Constantine again we have another en-
1
actment marking the other side of the condition, namely, the legal
protection afforded to the colonus against possible exactions. About
A. D. 325 the Emperor laid down in a rescript to the vicarius of the East
that, “a colonus from whom a landlord exacted more than it was
customary to render and than had been obtained from him in former
times, may apply to the judge nearest at hand and produce evidence of
the wrong. The person who is convicted of having claimed more than
he used to receive shall be prohibited to do so in the future after having
given back what he extorted by illegal superexaction” (C. Just. xi. 50, 1).
The legal protection afforded to the coloni was not suggested by prin-
ciples of humanity, but by the necessity of keeping up at least some portion
of the previous personal freedom of these peasants in order to safeguard
the interest of the State which looked upon this part of the population as
the mainstay of its fiscal system. If the emperors made light of the
right of free citizens to choose their abode and their occupations as they
pleased and did not scruple to attach the coloni to their tenures, the
absolute right of landowners to do what they pleased with their land
was not more sacred to them. Constantine imposed the most stringent
limitations on their power of alienating plots of land. “ If someone
wants to sell an estate or to grant it, he has not the right to retain
coloni by private agreement in order to transfer them to other places.
Those who consider coloni to be useful, must either hold them together
with the estates or, if they despair of getting profit from these estates,
## p. 559 (#589) ############################################
Rise of Rustic Classes
559
let them also give up the coloni for the use of other people” (C. Th.
XIII. 10, 3; A. D. 357). In, the reign of Valentinian, Valens and
Gratian, about A. D. 375, this principle is characteristically extended
to the very slaves. “As born cultivators (originarii) cannot be sold
without their land, even so it is forbidden to sell agricultural slaves
inscribed in the census rolls. Nor must the law be evaded in a fraudu-
lent manner, as has been often practised in the case of originarii,
namely, that while a small piece of land is handed over to the buyer, the
cultivation of the whole estate is made impossible. But if entire estates
or portions of them pass to a new owner, so many slaves and born
cultivators' should be transferred at the same time as used to stay with
the former owners in the whole or in its parts” (C. Just. xl. 48, 7).
The fiscal point of view is clearly expressed on many occasions.
Valentinian and Valens entrust the landowners with the privilege of
collecting the taxes of their coloni for the State with the exception of
those tenants who have besides their farms some land of their own
(C. Th. xi. 1, 14). This right and duty might be burdensome, but
it certainly gave the landlords a powerful lever in reducing their free
tenants to a condition of almost servile subjection. Perhaps the most
drastic expression of the process may be seen in the fact that coloni lose
their right to implead their masters in civil actions except in cases of
superexaction. In criminal matters they were still deemed possessed of
the full rights of citizens (C. Just. xi. 50, 2).
But it would be wrong to suppose that the condition of the farmers
in the fourth and fifth centuries is characterised by mere oppression and
deterioration. In the case of rustic slaves it is clearly seen that their
11
fate was much improved by the course of events and by legislation.
Their masters lost part of their former absolute authority because the
State began to supervise the relations between master and slave for the
sake of keeping cultivators to their work and thereby ensuring the
coming in of taxes. Considerations of a similar nature exerted an
influence on the fate of coloni, and they made themselves felt not only
in social legislation, but also in husbandry. The tremendous agrarian
crisis through which the Empire was passing could not be weathered by
mere compulsion and discipline. On a large scale, it was a case like the
one described in Columella's advice to landowners: if you want to get
your land cultivated under difficult conditions, do not try to manage it
by slave labour and direct orders, but entrust it to farmers. The great
latifundia of earlier times were parcelled up into small plots, because
only small cultivators could stand the storm of hostile invasion, of dis-
location of traffic, of depopulation.
542
Benedictine Nuns. Conclusion
St Boniface's correspondence with several Anglo-Saxon nuns, both in
England and in Germany, reveals the high standards of education
and of life that prevailed in the English nunneries. Communities of
Benedictine nuns have in all ages been predominantly ladies, recruited
from the upper classes, and the life is specially adapted for them.
Naturally it has been a more secluded life than that of the monks; but
the great Benedictine nunneries have always exercised considerable
religious and social influence.
In the foregoing pages the ideals of the various phases of early
monasticism have been set forth. It is not pretended that these ideals
have always been realised by monks. But it is right to estimate a
system in large measure by its ideals, except where failure adequately
to realise them has predominated. That this has been the case with
Christian monachism as a whole will hardly now be contended by any
historian.
1
## p. 543 (#573) ############################################
543
CHAPTER XIX.
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF THE ROMAN
EMPIRE IN THE FOURTH CENTURY.
THE ancients saw in the stupendous destiny of the Roman State the
clue to the history of the Universe and a revelation of the plans of
Providence in regard to the world. “ Italy," wrote Pliny the elder in
the time of Vespasian, “has been selected by Deity in order to collect
dispersed power, to soften customs and to unite by the communion of one
language the various and barbarous dialects of so many nations, to
bestow on men the intercourse of ideas and humanity, in a word—that
all the races of the world should have one fatherland” (Hist. Nat. 11. 6).
For Christians the conquest of the world by Rome had even a deeper
meaning. “Jesus was born in the reign of Augustus, who as it were
associated in one monarchy the immense multitude of men dispersed
about the earth, because a plurality of kingdoms would have been an
obstacle to the diffusion of Christ's doctrine through the whole world"
(Origen, c. Celsum, 11. 30). But Augustus was a heathen and his
a
successors persecuted Christianity, so that the Roman Empire served the
Gospel for a long while unconsciously and in spite of its desires. This
conception of universal history made a further stride when Constantine
the Great proclaimed Christianity the religion of the State. “In
ancient times," says Eusebius of Caesarea, “the world was divided
according to countries and nations into a multitude of commonwealths,
tyrannies, principalities. Hence constant wars and the devastations and
depredations following thereon. . . . The origin of these divisions may
certainly be ascribed to the diversity of the gods worshipped by men.
But when the instrument of salvation, the most holy body of Christ. . .
was raised. . . against the demons, forthwith the cause of demons has
vanished and states, principalities, tyrannies, commonwealths have passed
away. . . . One God has been announced to the whole of mankind, one
empire obtained sway over all men—the Roman Empire” (Eusebius,
Panegyric of Constantine, c. 16).
But the unification of the inhabited world (oikovuévn) which forms
the meaning and the greatness of the Roman Empire, is a process pre-
a
CH. XIX.
## p. 544 (#574) ############################################
544
Barbarians in the Empire
common
senting two different sides to the observer. Kelts, Iberians, Rhaetians,
Moors, Illyrians, Thracians were to some extent civilised by the culture of
Greece and Rome, and achieved by its help a great advance in economic
and civic organisation as well as in education ; Syrians, Egyptians, the
inhabitants of Asia Minor only modified to a certain extent their manners
and views in order to meet the requirements of the Empire. But if the
intermixture of tribes and their permeation by Graeco-Roman culture
was in one sense a great progress, it was at the same time, but from
another point of view, a decline; it was accompanied by a lowering of
the level of the culture which exerted the civilising influence. While
conquering barbarism and native peculiarities, Graeco-Roman culture
assumed various traits from its vanquished opponents, and became gross
and vulgar in its turn. In the words of a biographer of Alexander
Severus : good and bad were promiscuously thrust into the Empire,
noble and base, and numbers of barbarians (Hist. Aug. Alex. Sev. 64).
The unification and transformation of tribes standing on low grades
of civilisation leads to consequences characterised by one
feature, the simplification of aims—degeneration. This process is
concealed for a while by the political and economic advantages follow-
ing on the establishment of the Empire. The creation of a central
authority, upholding peace and intercourse (Pax Romana), the con-
junction of the different parts of the world into one economic system
enlivened by free trade, the spread of citizenship and civil culture in
wider and wider circles of population—all these benefits produced for a
time a rise of prosperity which counterbalanced the excess of barbarous,
imperfectly assimilated elements.
But a series of political misfortunes set in rather rapidly in the
third century :' invasions of barbarians, conflicts between rival can-
didates to the throne, competition between armies and provinces put
an end to order and prosperity and threatened the very existence of the
Empire. In these calamities the barbarisation of Roman culture became
more and more manifest, a backward movement began in all directions,
a backward movement, however, which was by no means a mere falling
back into previous conditions, but gave rise to new and interesting
departures.
It suffices to glance at the names of the Roman citizens of the
Empire in order to notice that we are in very mixed company. Instead
of the nomina and cognomina of earlier days we find strange barbaric
appellations hardly whitewashed by the adjunction of us or er at the end.
A T. Tammonius Saeni Tammoni filius Vitalis, and a Blescius Diovicus
do not look very pure “Quirites. " Such barbarians had first of all to
learn Latin as the common tongue of the Western Empire, and they did
learn to use Latin. But what Latin ! As St Jerome has it: “ Latin
language gets transformed according to countries and to epochs. ” Com-
mon speech, the lingua vulgaris, with a former Kelt, Iberian or Rhaetian
&
a
a
## p. 545 (#575) ############################################
Romance Languages
545
became gradually a new Romance language, the sounds and forms of
which were deflected from the original Latin in consequence of the
physiological and intellectual peculiarities of Kelts, Iberians, Rhaetians.
We may be allowed to give a few instances of this curious process of
transformation from the well-known history of French phonetics and
grammar. The Latin u was kept up in Italian but softened into the
French u (ü), e. g. durus-duro-dur, and we cannot wonder at that,
because the population of Gaul when yet speaking Keltic sounded u as ü
and not somewhat like the English oo in “poor. " The French“ liaison,"
”
the habit of sounding the otherwise mute consonant at the end of a
word before a vowel in order to avoid a “hiatus,” may be traced to the
Keltic habit of joining separate words into compounds. In Keltic
dialects the accent makes one or the other syllable so prominent that
other syllables become indistinct and may get slurred over. This stress
put on the accentuated syllable has called forth in French a charac-
teristic deterioration of unaccentuated parts of words. Sometimes whole
groups of sounds disappear, as in “ Août ” (Augustus), sometimes they
are represented only by a mute e as in “ vie" (vita). The French habit
of marking the last syllable by an accent even in the pronunciation of
Latin goes back ultimately to this trait. In reading the Latin text of
the Salic Law we are struck by the complete dislocation of the system
of declensions—the ablative case is constantly used instead of the accusa-
tive, the accusative instead of the nominative, etc. But this degeneration
was prepared by the practice of vulgar Latin even in the first and
second centuries when the genitive case disappeared. The dative followed
suit somewhat later.
It is not however to be supposed that Latin was imposed even in its
vulgarised forms on the entire population of the Empire. It is needless
to remind the reader of the fact that in the whole eastern half Greek
was the language of the educated classes. But both in the East and in
the West there were many backward regions in which vernacular speech
held its own stubbornly against Greek and Latin. The Copts, Arabs,
Syrians, Armenians never gave up their native languages, and the
oriental undercurrents continued to play an important part in the
social life of Asia and Egypt. There are many vestiges of a similar
persistency of barbarian custom and speech in the West. Roman law
admitted expressly that valid deeds could be executed in Punic and,
judging from the story about a sister of Septimius Severus, Punic must
have been very prevalent among well-to-do families of knightly rank in
Africa : when the lady in question came to visit her brother in Rome,
the Emperor had often to blush on account of her imperfect knowledge
of Latin. The letters and sermons of St Augustine shew that this state
of things had by no means disappeared in romanised Africa in the fifth
century: the great African bishop repeatedly urged the necessity for
dignitaries of the Church to be acquainted with Punic, and he had
C. MED, H. VOL. I. CH. XIX.
35
## p. 546 (#576) ############################################
546
National Survivals and Revivals
2
а
66
а
Pila
d
recourse himself to illustrations drawn from this language. In Spain and
Gascony one living remnant of pre-Roman civilisation has survived to
our days in the “ Es-c-aldunac" speech of the Basques, the offspring of
the Iberian race, while Brittany exhibits another block of pre-Roman
custom in the speech and manners of its Breton population. St Jerome
testifies to the fact that in the neighbourhood of Trèves, one of the
mightiest centres of Roman civilisation, a Keltic dialect was spoken by
the peasants in the fourth century, so that a person reared there pos-
sessed a clue to the speech of the Galatians, the Keltic tribe of Asia
Minor. In the Latinised north-west of the Balkan peninsula the
vernacular Illyrian was never driven out or destroyed, and the present
speech of the Albanians is directly derived from it in spite of a sprinkling
of Latin words and expressions. In the west of England Keltic speech
and custom runs on uninterruptedly through the ages of Roman, Saxon
and Norman conquest. Not to speak of Welsh, which has borrowed
many Latin words, especially technical terms, but remains a purely
Keltic language, Cornish was spoken in Cornwall up to the eighteenth
century, while in Cumberland and Westmorland the custom of shep-
herds to count their sheep in Keltic numerals was the last vestige of the
separate existence of
Welsh ” population.
These traces of stubborn national life forming a kind of barbarian
subsoil to Roman culture are important in many ways: they help us not
only to understand the history of dialects and of folklore, but they
account for a good many spontaneous outbursts of barbarism in the
seemingly pacified and romanised provinces of the Empire at a time
when the iron hand of the rulers began to relax its grip over the con-
quered populations. Berber, Punic, Iberian, Illyrian and Keltic tribes
come forward again in the calamitous years of the fourth and fifth
centuries. Usurpers, riotous soldiers and brigands gather strength from
national aspirations, and in the end the disruption of the Empire becomes
inevitable on account of internal strife as well as of foreign invasions.
Nowhere perhaps has this subliminal life of the province to account for so
much as in England, where the arts and crafts of Rome were introduced
in the course of three centuries and a half of gradual occupation and
Latin itself was widely spoken by the upper classes, but where never-
theless the entire fabric of Roman rule crumbled down so rapidly during
the fifth century, and Kelts were left to fight with the Teutons for the
remnants of what had been one of the fair provinces of Rome.
A transformation similar to that expressed in language is clearly
perceivable in the history of Art. Christianity introduced into the
world a powerful new factor, the strength of which may be gauged in
the paintings of the Catacombs and in the rise of new styles of archi-
tecture-the Byzantine and the Romanesque. Thus we have to deal not
with mere deterioration and decay, but also with the lowering of the level
of culture and the barbarisation of art which make themselves felt in
lonel
## p. 547 (#577) ############################################
Barbarisation of culture. Commercial Intercourse
547
a
various ways. When Rome had to raise a triumphal arch to the con-
queror of Maxentius, a great part of the reliefs for its adornment were
carried over from the Arch of Trajan, while some sculptures were added
by contemporary artists. And the latter perpetuate the decay of art
and of aesthetic taste. The figures are distorted, the faces deformed.
On the so-called discus of Theodosius the symbolical figures of the lower
part were copied from ancient originals and are handsome. The upper
half was filled with representations of living people, and it is evident
that the gross, flat, ugly faces, the heavy embroidered uniforms were
reproduced with fidelity, while the handling of the figures strikes the
observer by its clumsiness and faulty designs. The chief thing in the
pictorial and plastic arts of the third and fourth centuries is not beauty
or expression, but size and costly material. Gallienus, whose unfortunate
reign was nicknamed the “period of the thirty tyrants,” ordered a statue
of himself 200 feet in height: it was planned on such a scale that a child
was able to ascend by a winding staircase to the top of the Emperor's
lance. Instead of marble, precious porphyry, a stone exceedingly difficult
to cut, was used for plastic purposes ; the contractor and polisher were
more important persons than the sculptor for the purpose of making
statues of this material.
It is of special importance for us to notice the gradual degeneration
or rather transformation of economic life. Towards the beginning of
our era a great circuit of industrial and commercial intercourse is formed
under the protection of the Empire: it reminds us in some ways of the
world-market of the present time. The different provinces exchanged
goods and developed specialities fitting into one whole through mutual
support; the excellent roads made quick exchanges possible, considerable
capital sought employment in productive enterprises, firm political
power and mutual confidence fostered the growth of credit. From the
third century onwards the picture changes. The subjection of conquered
peoples by Roman citizens ceases and the greater part of the population
of the Empire is admitted to the rights of citizenship. This meant that
masses of people, over whom governors, publicans and contractors had exer-
cised almost uncontrolled sway, were enabled to come forward with their
interests and legal claims. Provincial forces began to assert themselves,
and in husbandry local needs and the requirements of small people made
themselves more and more felt. As a consequence, the wide organisation
of world intercourse gives way before more direct and modest economic
problems—each social group has to look out primarily for itself in
regard to food, clothing, housing, furniture. On the other hand the
supply of slaves gets more and more hampered by the fact that wars of
conquest cease. In the beginning of the third century we hear already
of a price of 200 aurei or 500 denarii of full ancient coinage for a slave
(Dig. iv. 4, 51)-a very high price indeed, which shews indirectly how
a
CA. XIX.
35_2
## p. 548 (#578) ############################################
548
Commercial Intercourse
a
In an
difficult it was to get slaves. During the protracted defensive wars
which had to be fought on all the frontiers prisoners were frequently
made, but these Germans, Slavs, Huns were difficult to manage and
made clumsy labourers when settled for agricultural purposes : it was
more profitable to leave them a certain independence on their plots, and
therefore to cut up large estates into small holdings. Lastly, the rise
of provincial and local interests and the change in the condition of the
labouring classes coincided with the terrible political calamities which I
have already had occasion to mention. The dislocation of the com-
monwealth rendered all widely extended economic plans insecure and
contributed by itself to the tendency of each separate locality to live its
own life and to work for its own needs without much help from the
outside. As a result of the working of these different causes society falls
back from a complicated system of commercial intercourse to the simpler
forms of “natural economy. ” This movement is not arrested by the
restoration of the Empire in the fourth century, but rather strengthened
by it. Political power is indeed restored, but it has to be maintained
by straining every nerve in social life, and this straining hampers free
movement and free contract, fastens every one to a certain place and to a
certain calling
Exposition of the whole world and of nations” translated
from Greek in the time of Constantius (soon after 345) much attention
is still paid to the economic intercourse between the different parts of
the Empire. Greece itself is said to be unable to satisfy its own needs,
but in regard to many of the other provinces it is expressly noted that
they are sufficient unto themselves. Besides, most of them produce
goods which are exported to other places. Ascalon and Gaza, for
example, are said to provide excellent wine for Syria and Egypt;
Scythopolis, Laodicea (in Syria), Byblus, Tyre, Berytus send out linen
wares all round the world, while Caesarea, Tyre, Sarepta and Neapolis
are famous in the same way for their purple-dyed tissues. Egypt
supplies Constantinople and the Eastern provinces with corn and has
a monopoly in the production of papyrus. From Cappadocia furs are
obtained, from Galatia different kinds of clothing. Laodicea in Phrygia
has given a name to garments of a special kind. Asia and the Helles-
pont produce corn, wine and oil; in Macedonia and Dalmatia, iron
and lead mines are noted ; in Dardania (Illyria) pastoral pursuits are
prevalent and bacon and cheese are sent to market, while Epirus is
distinguished by its large fishing trade. The Western provinces are not
described in such a minute way but fine Italian wines are mentioned,
the trade of Arles for imports into Gaul is noted, and Spain is extolled
on account of its oil, cloth, bacon and mules. Oil is also said to be
largely supplied by the African province, while clothing and cattle come
from Numidia. Pannonia and Mauretania are the only provinces
mentioned as carrying on the slave trade.
## p. 549 (#579) ############################################
Diocletian's Edict as to Prices
549
Some forty-five years before this commercial geography of the
Empire was drawn up, another curious document shews the imperial
authorities engaged in a wearisome struggle in order to protect easy
intercourse and to ward off the rise of prices—I mean the famous edict
of Diocletian and of his companion Emperors establishing maximum
prices in the Empire. Such measures are not taken without cogent
reasons and, indeed, we are told that prices had risen enormously,
although it is hardly probable that the reason of the dearth had to be
sought in the iniquities of the rulers (Lactantius, de mortibru perse-
cutorum, c. 7). The enactment itself dilates on the evil greed of
avaricious producers and vendors, and declares in the name of the
“fathers of human kind” that justice has to arbitrate and to intervene.
The Emperors are especially incensed at the hard bargains which are
extorted from soldiers quartered in the provinces or moving along the
roads : prices are screwed up on such occasions not to four or eight
times the ordinary value, but to an extent that could not be expressed
in words. If such things happen in times of abundance what is to be
expected from seasons when actual want is experienced? Without
attempting to fix normal prices the Emperors threaten with capital
punishment merchants engaged in supplying the different provinces
with wares : Lactantius reports that blood flowed and that the
impossibility of enforcing cheapness by the hands of executioners was
only recognised after fruitless attempts to terrorise tradesmen into
submission.
Let us look, however, at some of the details of the edict, fragments
of which have been preserved in several copies in the Balkan peninsula,
Asia Minor and Egypt, viz. , in the provinces under the direct sway of
Diocletian.
Traces of commercial intercourse of the same kind as that described
in the Expositio frequently meet the eye. We hear again of the high
class wines of Italy, of linen vestments from Laodicea, Scythopolis,
Byblus, of purple-dyed garments manufactured on the Syrian coast and
fetching very high prices, and of somewhat less expensive kinds from
Miletus : a piece of purple linen for ornamental stripes (clavi) weighing
six ounces may be sold for 13,000, 23,000 and even 32,000 denarii,
50,000 of the latter corresponding to one pound of gold' Cloth
garments came from Laodicea in Phrygia, from Modena in Italy and in
the shape of coarse, warm mantles from Flanders. In a word the lines
of commercial intercourse are clearly traced, but the difficulties en-
countered by trade under new conditions are also very
visible. Some
comparisons with extant valuations of goods ordered for soldiers enable
us to form a judgment as to the Auctuations of prices which Diocletian's
enactment tried to moderate. We hear, e. g. , that in one
case 80
1 Roughly equivalent to £46 present coinage.
a
CH. XIX.
## p. 550 (#580) ############################################
550
Economic Compulsion
pounds of bacon were estimated at 1 solidus (6000 copper denarii) and
in another instance 20 pounds at 1000 denarii. According to the tariff
of Diocletian the maximum price for bacon of the best kind would have
been in the first instance 96,000, and in the second 16,000 copper
denarii, the latter being about 16 times more than the ordinary
price.
It is important to notice that while the ordinary agricultural
labourer is not allowed to receive higher wages than 25 silver denarii
(about 120 copper denarii) per day besides board, the maximum price of
a double sextarius (roughly, about a quart) of wheat was fixed at 100
silver denarii, and that of a pound of pork at 12 silver denarii.
One cannot wonder at the failure of Diocletian's attempt, which
according to contemporary testimony only increased the evils it was
meant to suppress, the penalties against the merchants leading to
concealment of goods and interruptions of trade. But it is charac-
teristic of the methods of compulsory legislation constantly employed
by the emperors of the fourth century that Julian made a similar and
quite as unsuccessful attempt to coerce the citizens of Antioch into
fair trade.
It is impossible to suppose that such measures were dictated by a
kind of “ Caesar madness," prompting the rulers of the civilised world to
affirm their will and wisdom as against economic laws. However faulty
in its conception, the policy indicated by the edicts of Diocletian and
Julian had its roots in a well-meaning though ineffectual desire to
regulate trade and to protect fair intercourse. It may be likened, as
most attempts to impose maximum limits to prices, to the police super-
vision of trade in necessaries of life practised in besieged cities. The
emperors and their bureaucracy had come to look on the whole civilised
world subject to their authority as upon a besieged city, in which all
civil professions had to conform to military rule.
The same kind of evolution from free intercourse to compulsion may
be observed in the legislation on commercial and industrial corporations.
Roman law passed through several stages in this respect. At the time
of the Republic guilds of artisans and merchants could be formed by
private agreement if their statutes and activity did not infringe the
laws of the State (Gaius in Dig. XLVII. 22, 4). During the civil con-
ficts of the last years of the Republic and in the early Empire organised
corporations were several times dissolved and forbidden on account of
the political agitation carried on by their members, and from Augustus'
time concession by the Senate and confirmation by the Prince had to be
applied for when a new college or guild had to be formed. But police
supervision by the State did not alter the main feature of the cor-
porations, namely their spontaneous origin in the needs of society and
the wish of private persons to carry on profitable trade and to form
unions for mutual support and social intercourse. The imperial Govern-
## p. 551 (#581) ############################################
Corporations
551
ment was often inclined to repress these spontaneous tendencies, as we
may gather, e. g. , from Trajan's correspondence with Pliny.
The first indication of a further change in the relations between
government and corporations may be noticed in the reign of Alexander
Severus. This Emperor, instead of restricting the rise of trade guilds,
actually favoured the formation of corporations of wine merchants,
grocers, shoemakers and other crafts (Lampridius, Alexander Severus,
33). We may suspect that at this time, that is in the second quarter
of the third century, the Government began to perceive a slackening in
the energy of trade and commerce and chose to exert its authority in
patronising trade guilds. The restoration of imperial power under
Aurelian brought about another and more powerful attempt in the same
direction. One of the measures of this Emperor was the assumption of
a wide-reaching guardianship over the alimentation of Rome. The
supply of corn from Egypt was increased ; lists of paupers (proletarii)
entitled to be fed by the State were drawn up, and the privilege of
living at the cost of the commonwealth was made hereditary; instead of
corn bread was distributed, and along with bread-oil, salt and pork.
In connexion with this system of alimentation of the poorer classes in
Rome Aurelian reorganised the service of the merchants responsible for
the transport of corn on the Nile and on the Tiber. This throws light
on the immediate reason for the transformation of corporations in the
ensuing age: trades and crafts which had a bearing on vital needs of
social intercourse were taken under the tutelage of the Empire and
carried on henceforth, not as free professions but as compulsory services.
This is clearly seen in the legislation of Constantine and remains
characteristic of the legal treatment of trade during the whole of the
fourth and of the fifth century.
In the Lex Julia of 747 u. c. enacted by Augustus the principle
was already formulated that a combination of individual workmen or
traders into a college had to be warranted not only by their wishes and
interests but by public utility. The public element assumes now a
preponderating influence. Bakers are authorised to form a craft guild
not because they see an advantage in being organised in this way, but
because the State wants their services in regulating the trade in bread
and providing for the needs of the inhabitants of cities. The result
of this enlisting of trades and crafts into public service is a system
entirely at variance with our conceptions of supply and demand, and of
economic intercourse.
To begin with, all freedom in the choice of professions came to an
end. Corporations are required to hold their members to their occupa-
tions all through life. All attempts of single members to leave their
place of abode and customary work are considered as a flight from duty
and severely forbidden. In 395, e. g. , Arcadius and Honorius decree
heavy fines against powerful people who conceal and protect fugitive
CH. XIX.
## p. 552 (#582) ############################################
552
The Navicularii
corn.
members of curiae and collegia. For each one of the latter the patron
has to pay a fine of a pound of gold (C. Th. xn. 1, 147). The codices
are full of enactments against fugitives of this kind, and such legislation
would prove, by itself, that a régime of caste was being gradually
established in the Empire. It is certain that the invasions of barbarians,
such as those of Alaric for example, contributed powerfully to scatter
the working population, but, apart from these, one of the motives of
Alight was the heavy burden of taxation'. It is probable that the
initiative in regard to the measures of stern compulsion came not from
the bureaucrats of the Empire, but from the corporations themselves
which were made liable to the requirements of the State in case of the
flight of their members. Of course, the consistent enforcement of such
a policy actually blocked the natural selection of professions and the
development of independent enterprise.
Let us, to take a concrete example, attend somewhat closer to the
discipline imposed on the important college of navicularii. During the
first two centuries of our era the term designated all shipowners
engaged in the carrying trade by sea; gradually it came to mean
shippers employed by the State for the transport of goods, especially of
Most of the corn necessary for the population of Rome was
derived from Egypt and Africa, and we hear of a large fleet starting
from Alexandria for the purpose of carrying over the supply. There is
good evidence to shew that during the second century A. D. the college
was composed of men who had joined it as voluntary members and sought
the privileges which were conceded to it in return for its services to the
State. All this appears changed in the fourth century. The navicularii
are to devote themselves primarily to the transport of goods belonging
to the State, more particularly corn and oil for Rome and Constanti-
nople, while African navicularii were bound to bring wood for fuel to
the public baths of Rome. The Egyptian navicularii received their
cargo from the collectors of the annona, the corn tribute in the province.
The season for the
voyages of their ships was reckoned from the first of
April to the 15th of October, the other months being held free on
account of stormy weather. Each navicularius had to send his ships to
the feet once in two years. When the ship weighed anchor it had to
proceed by the shortest route and not to stop anywhere without absolute
necessity. Should one of the ships of the corn fleet be delayed in a port
the governor and Senate of the place were bound, if necessary, to use
force, in order to send the merchants out to sea again. Outside these
official journeys they had the right to move on their own behalf, but
evidently their right did not outweigh the uncomfortable limitations
imposed on them during their service period, as we find the emperors
endeavouring in every way to keep the navicularii to their task and to
prevent them from slipping out of the college. A curious letter of
1 Ammianus Marcellinus, xxxi. 6, § 6.
## p. 553 (#583) ############################################
Decay of Municipal Institutions
553
.
St Augustine tells how the bishop refused to accept the bequest of a
certain Bonifacius, an African navicularius, on behalf of the see of
Hippo. Bonifacius had disinherited his son and wanted to pass over
his property to the Church. St Augustine refuses to accept the gift,
because he does not wish to entangle the Church with the dealings of the
navicularii. In case of shipwreck the Government would order an inquiry,
the sailors rescued from the wreck would be put to torture, the Church
would have to pay for the lost cargo, etc. The members of the college
evidently had to be rich men and, sometimes, if there were gaps to be
filled, the State would compel rich men to join the corpus naviculari-
orum. The service was hereditary, and if any member absconded, his
property was forfeited to the college. These facts may be sufficient to
shew to what extent the commerce of those days suffered under the
stringent discipline imposed by the requirements of the State, and what
a queer mixture of a business man and of an official a shipowner of those
days was. I may add that, although we know most about navicularii,
bakers, purveyors of pork and similar merchants engaged in supplying
the capitals with food. The provisioning of the smaller towns and the
management of all crafts and trades were carried on more or less on
similar principles.
An important chapter in the history of the decline and fall of the
Empire is constituted by the gradual decay of municipal institutions.
The ancient world took a long time to exchange its organisation of free
cities for that of a great power, governed by a centralised bureaucracy.
Even after the conquest of its provinces the Roman commonwealth
remained substantially a confederation of cities, and municipal auto-
nomy prospered for a long while. We see the cities of the first
and second centuries vying one with the other in local patriotism,
in the munificence of leading citizens, in generous contributions of
private men towards the welfare of poorer classes, public health and
order. The economic progress brought about by the establishment
of the Empire made itself felt primarily in the increased activity
and prosperity of city life. But threatening symptoms begin to
appear even in the second century A. D. Municipal self-government
bereft of its political significance, restricted to the sphere of local
interests and local ambitions, is apt to degenerate into corrupt and
spendthrift practices : the wealthier provincial citizens ruin themselves
by lavish expenditure on pageants and distributions, municipal enter-
prise in matters of building and philanthropy often turns out to be
extravagant and inefficient. The emperors find no other means of
remedying such defects than the institution of curators of different kinds
--curatores rei publicae, curatores kalendari—commissioners for the cor-
rection of the condition of free cities (ad corrigendum statum liberarum
civitatum). In the correspondence between Pliny and Trajan the
.
imperial commissioner is already seen to interfere in the most minute
CH. XIX.
## p. 554 (#584) ############################################
554
Growth of Centralisation
questions of city administration and, at the same time, he is constantly
applying for direction to his imperial master. The ideal of centralisation
is clearly expressed in this intimate intercourse of two well-meaning and
talented statesmen : the Emperor appears in the light of an omniscient
and all-powerful Providence watching over all the dealings and doings
of his innumerable subjects. In order to embody such an ideal the
central power had to surround itself with helpers and executive officers,
and Hadrian laid the foundations of a Civil Service more comprehensive
and better organised than the rudimentary administrative institutions
of the Commonwealth and of the early Empire. Later on Diocletian
and Constantine multiplied the number of bureaucratic organs and com-
bined them into one whole by the bands of constant supervision and
iron discipline. But even before this ultimate completion of bureaucracy
in the fourth century, in the very beginnings of the system of central
tutelage, a kind of vicious circle formed itself: central authority was
called upon to interfere on account of the deplorable defects of munici-
pal administration, while municipal life was disturbed and atrophied by
constant interference from above. It is impossible to say precisely what
was cause and what was effect in this case : the process was, as it happens
in many diseases, a constant flow of action and reaction. The jurists of
the third century find already a characteristic formula for corporative
town organisation in an analogy with the condition of a minor under
tutelage, and this analogy is followed up into all sorts of particulars as
to rights and duties. No wonder that for many citizens municipal life
loses its interest, that they try to eschew the burdens of unremunerated
and costly local administration, and that as early as the time of the
Severi compulsion has sometimes to be used to bring together a sufficient
number of unwilling magistrates and members of municipal senates
(Dig. , L. 1, 38, 6; L. 2, 2, 8).
A circumstance which in itself would have hardly been sufficient
to overthrow municipal organisation, certainly contributed to divert
people's minds from the customary trend of local patriotism and to make
the performance of certain duties difficult-I mean the spread of Chris-
tianity. Municipal institutions were intertwined with cults of Roman
and local gods including religious devotion to the Deity of the Emperors.
The new faith, on the other hand, did not admit of sacrifices or prayer
to the false gods of heathendome hence a conflict which did not admit of
a ready solution. Let us listen to the somewhat exaggerated statement
of Tertullian—“We concede,” he says, “ that a Christian may without
endangering salvation assume the honour and title of public functions-
if he does not offer sacrifices nor authorise sacrifices, if he does not
furnish victims, if he does not entrust anybody with the upkeep of
temples, if he does not take part in the management of their income, if
he does not give games either at his own or at the public expense, if he
does not preside at them, if he does not announce or arrange any festival,
## p. 555 (#585) ############################################
Christianity and Municipal Functions
555
if he avoids all kinds of oath and abstains, while exercising power, from
giving sentence in regard to the life or the honour of men, decisions as to
money matters being excepted; if he does not proclaim edicts, nor act
as a judge, nor put people into prison or inflict torture on them. But
is all this possible? " As a matter of fact the heathen State did certainly
not go out of its way to make all these exceptions possible, and conflicts
between law and religious conviction arose every day. On many occasions
Christians of a softer mould submitted to what they considered to be
inevitable, and performed most of the duties challenged by the fiery
African. The Church had to work out a penitentiary code for those
among its members who had sullied themselves by heathen practices (see
e. g. the canons of the Synod of Elvira in Spain). Sometimes again the more
firm among the Christians made a stubborn stand and were martyrised
for their protest as enemies of the Roman State. Altogether there can
.
be no doubt that the inherent contradiction between Christian religion
and the pagan practices of municipal life did put an extra strain on the
latter and could not but increase the disorder which was setting in.
The bold step taken by Constantine in recognising Christianity as a
state religion saved the situation to some extent, but it could not do
away at a stroke with all the pagan elements of municipal life: the
strife between religions assumed a new aspect, and as the vital connexion
between local self-government and local cults was never restored, that
unity of conception which marked antiquity when at its best had to
be replaced by a deep dualism tending towards new solutions of
political and moral problems. The greatest representative of conquering
Christianity, St Augustine, recognises the defeat of the material world
of antiquity and has to fashion his ideals according to a scheme of
two cities in which only the heavenly one appeals to his devotion and
energy.
Apart from this complication arising out of peculiarities of religious
history, the middle class of the citizens was undergoing a transformation
similar to that of the merchants and craftsmen. When the chaotic con-
ditions of the second half of the third century were arrested by the
statesmanship and military power of Aurelian and Diocletian, the policy
of compulsion was brought to bear with full weight on the well-to-do
inhabitants of cities. They were mostly not only houseowners in our
sense, but also owners of lands in the vicinity of the towns, although
distinctions which it is somewhat difficult for us at the present time to
formulate in detail were drawn between them and the possessores or land-
owners properly so called. However, the bulk of the well-to-do townsmen
was considered as a separate class, the curiales, out of which the actual
members of city senates, the decuriones, as well as its executive officials
and justices, were selected. Yet the connexion between the curiales
group and the actual office-holders was so close, there were so few
members of the former who had not to serve in one way or the other,
CH. XIX.
## p. 556 (#586) ############################################
556
The Curiales
that the enactments of the Codes currently confuse the two distinct
terms-curiales and decuriones. This confusion of itself points to
the overburdening of the middle class in the towns with service. And
we find indeed that its members are compelled to take over without
salary the various personal munera, or charges, of local government, to
administer the town, to act as petty justices, to take part in deputations,
to arrange games, to inspect public buildings, to provide fuel for baths,
to superintend postal and transport service (cursus publicus), to collect
rates, etc.
The most burdensome of their obligations were connected with the
collection of taxes. They were chiefly responsible for assessing the
town population, and out of their number were selected the inspectors
of public stores (horrea) and the decemprimi (Sexám potoi), who had
to collect the land tax and the tribute in kind (annona). Both
heathen and Christian authors testify to the crushing burden of taxation
during the fourth and fifth centuries, and the unfortunate curiales, who
were made the instruments of collection under the watchful and extor-
tionate supervision of state officials, were not only suffering from the
unpopularity of their functions, but had constantly to fall back on their
own resources in order to make good deficiencies and arrears. The
decemprimi were primarily responsible as collectors, and when they
vacated their office they had to nominate their successors and to
stand surety for their good behaviour. Not content with this the
provincial authorities commonly made the town, that is, primarily the
town senate (curia), liable for deficiencies in the full sum required. The
emperors sometimes intervened to forbid such collective liability
(C. Th. xi. 7, 2; C. Just. xi. 59, 16), but on other occasions they
enforced it in the most sweeping manner, as for instance when
Aurelian, and later on Constantine, decreed that the town senates
(ordines) should be made responsible for the taxes of deserted estates,
and in case they should be unable to support the burden it should be
distributed among the various local districts and estates (C. Just. XI.
59, 1).
In consequence of such oppressive burdens laid on the curiales we
witness the curious spectacle of widely spread attempts on the part of
the citizens to escape into more privileged professions—into the clergy
or the army—and even of their flight into the country, where they were
sometimes glad to live and work as simple coloni. The Codex Theo-
dosianus and the Codex Justinianus are full of enactments forbidding the
curiales to leave the place of their birth, condemning them to a hereditary
subjection to municipal charges (munera), in fact turning their con-
dition into a kind of serfdom. All the sons of a curialis had to follow
their father's career, they were deemed curiales from the date of their
birth (C. Th. xII. 1, 122). If there was not a sufficient number of
persons of this class to uphold all its obligations, owners of estates
## p. 557 (#587) ############################################
The Curia and Compulsion
557
ressions
(possessores), denizens (incolae), well-to-do plebeians were pressed into it.
The wretched townspeople were suspected of wanting to escape by flight
from their onerous condition and had to apply to the governor for special
leave of absence when they left the place of their birth for the sake of
business or travel. If one of them wanted to change permanently his
place of abode he was bound to provide a substitute or to leave a great
part of his fortune to the curia. This epoch of imperial legislation does
away, for fiscal and administrative purposes, with some of the funda-
mental principles of Roman law in its better times. A curialis, though
a Roman citizen in the exercise of full civil rights, is unable freely to
bequeath his fortune to another Roman citizen belonging to a different
city: property passing out of the jurisdiction of one curia into that of
another is charged with a heavy special payment to the former senate, and
in fact remains “ obnoxious” to it (C. Th. xii. 1, 107); a later constitu-
tion enacted that at least one-fourth of the property should remain in
the hands of the original curia. If a curialis wanted to sell land or
slaves employed in the cultivation of his estate he had to obtain leave
from the governor of the province (C. Th. xII. 3, 1). Heiresses were
much hampered in the right to marry strangers outside their late father's
curia and had in such cases to relinquish one-fourth part of their
property.
The climax of this legislation of servitude is reached when the
emperors actually condemn people for some crime or misdemeanour to be
enrolled as members of a curia : sons of veterans, e. g. who, by chopping
off their fingers, had rendered themselves unfit to serve in the army,
were stuck into the curia, and the same fate awaited unworthy
ecclesiastics.
The policy of compulsion and the spread of caste were undoubtedly
responsible to a great extent for another social process of great moment,
namely, for the formation of the colonate, an institution destined to play
an important part in medieval peasant life. Its roots stretch far back
into the earlier history of Roman husbandry. Columella, a writer on
agriculture of the first century A. D. , instructs his readers that it is
advantageous for owners of estates of insufficient fertility and difficult
cultivation to employ free farmers, coloni, instead of slaves. The
tenants were sometimes settled on the métayer system (colonia partiaria),
the farmer sharing crops with the owner. Juridically the relation was
regulated by the rules of the law of lease (locatio conductio) and the Digest
often refers to the various problems arising under this contract; custom
and tacit agreement played a great part in the treatment of such
questions in practice. By the side of contractual relations between
private landlords and tenants stood administrative regulations as to the
management of vast domains of the Crown and of the private patrimony
of the Emperor. Crowds of tenants were settled on these estates who
had to look for a guarantee to the possession of their holdings rather to
CH. XIX.
## p. 558 (#588) ############################################
558
The Colonate
the equity and properly understood interest of their imperial masters
than to formal contractual right. Lastly, a good many slaves were put
into a position similar to that of the tenants of free birth, and as a
matter of fact, it got to be more and more difficult to distinguish
between coloni by contract and quasi-coloni by long usage and customary
tenure. One trait which tended to reduce the distance between the
different groups was the heavy indebtedness of most free farmers: they
had often to take their agricultural outfit from the landowner along
with the farm ; in case of economic difficulties they turned to him as to
their natural protector and a capitalist near at hand, and when once
debts had been made, it was exceedingly difficult to pay them off.
Fourth-century legislation approaches these relations in its usual
despotic manner. A law of Constantine dated A. D. 332 gives us the first
glimpse of a new order of men standing between the free and the unfree
and treated, in fact, as serfs of the glebe. It runs thus : “With whom-
soever a colonus belonging to someone else (alieni juris) may be discovered,
let the new patron not only restore the colonus to the place of his
birth (origini), but let him also pay the tax for the time of his absence.
As for the coloni themselves who contemplate flight, let them be put
into fetters after the manner of slaves, so that they should perform
duties worthy of freemen on the strength of a servile condemnation”
(C. Th. v. 17, 1). But from Constantine again we have another en-
1
actment marking the other side of the condition, namely, the legal
protection afforded to the colonus against possible exactions. About
A. D. 325 the Emperor laid down in a rescript to the vicarius of the East
that, “a colonus from whom a landlord exacted more than it was
customary to render and than had been obtained from him in former
times, may apply to the judge nearest at hand and produce evidence of
the wrong. The person who is convicted of having claimed more than
he used to receive shall be prohibited to do so in the future after having
given back what he extorted by illegal superexaction” (C. Just. xi. 50, 1).
The legal protection afforded to the coloni was not suggested by prin-
ciples of humanity, but by the necessity of keeping up at least some portion
of the previous personal freedom of these peasants in order to safeguard
the interest of the State which looked upon this part of the population as
the mainstay of its fiscal system. If the emperors made light of the
right of free citizens to choose their abode and their occupations as they
pleased and did not scruple to attach the coloni to their tenures, the
absolute right of landowners to do what they pleased with their land
was not more sacred to them. Constantine imposed the most stringent
limitations on their power of alienating plots of land. “ If someone
wants to sell an estate or to grant it, he has not the right to retain
coloni by private agreement in order to transfer them to other places.
Those who consider coloni to be useful, must either hold them together
with the estates or, if they despair of getting profit from these estates,
## p. 559 (#589) ############################################
Rise of Rustic Classes
559
let them also give up the coloni for the use of other people” (C. Th.
XIII. 10, 3; A. D. 357). In, the reign of Valentinian, Valens and
Gratian, about A. D. 375, this principle is characteristically extended
to the very slaves. “As born cultivators (originarii) cannot be sold
without their land, even so it is forbidden to sell agricultural slaves
inscribed in the census rolls. Nor must the law be evaded in a fraudu-
lent manner, as has been often practised in the case of originarii,
namely, that while a small piece of land is handed over to the buyer, the
cultivation of the whole estate is made impossible. But if entire estates
or portions of them pass to a new owner, so many slaves and born
cultivators' should be transferred at the same time as used to stay with
the former owners in the whole or in its parts” (C. Just. xl. 48, 7).
The fiscal point of view is clearly expressed on many occasions.
Valentinian and Valens entrust the landowners with the privilege of
collecting the taxes of their coloni for the State with the exception of
those tenants who have besides their farms some land of their own
(C. Th. xi. 1, 14). This right and duty might be burdensome, but
it certainly gave the landlords a powerful lever in reducing their free
tenants to a condition of almost servile subjection. Perhaps the most
drastic expression of the process may be seen in the fact that coloni lose
their right to implead their masters in civil actions except in cases of
superexaction. In criminal matters they were still deemed possessed of
the full rights of citizens (C. Just. xi. 50, 2).
But it would be wrong to suppose that the condition of the farmers
in the fourth and fifth centuries is characterised by mere oppression and
deterioration. In the case of rustic slaves it is clearly seen that their
11
fate was much improved by the course of events and by legislation.
Their masters lost part of their former absolute authority because the
State began to supervise the relations between master and slave for the
sake of keeping cultivators to their work and thereby ensuring the
coming in of taxes. Considerations of a similar nature exerted an
influence on the fate of coloni, and they made themselves felt not only
in social legislation, but also in husbandry. The tremendous agrarian
crisis through which the Empire was passing could not be weathered by
mere compulsion and discipline. On a large scale, it was a case like the
one described in Columella's advice to landowners: if you want to get
your land cultivated under difficult conditions, do not try to manage it
by slave labour and direct orders, but entrust it to farmers. The great
latifundia of earlier times were parcelled up into small plots, because
only small cultivators could stand the storm of hostile invasion, of dis-
location of traffic, of depopulation.
