In it were found officers' sons, men of
different
ranks, promoted
from the regular army, and young members of noble or wealthy families.
from the regular army, and young members of noble or wealthy families.
Cambridge Medieval History - v1 - Christian Roman Empire and Teutonic Kingdoms
The requirements for
the office were above all skill in the law and in the art of legal expression.
On all legal questions, whether questions of change in law, or questions
of its administration, the emperor gave his final decision by the voice of
the Quaestor. No body of servants officium) was specially allotted to
him, but the scrinia were at his service. Indeed he may be said to have
been the intermediary between the scrinia and the emperor. His relations
with the heads of the departments a libellis and a memoria, and particularly
with the latter, must have been very close; but their work was prepara-
tory and subordinate to his so far as legal matters were concerned. The
instances in which the magister memoriae succeeded in acting independently
of the Quaestor were exceptional. A share in the appointment to certain
of the lesser military offices was also assigned to the Quaestor, who kept
a record of the names of their holders, which was known as laterculum
minus. In this duty he was assisted by a high official of the scrinium
memoriae, whose title was laterculensis.
There was another body called tribuni et notarii, not attached to the
scrinia, which was of considerable importance. The service of these
functionaries was closely connected with the deliberations of the great
Imperial Council, the Consistorium, which is to be described presently.
They had to see that the proper officers carried out the decisions of the
Council. Their business often brought them into close and confidential
relation with the emperor himself. The officer at the head is primicerius
(literally, one whose name is written first on a wax tablet-primâ cerâ).
The title is given to many officers serving in other departments and
indicates usually, but not always, high rank. This particular primicerius
ranked even higher than the chiefs of the scrinia and the castrensis sacri
palatii. According to the Notitia he has “cognizance of all dignities
and administrative offices both military and civil. ” He kept the great
list known as laterculum maius, in which were comprised not only the
actual tenants of the greater offices, but forms for their appointment,
schedules of their duties, and even a catalogue of the different sections
of the army and their stations, including the scholae which served as
imperial guards.
The reorganisation of Finance brought into existence a host of
officials who either bore new names or old titles to which new duties
had been assigned. The great and complex system of taxation initiated
by Diocletian and carried further by his successors can here be only
sketched in broad outline. Although, like all the institutions of the
new monarchy, the scheme of taxation had its roots in the past, the new
development in its completed form stands in such marked contrast to old
conditions, that there is not much to be gained by detailed references to
the earlier Empire. Before Diocletian's time the old aerarium Saturni
had ceased to be of imperial importance, and the aerarium militare of
Augustus had disappeared. The general census of Roman citizens,
## p. 39 (#69) ##############################################
Financial Changes
39
carried out at Rome, is not heard of after Vespasian's time. Of the
ancient revenues of the State very many were swept away by Diocletian's
reform, even the most productive of all, the five per cent. tax on inherited
property (vicesima hereditatum) by which Augustus had subjected Roman
citizens in general to taxation. The separate provincial census, of which
in Gaul, for example, we hear much during the early Empire, was
rendered unnecessary. The great and powerful societates publicanorum
had dwindled away, though publicani were still employed for some
purposes. Direct collection of revenue had gradually taken the place
of the system of farming. Where any traces of the old system remained,
it was subject to strict official supervision. Before Diocletian the
incidence of taxation on the different parts of the Empire had been most
unequal. The reasons for this lay partly in the extraordinary variety of
the conditions by which in times past the relation of different portions
of the Empire to the central government had been fixed when they first
came under its sway; partly in Republican or Imperial favour or
disfavour as they afterwards affected the burdens to be endured in
different places; partly by the evolution of the municipalities of different
types throughout the Roman dominions. Towns and districts which
once had been immune from imposts or slightly taxed had become
tributary and vice-versa. The reforms instituted by Augustus and
carried further by his successors did something towards securing uni-
formity, but many diversities continued to exist. Some of these were
produced by the gift of immunitas which was bestowed on many civic
communities scattered over the Empire. Without this gift even com-
munities of Roman citizens were not exempt from the taxation which
marked off the provinces from Italy.
In order to understand the purpose of Diocletian's changes in the
taxation of the Empire, it is necessary to consider the struggle which he
and Constantine made to reform the imperial coinage. The difficult
task of explaining with exactness the utter demoralisation of the currency
at the moment when Diocletian ascended the throne cannot be here
attempted. Only a few outstanding features can be delineated. The
political importance of sound currency has never been more conspicuously
shewn than in the century which followed on the death of Commodus
(A. D. 180). Augustus had given a stability to the Roman coinage which
it had never before possessed. But he imposed no uniform system on
the whole of his dominions. Gold (with one slight exception) he
allowed none to mint but himself. But copper he left in the hands of the
Senate. Silver he coined himself, while he permitted many local mints
to strike pieces in that metal also as well as in copper. Subsequent
history extinguished local diversities and brought about by gradual
steps a general system which was not attained till the fourth century.
Aurelian deprived the Senate of the power which Augustus had left it.
Although the imperial coins underwent a certain amount of deprecia-
CH. II.
## p. 40 (#70) ##############################################
40
Financial Changes
tion between the time of Augustus and that of the Severi, it was not such
as to throw out of gear the taxation and the commerce of the Empire.
But with Caracalla a rapid decline set in, and by the time of Aurelian
the disorganisation had gone so far that practically gold and silver were
demonetised, and copper became the standard medium of exchange.
The principal coin that professed to be silver had come to contain no
more than five per cent. of that metal, and this proportion sank
afterwards to two per cent. What a government gains by making its
payments in corrupted coin is always far more than lost in the revenue
which it receives. The debasement of the coinage means a lightening
of taxation, and it is never possible to enhance the nominal amount
receivable by the exchequer so as to keep pace with the depreciation.
The effect of this in the Roman Empire was greater than it would have
been at an earlier time, since there is reason to believe that much of the
revenue formerly payable in kind had been transmuted into money.
A measure of Aurelian had the effect of multiplying by eight such taxes
as were to be paid in coin. As the chief (professing) silver coin had
twenty years earlier contained eight times as much silver as it had then
come to contain, he claimed that he was only exacting what was justly
due, but his subjects naturally cried out against his tyranny. No
greater proof of the disorganisation of the whole financial system could
be given than lies in the fact that the treasury issued sackloads ( folles)
of the Antoniani, first coined by Caracalla, which were intended to be
silver, but were now all but base metal only. These folles passed
from hand to hand unopened.
Diocletian's attempts to remove these mischiefs were not altogether
fortunate. He made experiment after experiment, aiming at that
stability of the currency which had, on the whole, prevailed for two
centuries after the reforms of Augustus, but never reaching it. Finally,
discovering that the last change he had made led to general raising of
prices, he issued the celebrated edict of a. d. 301 by which the charges
for all commodities were fixed, the penalty for transgression being
death.
Constantine was forced to handle afresh the tangled problem of the
currency. The task was rendered especially difficult by the fresh
debasement of coinage which was perpetrated by Maxentius while he
was supreme in Italy. It may be said at once that the goal of Diocletian's
efforts was never reached by Constantine. He did indeed alter the
weight of the gold piece, which now received the name of solidus, and it
continued in circulation, practically unchanged, for centuries. But this
gold piece was to all intents and purposes not a coin, for when payments
were made in it, they were reckoned by weight. The solidus was in effect
only a bit of bullion, the fineness of which was conveniently guaranteed
by the imperial stamp. The same is true of Constantine's silver pieces.
The only coins which could be paid and received by their number,
## p. 41 (#71) ##############################################
Assessment of Taxes
41
without weighing, were those contained in the folles, of which mention
was made above, and the word follis was now applied to the individual
coins, as well as to the whole sack. It had proved to be impossible to
restore the monetary system which had prevailed in the first and second
centuries of the Empire. But the tide of innovation was at length stayed,
and this in itself was no small boon.
The line taken by the reform of Diocletian in the scheme of taxation
was partly marked out for him by the anarchy of the third century,
which led to the great debasement of the coinage described above and
to many oppressive exactions of an arbitrary character. The lowering
of the currency had disorganised the whole revenue and expenditure of
the government. Where dues were receivable or stipends payable of a
fixed nominal amount, these had largely lost their value. A natural
consequence was that payments both to be made and to be received
were ordered by Diocletian to be reckoned in the produce of the soil,
and not in coin. During the era of confusion a phrase, indictio, had
come into use to denote a special requisition made upon the pro-
vincials over and above their stated dues. What Diocletian did was
to make what had been irregular into a regular and general impost,
subjecting all provincials to it alike, and abolishing the unequal tributes
of different kinds which had been previously required. The result was
an enormous levelling of taxation throughout the provinces. And to
some extent the immunity of Italy itself was withdrawn. But the sum
to be raised from year to year was not uniform. It depended on an
announcement to which the word indictio was applied, issued by the
emperor for each year. Hence the number of indictiones proclaimed
by an emperor became a convenient means for denoting the years of
his reign.
The assessment of communities and individuals was managed by an
elaborate process. The newly arranged burdens fell on land. The territo-
rium attached to every town was surveyed and the land classified according
to its use for growing grain or producing oil or wine. A certain number
of acres (iugera) of arable land was called a iugum. The number
varied, partly according to the quality of the soil, which was roughly
graded, partly according to the province in which it was situated. In
the case of oil, the taxable unit was often arrived at by counting the
number of olive trees; and this was sometimes the case with vines.
The iugum was however supposed to be fixed in accordance with the
limits of one man's labour, and therefore caput (person) and iugum, from
the point of view of revenue, became convertible terms. But men and
women and slaves and cattle were taxed separately, and in addition to
the tax on the land. Each man or slave on a farm counted as one
caput and each woman as half a caput. A certain number of cattle
constituted also a iugum and thus there was no need to divide up the
pasture lands as the arable lands were divided. Meadows were rated for
OH. II.
## p. 42 (#72) ##############################################
42
Other Imposts
a
the supply of fodder. The total requirements of the government were
stated in the indictio, and every community had to contribute in
accordance with the number of taxable units which the survey had
disclosed. All the produce which the taxpayers handed over was stored
in great government barns (horrea).
The system of collection, though decentralised, was bad. The
decurions or senators of each town, or the ten chief men of each town
(decemprimi) were responsible for handing over to the government all
that was due. A revision took place every five years, and was generally
carried through with much unfairness and oppression of the poorer
landholders. Apparently a fresh survey was not made, but evidence
taken by the town-officers in the town itself. From 312 onwards we
find a fifteen-year indiction-period, which came to be largely used as a
chronological instrument. It would seem that every fifteenth year a
re-allotment of taxes was made which was based on actual survey. But
evidence for this is scanty. An imperial revenue officer called censitor
was restricted to the duty of receiving the dues from a community as
a whole. Outside imperial officers were called in to assist in the collection
of dues from recalcitrant taxpayers. This happened at first occasionally,
then regularly. Naturally another door was thus opened to oppression,
from which the rich would manage to escape more lightly than the poor.
The special arrangement made by Diocletian for Italy will be explained
later; also the exemptions accorded to privileged classes of individuals.
Along with the payment of government dues in kind went the
payment of stipends in kind. A certain amount of corn, wine, meat,
and other necessaries, grouped together, constituted a unit to which the
name annona was applied, and salaries, military and civil, were largely
calculated in annonae. Where allowance was made for horses, the amount
granted for each was called capitum. When stability was in some degree
secured for the currency, these annonae were again expressed in money,
by a valuation called adaeratio. The government, to be on safety's side,
of course exacted as a rule more produce from the soil than was needed
for use, and the excess was turned into money, naturally at low prices.
In addition to the burdens on the land, many other imposts were
levied. The maintenance of the Post Service along the main roads was
most oppressive. In the towns every trade was taxed, the contribution
bearing the name of lustralis collatio or chrysargyrum. The customs
dues at the ports and transit dues at the frontier were maintained.
Revenues were derived from government monopolies in mines, forests,
salt factories, and other possessions. Some of the old Republican
imposts, such as the tax on manumitted slaves, still survived. Persons
of distinction were subject to special exactions. Imperial senators paid
several dues, especially the so-called aurum oblaticium, which like many
inevitable forms of taxation, professed in its name to be a free-will
offering. Senators of municipal towns (decuriones) were weighted both
## p. 43 (#73) ##############################################
The Financial Administration
43
by local and by imperial burdens. Every five years of his reign the
emperor celebrated a festival, at which he dispensed large sums to the
army
and to civil functionaries. At the same time the decuriones of the
municipalities had to pay an oppressive tax known as aurum coronarium,
the beginnings of which go right back to the time of the Republic.
As is shewn below, certain trading corporations were hereditarily bound
to assist in the provisioning of the two capitals; and some other
miscellaneous services were similarly treated.
From the third century the officer who in each province looked after
the imperial revenue, whose earlier title was procurator, began to be
called rationalis. But under Diocletian's system, each governor became
the chief financial officer in his province. For each Dioecesis there was
appointed a rationalis summae rei, in which name summae rei refers to
the complex of provinces forming the Dioecesis. The great Imperial
minister of finance at the centre bore the same name at first; summa res
in his case indicated the whole Empire. But the title comes sacrarum
largitionum came into use in the reign of Constantine. This officer
advanced from the rank of perfectissimus to a high place among the
illustres. The appellation comes came to be given to all the chief
financial officers in the Dioeceses of the East and to some of those in the
West, while others continued to bear the name rationalis. Disputes
between taxpayers and the lower government financial officers were
doubtless decided in the last resort by the comes sacrarum largitionum.
A number of treasury officials and officers of the mint were under his
orders. In certain places (Rome, Milan, Lugdunum, London and
others) sub-treasuries of the government were maintained. There were
also factories for the supply to the Court of many fabrics ; all these the
comes had under his charge. And he was in touch with the administrators
of all public income and expenditure throughout the Empire.
The emperor had revenues which he distinguished as personal to
himself rather than public, although they doubtless were largely expended
on imperial administration. These personal revenues were derived
from two sources distinguished as res privata and patrimonium, and
administered to some extent by different staffs. In theory the patri-
monium consisted of property which might be regarded as belonging
to the emperor apart from the crown, while the res privata attached to
the crown itself. But these distinctions were of no great practical value.
The imperial estates and possessions had come to be enormous, and
covered large parts of some provinces. We have seen that the control
of the imperial domains in one province, Cappadocia, was entrusted to
the quaestor sacri cubiculi. The concentration of these immense estates
in the hands of the ruler had an important effect upon the general
evolution of society in the Empire. These properties had largely accrued
by confiscation, mainly as a consequence of struggles for the supreme
power. The head of the administration of the res privata, designated as
CA. II.
## p. 44 (#74) ##############################################
1
44
The Organisation of the Army
a
comes rei privatae or rerum privatarum, had a whole army of subordinates
scattered over the provinces, and the staff which managed the patri-
monium under an officer usually called procurator patrimonii, though
smaller, must have been considerable.
The new hierarchy of office was swollen in its dimensions also by
the reorganisation of the army, which placed a series of new dignitates
militares beside the dignitates civiles. Diocletian completed the severance
of military from civil duties, excepting in some frontier districts, where
they were still combined. The regular title for a commanding officer is
dux; and the army, like the Empire, was broken up into smaller sections
than of old, and for the same reason, jealousy of the concentration of
much power in private hands. The whole force of the army was
considerably increased. The distinction between the legions and the
auxilia was maintained. The senatorial legatus who had been the
commander of the legion since Caesar's day, was replaced by a praefectus
of equestrian rank, and other changes were made in the legionary officers.
To the older auxilia were added new detachments to which the same
name was given, but filled chiefly with soldiers from beyond the bounds
of the Empire, free Germans, Franks, and others. The barbarian chiefs
who came into the service became very prominent, and more and more
frequently as time went on rose to the highest commands in the whole
army. Other barbarian forces were within the Empire, recruited from
peoples who had been deliberately planted there to defend the frontiers,
and owing no other duty to the government. The general term for these
auxiliaries is laeti, but in the region of the Danube their designation
was gentiles. They were commanded sometimes by men of their own
race, sometimes by Roman praefecti. The tendency also to compose the
cavalry of barbarians was conspicuous, and new designations for the
different detachments came into use. The common title for the more
regular corps was vexillationes ; the frontier forces passed under the
names of cunei, alae, or sometimes equites only.
The greatest military reform introduced by the new monarchy lay in
the construction of a mobile army. The want of this had been early felt
in the imperial period, when war on any frontier compelled the removal
of defensive forces from other frontiers. The difficulty had been one of
the causes which led Septimius Severus to station a legion at Alba
near Rome, thus breaking with the tradition that Italy was not governed
like the provinces. So long as the old Praetorian Cohorts existed, their
military efficiency as a field force was not great, and they were destroyed
in consequence of the rising of Maxentius. Diocletian created a regular
field army, the title for which was comitatenses. The name indicates the
practice under the new system, whereby the emperor himself took
command in all important wars, and therefore these troops were his
retinue (comitatus). The description comitatenses applied both to the
foot-soldiers (legiones), and the cavalry (vexillationes). In the later
## p. 45 (#75) ##############################################
The new Imperial Guards
45
fourth century a section of the comitatenses appear as palatini ; and
another body is named pseudo-comitatenses, probably detachments not
forming a regular part of the field army, but united with it temporarily,
and recruited from the frontier forces. The designation riparienses
denotes the garrisons of the old standing camps on the outside of the
Empire. These are distinct from the newer limitanei, who cultivated
lands (terrae limitaneae, or fundi limotrophi) along the limites, and held
them by a kind of military tenure. The castriciani and castellani seem
to have held lands close to the castra and castella respectively, and did not
differ essentially from the riparienses and limitanei. Their sons could
not inherit the lands unless they entered the same service. The
comitatenses were in higher honour than the soldiers stationed on the
outmost edges of the Empire, and their quarters were usually in the inner
regions. The whole strength of the army under Diocletian, Constantine,
and their successors is difficult to calculate. The number of men in the
legion seems to have steadily diminished, and by the end of the fourth
century to have sunk to two, or even one thousand. An estimate based
on the Notitia gives 250,000 infantry, and 110,000 cavalry on the
frontiers, while the comitatenses comprise 150,000 foot and 46,000 horse.
But the calculation is dubious, probably excessive. Generally speaking,
the burden of army service fell chiefly on the lowest class. Though every
subject of the Empire was in theory liable to service, the wealthier, when
any levy took place, were not only allowed, but practically compelled to
find substitutes, lest the finances of the Empire should suffer.
In addition to the forces already mentioned, there grew up some
corps which may be described as Imperial Guards. From the early Empire
the practice of surrounding the emperor with an intimate bodyguard
composed of barbarians, principally Germans, had prevailed. Augustus
possessed such a force, which he disbanded after the disaster suffered by
Varus in Germany, but it was reestablished by his successors down to
Galba. A little later came the equites singulares, also mainly recruited
from Germans, who had a special camp in the capital, and were an
appendage to the Praetorians. Probably when Constantine abolished
the Praetorians the equites singulares also disappeared. But before
this happened, a new bodyguard had come into existence, bearing the
name of the protectores divini lateris. It included Germans (often of
princely origin), and Romans of several classes high and low. Diocletian
added a new set of protectores, composed partly of infantry and partly
of cavalry, which formed a sort of corps d'élite, and served for the training
of officers.
In it were found officers' sons, men of different ranks, promoted
from the regular army, and young members of noble or wealthy families.
The distinction between the two sets of protectores was not maintained,
and the later title was domestici only. They served in close proximity
to the emperor, who thus made personal acquaintance with men among
them who were destined to hold commands, often important commands,
CH. II.
## p. 46 (#76) ##############################################
46
The Magistri Militum
in the regular army. The members of the body were raised far above
the ordinary soldier by their personnel, their privileges, their pay,
in
some cases equal to that of civil officials of a high grade, by their equip-
ment, and by the estimation in which they were held. The historian
Ammianus Marcellinus served in their ranks. They were divided into
sections called scholae.
Still another corps of Imperial Guards was created by Constantine,
consisting of scholae palatinae, distinguished as scholae scutariorum,
who were Romans, and scholae gentilium, who were barbarians. They
were detached from the general army organisation and were under the
orders of the magister officiorum. Their history was not unlike that of
the Praetorians; they became equally turbulent, and equally inefficient
as soldiers.
With the new organisation of the army, there sprang up new military
offices of high importance, with new names. Constantine created two
high officers as chief commanders of the mobile army, a magister equitum
and a magister peditum. Their position resembled that of the Praefecti
Praetorio of the early Empire in several respects. They were immediately
dependent on the emperor, and also, from the nature of their commands,
on one another. But circumstances in time changed their duties and
their numbers. They had sometimes to take the field when the emperor
was not present, and the division between the infantry command and the
cavalry command thus broke down. Hence the titles magister equitum
et peditum, and magister utriusque militiae, or magister militum simply.
The jealousy which the emperors naturally entertained for all high
officers caused considerable variations in the position and importance of
these magistri. After the middle of the fourth century the necessary
connexion of the magistri with the emperor's person had ceased, and the
command of a magister generally embraced the Dioecesis, within which
occurred or threatened. Where the emperor was, there would be
two magistri called praesentales, either distinguished as commanders of
infantry and cavalry, or bearing the title of magistri utriusque militiae
praesentales. But in the fifth century the emperor was generally in
practice a military nonentity and was in the hands of one magister who
was not unfrequently the real ruler of the Empire. As was the case with
all high officials the magistri exercised jurisdiction over those under
their dispositio, not only in matters purely military, but in cases of crime
and even to some extent in connexion with civil proceedings. The lower
commanders also possessed similar jurisdiction, but the details are not
known. Appeal was to the emperor, who delegated the hearing as a rule
to one or other of the highest civil functionaries.
No view of the great imperial hierarchy of officials would be complete
which did not take account of the new title comes. Its application
followed no regular rules. In the earlier Latin it was used somewhat
loosely to designate men who accompanied a provincial governor, and
war
## p. 47 (#77) ##############################################
Comites
47
were attached to his staff (cohors), especially such as held no definite
office connected with administration, whether military or civil. Such
unofficial members of the staff seem especially to have assisted the
governor in legal matters, and in time they were paid, and were
punishable under the laws against extortion in the provinces. In
the early Empire the title comes begins to be applied in no very
precise manner to persons attached to the service of the emperor or of
members of the imperial family; but only slowly did it acquire an official
significance. Inscriptions of the reign of Marcus Aurelius show a change;
as many persons are assigned the title in this one reign as in all the
preceding reigns put together. Probably at this time began the bestowal
of the title on military as well as legal assistants of the emperor, and
soon its possessors were chiefly military officers, who after serving with
the
emperor,
took commands on the frontier. Then from the end of
the reign of Severus Alexander to the early years of Constantine the
description comes Augusti was abolished for human beings, but attached
to divinities. Constantine restored it to its mundane employment,
and used it as an honorific designation for officers of many kinds, who
were not necessarily in the immediate neighbourhood of an Augustus
or Caesar, but were servants of the Augustus or Augusti and Caesars
generally, that is to say might occupy any position in the whole imperial
administration. Constantine seems to have despatched comites, not all
of the same rank or importance, to provinces or parts of the Empire
concerning which he wished to have confidential information. Later they
appear in most districts, and the ordinary rulers are in some degree
subject to them, and they hear appeals and complaints which otherwise
would have been laid before the Praefecti Praetorio. The comites
provinciarum afford a striking illustration of the manner in which offices
were piled up upon offices, in the vain attempt to check corruption and
misgovernment.
In the immediate neighbourhood of the Court the name comes was
attached to four high military officers; the magister equitum and magister
peditum, and the commanders of the domestici equites and the domestici
pedites. Also to four high civil officers, the High Treasurer (comes
sacrarum largitionum) and the controller of the Privy Purse (comes rerum
privatarum); also the quaestor sacri palatii and the magister officiorum.
These high civil functionaries appear as comites consistoriani, being
regular members of the Privy Council (consistorium). Before the end
of Constantine's reign the words connecting the comes with the emperor
and the Caesars drop out, possibly because the imperial rulers were
deemed to be too exalted for any form of companionship. A man is
now not comes Augusti but comes merely or with words added to
identify his duties, as for instance when the district is stated within
which a military or civil officer acts, on whom the appellation has been
bestowed. The former necessary connexion of the comes with the Court
CH, II.
## p. 48 (#78) ##############################################
48
Comites. Patricii.
Consistorium
As a
having ceased, the name was vulgarised and connected with offices of
many kinds, sometimes of a somewhat lowly nature. In many cases it
was not associated with duties at all, but was merely titular.
natural result, comites were classified in three orders of dignity (primi,
secundi, tertii ordinis). Admission to the lowest rank was eagerly coveted
and often purchased, because of the immunity from public burdens which
the boon carried with it. Constantine also adapted the old phrase
patricius to new uses. The earlier emperors, first by special authorisa-
tion, later merely as emperors, had raised families to patrician rank,
but the result was merely a slight increase in social dignity. From
Constantine's time onwards, the dignity was rarely bestowed and then
the patricii became a high and exclusive order of nobility. They had
precedence next to the emperor, with the exception of the consuls actually
in office. Their titles did not descend to their sons. The best known of
the patricii are some of the great generals of barbarian origin, who were
the last hopes of the crumbling Empire. The title lasted long; it was
bestowed on Charles Martel, and was known later in the Byzantine
Empire.
At the centre of the great many-storeyed edifice of the bureaucracy
was the Consistorium or Most Honourable Privy Council. There was deep-
rooted in the Roman mind the idea that neither private citizen nor
official should decide on important affairs without taking the advice of
those best qualified to give it. This feeling gave rise to the great
advising body for the magistrates, the Senate, to the jury who assisted
in criminal affairs, to the bench of counsellors, drawn from his staff,
who gave aid to the provincial governor, and also to the loosely con-
stituted gathering of friends whose opinion the paterfamilias demanded.
To every one of these groups the word consilium was applicable. It
was natural that the early emperors should have their consilium, the
constitution of which gradually became more and more formal and
regular. Hadrian gave a more important place than heretofore to the
jurisconsults among his advisers. For a while a regular paid officer
called consiliarius existed. In Diocletian's time the old name consilium
was supplanted by consistorium. The old advisers of the magistrates
sat on the bench with them and therefore sometimes bore the name
adsessores. But it was impious to be seated in the presence of the new
divinised rulers; and from the practice of standing (consistere) the
Council derived its new name. From Constantine the Council received
a more definite frame. As shewn above, certain officers became comites
consistoriani. But these officers were not always the same after Con-
stantine's reign, and additional persons were from time to time called
in for particular business. The Praefectus Praetorio praesens or in
comitatu would usually attend. The Consistorium was both a Council
of State for the discussion of knotty imperial questions, and also a High
Court of Justice, though it is difficult to determine exactly what cases
## p. 49 (#79) ##############################################
The Roman Senate
49
might be brought before it. Probably that depended on the emperor's
will.
It is necessary that something should be said of the position which
the two capitals, Rome and Constantinople, held in the new organisation,
and of the traces which still hung about Italy of its older historical
privileges. The old Roman Senate was allowed a nominal existence,
with a changed constitution and powers which were rather municipal
than imperial. Of the old offices whose holders once filled the Senate, the
Consulship, Praetorship, and Quaestorship survived, while the Tribunate
and the Aedileship died out. Two consulares ordinarii were named by
the emperor, who would sometimes listen to recommendations from the
senators. The years continued to be denoted by the consular names, and,
to add dignity to the office, the emperor or members of the imperial
family would sometimes hold it. The tenure of the office was brief, and
the consules suffecti during the year were selected by the Senate, with the
emperor's approval. But to be consul suffectus was of little value, even
from a personal point of view. A list of nominations for the Praetorship
a
and Quaestorship was laid by the Praefectus urbi before the emperor for
confirmation. Apart from these old offices, many of the new dignitates
carried with them membership of the ordo senatorius. Ultimately all
officials who were clarissimi, that is to say who possessed the lowest of
the three noble titles, belonged to it. Thus it included not merely the
highest functionaries, as the principal military officers, the civil governors,
and the chiefs of bureaux, but many persons lower down in the hierarchy
of office, for example all the comites. The whole body must have
comprised some thousands. But a man might be a member of the ordo
without being actually a senator. Only the higher functionaries and
priests and the consulares described above, with possibly a few others,
actually took part in the proceedings. The actual Senate and the ordo
were distinguished by high-sounding titles in official documents, and
emperors would occasionally send communications to the Senate about
high matters, and make pretence of asking its advice, out of respect for
its ancient prestige, but its business was for the most part comparatively
petty, and chiefly confined to the immediate needs of the city. But
every now and then it was convenient for the ruler to expose the Senate
to the odium of making unpopular decisions, as in cases of high
treason; and when pretenders rose, or changes of government took place,
the favour of this ancient body still carried with it a certain value.
Among the chief functions of the senators was the supervision of the
supply of panis et circenses, provisions and amusements, for the
capital. The games were chiefly paid for by the holders of the Consul-
ship, Praetorship, and Quaestorship. The obligation resting on the
Praetorship was the most serious, and therefore nomination to this
magistracy took place many years in advance, that the money might
be ready. Naturally these burdens became to a large extent compulsory;
C. MED. H. VOL. I. CH. II.
4
## p. 50 (#80) ##############################################
50
The City of Rome
and so even women who had inherited from a senator had to supply
money for such purposes. Rich men of course exceeded the minimum
largely with a view to display. The old privilege still attached to Rome
of receiving corn from Africa. Diocletian divided Italy into two
districts, of which the northern (annonaria regio) paid tribute for
support of the Court at Milan, while the southern (dioecesis Romae,
or suburbicaria regio) supplied wine, cattle, and some other necessaries
for the capital.
Senators as such and the senatorius ordo were subject to special
taxation, as well as the ordinary taxation of the provinces (with
exception perhaps of the aurum coronarium). The follis senatorius was
a particular tax on senatorial lands, and even a landless senator had to
pay something. The aurum oblaticium already mentioned, was specially
burdensome.
The most important officer connected with the Senate was the
Praefectus urbi. His office had grown steadily in importance during the
whole existence of the Empire. From the time of Constantine its holder
was vir illustris. He was the only high official of the Empire who
continued to wear the toga and not the military garb. He was at the
head of the Senate and was the intermediary between that body and the
emperor. The powers of his office were extraordinary. The members of
the Senate resident in Rome were under his criminal jurisdiction. There
was an appeal to him from all the lesser functionaries who dealt with
legal matters in the first instance, not only in the capital, but in a
district extending 100 miles in every direction. His control spread over
every department of business. He was the chief guardian of public
security and had the cohortes urbanae, as well as the praefectus vigilum
under his command. The provisioning of the city was an important
part of his duty, and the praefectus annonae acted under his orders. A
whole army of officials, many of them bearing titles which would have
been strange to the Republic and early Empire, assisted him in looking
after the water-supply, controlling trade and the markets, and the
traffic on the river, in maintaining the river banks, in taking account of
the property of senators and in many other departments of affairs. It
is difficult to say how far his position was affected by the presence in the
city of a Corrector, and a Vicarius of the Praefectus Praetorio. The
material welfare of Rome was at least abundantly cared for by the
new monarchy. The city had already grown accustomed to the loss
of dignity caused by the residence of the emperors in cities more
convenient for the purposes of government. But the foundation of
Constantinople must have been a heavy blow. The institutions of the
old Rome were to a great extent copied in the new. There was a Senate
subject to the same obligations as in Rome. Most of the magistracies
were repeated. But until 359 no Praefectus urbi seems to have existed
at Constantinople. Elaborate arrangements were made for placing the
## p. 51 (#81) ##############################################
The Subjects of the Empire
51
new city on a level with the old as regards tributes of corn, wine, and
other necessaries from the provinces. The more frequent presence of
the ruler gave to the new capital a brilliance which the old must have
envied.
So far the machinery of the new government in its several parts has
been described. We must now consider in outline what was its total
effect upon the inhabitants of the Empire. The inability of the ruler to
assure good government to his subjects was made conspicuous by the
frequent creation of new offices, whose object was to curb the corruption
of the old. The multiplication of the functionaries in close touch with
the population rendered oppression more certain and less punishable
than ever.
Lactantius declares, with pardonable exaggeration, that the
number of those who lived on the taxes was as great as the number who
paid them. The evidence of official rapacity is abundant. The laws
thundered against it in vain. Oftentimes it happened that illegitimate
.
exactions were legalised in the empty hope of keeping them within
bounds. Penalties expressed in laws were plain enough and numerous
enough. For corruption in a province not only the governor but his
whole officium were liable to make heavy recompense. And the compara-
tive powerlessness of the governor is shewn by the fact that the officium
is more heavily mulcted than its head. But a down-trodden people
rarely will or can bring legal proof against its oppressors. Nothing
but extensive arbitrary dismissal and punishment of his servants by
the emperor, without insistence on forms of law, would have met the
evil. As it was, corruption reigned through the Empire with little
check, and the illicit gains of the emperor's servants added to the strain
imposed by the heavy imperial taxation. Thus the benefit which the
provincials had at first received by the substitution of Imperial for
Republican government was more than swept away. Their absorption
into the Roman polity on terms of equality with their conquerors,
brought with it degradation and ruin.
During the fourth century that extraordinary developinent was
completed whereby society was reorganised by a demarcation of classes
so rigid that it became extremely difficult for any man to escape from
that condition of life into which he was born. In the main, but not
altogether, this result was brought about by the fiscal system. When
the local Senates or their leaders were made responsible for producing to
the government the quota of taxation imposed on their districts, it
became necessary to prevent the members (decuriones or curiales) from
escaping their obligations by passing into another path of life, and also
to compel the sons to walk in their fathers' footsteps. But the main-
tenance of the local ordo was necessary also from the local as well as
the imperial point of view. The magistracies involved compulsory as
well as voluntary payments for local objects, and therefore those capable
of filling them must be thrust into them by force if need were. Every
CH. II.
4-2
## p. 52 (#82) ##############################################
52
Curiales. Collegia
kind of magistracy in every town of the Empire, and every official position
in connexion with any corporate body, whether priestly college or trade
guild or religious guild, brought with it expenditure for the benefit of
the community, and on this, in great part, the ordinary life of every
town depended. The Theodosian Code shews that the absconding
decurio was in the end treated as a runaway slave ; five gold pieces
were given to any one who would haul him back to his duties.
In time the members also of all or nearly all professional corporations
(collegia or corpora) were held to duties by the State, and the burden of
them descended from father to son. The evolution by which these free
unions for holding together in a social brotherhood all those who
followed a particular occupation were turned into bodies with the stamp
of caste upon them, is to be traced with difficulty in the extant inscrip-
tions and the legal literature. Here as everywhere the fiscal system
instituted by Diocletian was a powerful agent. A large part of the
natural fruits of the earth passed into the hands of government, and
a vast host of assistants was needed for transport and distribution. And
the organisation for maintaining the food-supply at Rome and Con-
stantinople became more and more elaborate. For the annona alone
many corporations had to give service, in most cases easily divined from
their names, as navicularii, frumentarii, mercatores, olearii, suarii, pecuarii,
pistores, boarii, porcinarii and numerous others. Similar bodies were con-
nected with public works, with police functions, as the extinction of fires,
with government operations of numerous kinds, in the mints, the mines,
the factories for textiles and arms and so on. In the early Empire the
service rendered to the State was not compulsory, and partly by rewards,
such as immunity from taxation, partly by pay, the government was
willingly served. But in time the burdens became intolerable. State
officers ultimately controlled the minutest details connected with these
corporations. And the tasks imposed did not entirely proceed from the
imperial departments. The curiales of the towns could enforce assistance
from the local collegia within their boundaries. And the tentacles of the
great octopus of the central government were spread over the provinces.
In the fourth and later centuries the restrictions on the freedom of these
corporations were extraordinarily oppressive. Egress from inherited
membership was inhibited by government except in rare instances.
Ingress, as into the class of curiales, was, directly or indirectly, com-
pulsory. The colleges differed greatly in dignity. In some, as in that
of the navicularii, even senators might be concerned, and office-holders
might obtain, among their rewards, the rank of Roman knight. On the
other hand, the bakers (pistores) approached near the condition of
slavery. Marriage, for instance, outside their own circle was forbidden,
whereas, in other cases, it was only rendered difficult. Property which
had once become subject to the duties required of a collegium could
hardly be released. The end was that collegiati or corporati all over the
1
1
## p. 53 (#83) ##############################################
Demarcation of Classes
53
Empire took any method they could find of escaping from their servitude,
and the law's severest punishments could not check the movement. If we
may believe some late writers, thousands of citizens found life in barbarian
lands more tolerable than in the Roman Empire.
The status of other classes in the community also tended to become
hereditary. This was the case with the officiales and the soldiers, though
here compulsion was not so severe. But the tillers of the ground (coloni)
were more hardly treated than any other class. It became impossible
for them, without breach of the law, to tear themselves away from the
soil of the locality within which they were born. The evolution of this
peculiar form of serfdom, which existed for the purposes of the State, is
difficult to trace. Many causes contributed to its growth and final
establishment, as the extension of large private and especially of vast
imperial domains, the imitation of the German half-free land-tenure
when barbarians were settled as laeti or inquilini within the Empire, the
influence of Egyptian and other Eastern land-customs, but above all the
drastic changes in the imperial imposts which Diocletian introduced.
The cultivator's principal end in life was to insure a contribution of
natural products for the revenue. Hence it was a necessity to chain him
to the ground, and in the law-books adscripticius is the commonest title
for him. The details of the scheme of taxation, given above, shew how
it must have tended to diminish population, for every additional person,
,
,
even a slave, increased the contribution which each holding must pay.
The owners of the land were in the first instance responsible, but the
burdens of course fell ultimately and in the main on the agricultural
workers
. The temporary loss of provinces to the invader, the failure of
harvest in any part of the Empire, the economic effects of pestilence, and
other accidents, all led to greater sacrifices on the part of those provinces
which were not themselves affected. The exactions became heavier and
heavier, the punishments for attempts to escape from duty more and more
severe, and yet flight and disappearance of coloni took place on a large
scale. By the end of the fourth century it was possible for lawyers to
say
of this unhappy class that they were almost in the condition of slaves,
and a century or so later that the distinction between them and slaves
no longer existed ; that they were slaves of the land itself on which they
were born.
In many other ways, under the new monarchy, the citizens of the
,
Empire were treated with glaring inequality. The gradations of official
station were almost as important in the general life of the Empire as they
now are in China, and they were reflected in titular phrases, some of
which have been given above. Etiquette became most complicated.
the office were above all skill in the law and in the art of legal expression.
On all legal questions, whether questions of change in law, or questions
of its administration, the emperor gave his final decision by the voice of
the Quaestor. No body of servants officium) was specially allotted to
him, but the scrinia were at his service. Indeed he may be said to have
been the intermediary between the scrinia and the emperor. His relations
with the heads of the departments a libellis and a memoria, and particularly
with the latter, must have been very close; but their work was prepara-
tory and subordinate to his so far as legal matters were concerned. The
instances in which the magister memoriae succeeded in acting independently
of the Quaestor were exceptional. A share in the appointment to certain
of the lesser military offices was also assigned to the Quaestor, who kept
a record of the names of their holders, which was known as laterculum
minus. In this duty he was assisted by a high official of the scrinium
memoriae, whose title was laterculensis.
There was another body called tribuni et notarii, not attached to the
scrinia, which was of considerable importance. The service of these
functionaries was closely connected with the deliberations of the great
Imperial Council, the Consistorium, which is to be described presently.
They had to see that the proper officers carried out the decisions of the
Council. Their business often brought them into close and confidential
relation with the emperor himself. The officer at the head is primicerius
(literally, one whose name is written first on a wax tablet-primâ cerâ).
The title is given to many officers serving in other departments and
indicates usually, but not always, high rank. This particular primicerius
ranked even higher than the chiefs of the scrinia and the castrensis sacri
palatii. According to the Notitia he has “cognizance of all dignities
and administrative offices both military and civil. ” He kept the great
list known as laterculum maius, in which were comprised not only the
actual tenants of the greater offices, but forms for their appointment,
schedules of their duties, and even a catalogue of the different sections
of the army and their stations, including the scholae which served as
imperial guards.
The reorganisation of Finance brought into existence a host of
officials who either bore new names or old titles to which new duties
had been assigned. The great and complex system of taxation initiated
by Diocletian and carried further by his successors can here be only
sketched in broad outline. Although, like all the institutions of the
new monarchy, the scheme of taxation had its roots in the past, the new
development in its completed form stands in such marked contrast to old
conditions, that there is not much to be gained by detailed references to
the earlier Empire. Before Diocletian's time the old aerarium Saturni
had ceased to be of imperial importance, and the aerarium militare of
Augustus had disappeared. The general census of Roman citizens,
## p. 39 (#69) ##############################################
Financial Changes
39
carried out at Rome, is not heard of after Vespasian's time. Of the
ancient revenues of the State very many were swept away by Diocletian's
reform, even the most productive of all, the five per cent. tax on inherited
property (vicesima hereditatum) by which Augustus had subjected Roman
citizens in general to taxation. The separate provincial census, of which
in Gaul, for example, we hear much during the early Empire, was
rendered unnecessary. The great and powerful societates publicanorum
had dwindled away, though publicani were still employed for some
purposes. Direct collection of revenue had gradually taken the place
of the system of farming. Where any traces of the old system remained,
it was subject to strict official supervision. Before Diocletian the
incidence of taxation on the different parts of the Empire had been most
unequal. The reasons for this lay partly in the extraordinary variety of
the conditions by which in times past the relation of different portions
of the Empire to the central government had been fixed when they first
came under its sway; partly in Republican or Imperial favour or
disfavour as they afterwards affected the burdens to be endured in
different places; partly by the evolution of the municipalities of different
types throughout the Roman dominions. Towns and districts which
once had been immune from imposts or slightly taxed had become
tributary and vice-versa. The reforms instituted by Augustus and
carried further by his successors did something towards securing uni-
formity, but many diversities continued to exist. Some of these were
produced by the gift of immunitas which was bestowed on many civic
communities scattered over the Empire. Without this gift even com-
munities of Roman citizens were not exempt from the taxation which
marked off the provinces from Italy.
In order to understand the purpose of Diocletian's changes in the
taxation of the Empire, it is necessary to consider the struggle which he
and Constantine made to reform the imperial coinage. The difficult
task of explaining with exactness the utter demoralisation of the currency
at the moment when Diocletian ascended the throne cannot be here
attempted. Only a few outstanding features can be delineated. The
political importance of sound currency has never been more conspicuously
shewn than in the century which followed on the death of Commodus
(A. D. 180). Augustus had given a stability to the Roman coinage which
it had never before possessed. But he imposed no uniform system on
the whole of his dominions. Gold (with one slight exception) he
allowed none to mint but himself. But copper he left in the hands of the
Senate. Silver he coined himself, while he permitted many local mints
to strike pieces in that metal also as well as in copper. Subsequent
history extinguished local diversities and brought about by gradual
steps a general system which was not attained till the fourth century.
Aurelian deprived the Senate of the power which Augustus had left it.
Although the imperial coins underwent a certain amount of deprecia-
CH. II.
## p. 40 (#70) ##############################################
40
Financial Changes
tion between the time of Augustus and that of the Severi, it was not such
as to throw out of gear the taxation and the commerce of the Empire.
But with Caracalla a rapid decline set in, and by the time of Aurelian
the disorganisation had gone so far that practically gold and silver were
demonetised, and copper became the standard medium of exchange.
The principal coin that professed to be silver had come to contain no
more than five per cent. of that metal, and this proportion sank
afterwards to two per cent. What a government gains by making its
payments in corrupted coin is always far more than lost in the revenue
which it receives. The debasement of the coinage means a lightening
of taxation, and it is never possible to enhance the nominal amount
receivable by the exchequer so as to keep pace with the depreciation.
The effect of this in the Roman Empire was greater than it would have
been at an earlier time, since there is reason to believe that much of the
revenue formerly payable in kind had been transmuted into money.
A measure of Aurelian had the effect of multiplying by eight such taxes
as were to be paid in coin. As the chief (professing) silver coin had
twenty years earlier contained eight times as much silver as it had then
come to contain, he claimed that he was only exacting what was justly
due, but his subjects naturally cried out against his tyranny. No
greater proof of the disorganisation of the whole financial system could
be given than lies in the fact that the treasury issued sackloads ( folles)
of the Antoniani, first coined by Caracalla, which were intended to be
silver, but were now all but base metal only. These folles passed
from hand to hand unopened.
Diocletian's attempts to remove these mischiefs were not altogether
fortunate. He made experiment after experiment, aiming at that
stability of the currency which had, on the whole, prevailed for two
centuries after the reforms of Augustus, but never reaching it. Finally,
discovering that the last change he had made led to general raising of
prices, he issued the celebrated edict of a. d. 301 by which the charges
for all commodities were fixed, the penalty for transgression being
death.
Constantine was forced to handle afresh the tangled problem of the
currency. The task was rendered especially difficult by the fresh
debasement of coinage which was perpetrated by Maxentius while he
was supreme in Italy. It may be said at once that the goal of Diocletian's
efforts was never reached by Constantine. He did indeed alter the
weight of the gold piece, which now received the name of solidus, and it
continued in circulation, practically unchanged, for centuries. But this
gold piece was to all intents and purposes not a coin, for when payments
were made in it, they were reckoned by weight. The solidus was in effect
only a bit of bullion, the fineness of which was conveniently guaranteed
by the imperial stamp. The same is true of Constantine's silver pieces.
The only coins which could be paid and received by their number,
## p. 41 (#71) ##############################################
Assessment of Taxes
41
without weighing, were those contained in the folles, of which mention
was made above, and the word follis was now applied to the individual
coins, as well as to the whole sack. It had proved to be impossible to
restore the monetary system which had prevailed in the first and second
centuries of the Empire. But the tide of innovation was at length stayed,
and this in itself was no small boon.
The line taken by the reform of Diocletian in the scheme of taxation
was partly marked out for him by the anarchy of the third century,
which led to the great debasement of the coinage described above and
to many oppressive exactions of an arbitrary character. The lowering
of the currency had disorganised the whole revenue and expenditure of
the government. Where dues were receivable or stipends payable of a
fixed nominal amount, these had largely lost their value. A natural
consequence was that payments both to be made and to be received
were ordered by Diocletian to be reckoned in the produce of the soil,
and not in coin. During the era of confusion a phrase, indictio, had
come into use to denote a special requisition made upon the pro-
vincials over and above their stated dues. What Diocletian did was
to make what had been irregular into a regular and general impost,
subjecting all provincials to it alike, and abolishing the unequal tributes
of different kinds which had been previously required. The result was
an enormous levelling of taxation throughout the provinces. And to
some extent the immunity of Italy itself was withdrawn. But the sum
to be raised from year to year was not uniform. It depended on an
announcement to which the word indictio was applied, issued by the
emperor for each year. Hence the number of indictiones proclaimed
by an emperor became a convenient means for denoting the years of
his reign.
The assessment of communities and individuals was managed by an
elaborate process. The newly arranged burdens fell on land. The territo-
rium attached to every town was surveyed and the land classified according
to its use for growing grain or producing oil or wine. A certain number
of acres (iugera) of arable land was called a iugum. The number
varied, partly according to the quality of the soil, which was roughly
graded, partly according to the province in which it was situated. In
the case of oil, the taxable unit was often arrived at by counting the
number of olive trees; and this was sometimes the case with vines.
The iugum was however supposed to be fixed in accordance with the
limits of one man's labour, and therefore caput (person) and iugum, from
the point of view of revenue, became convertible terms. But men and
women and slaves and cattle were taxed separately, and in addition to
the tax on the land. Each man or slave on a farm counted as one
caput and each woman as half a caput. A certain number of cattle
constituted also a iugum and thus there was no need to divide up the
pasture lands as the arable lands were divided. Meadows were rated for
OH. II.
## p. 42 (#72) ##############################################
42
Other Imposts
a
the supply of fodder. The total requirements of the government were
stated in the indictio, and every community had to contribute in
accordance with the number of taxable units which the survey had
disclosed. All the produce which the taxpayers handed over was stored
in great government barns (horrea).
The system of collection, though decentralised, was bad. The
decurions or senators of each town, or the ten chief men of each town
(decemprimi) were responsible for handing over to the government all
that was due. A revision took place every five years, and was generally
carried through with much unfairness and oppression of the poorer
landholders. Apparently a fresh survey was not made, but evidence
taken by the town-officers in the town itself. From 312 onwards we
find a fifteen-year indiction-period, which came to be largely used as a
chronological instrument. It would seem that every fifteenth year a
re-allotment of taxes was made which was based on actual survey. But
evidence for this is scanty. An imperial revenue officer called censitor
was restricted to the duty of receiving the dues from a community as
a whole. Outside imperial officers were called in to assist in the collection
of dues from recalcitrant taxpayers. This happened at first occasionally,
then regularly. Naturally another door was thus opened to oppression,
from which the rich would manage to escape more lightly than the poor.
The special arrangement made by Diocletian for Italy will be explained
later; also the exemptions accorded to privileged classes of individuals.
Along with the payment of government dues in kind went the
payment of stipends in kind. A certain amount of corn, wine, meat,
and other necessaries, grouped together, constituted a unit to which the
name annona was applied, and salaries, military and civil, were largely
calculated in annonae. Where allowance was made for horses, the amount
granted for each was called capitum. When stability was in some degree
secured for the currency, these annonae were again expressed in money,
by a valuation called adaeratio. The government, to be on safety's side,
of course exacted as a rule more produce from the soil than was needed
for use, and the excess was turned into money, naturally at low prices.
In addition to the burdens on the land, many other imposts were
levied. The maintenance of the Post Service along the main roads was
most oppressive. In the towns every trade was taxed, the contribution
bearing the name of lustralis collatio or chrysargyrum. The customs
dues at the ports and transit dues at the frontier were maintained.
Revenues were derived from government monopolies in mines, forests,
salt factories, and other possessions. Some of the old Republican
imposts, such as the tax on manumitted slaves, still survived. Persons
of distinction were subject to special exactions. Imperial senators paid
several dues, especially the so-called aurum oblaticium, which like many
inevitable forms of taxation, professed in its name to be a free-will
offering. Senators of municipal towns (decuriones) were weighted both
## p. 43 (#73) ##############################################
The Financial Administration
43
by local and by imperial burdens. Every five years of his reign the
emperor celebrated a festival, at which he dispensed large sums to the
army
and to civil functionaries. At the same time the decuriones of the
municipalities had to pay an oppressive tax known as aurum coronarium,
the beginnings of which go right back to the time of the Republic.
As is shewn below, certain trading corporations were hereditarily bound
to assist in the provisioning of the two capitals; and some other
miscellaneous services were similarly treated.
From the third century the officer who in each province looked after
the imperial revenue, whose earlier title was procurator, began to be
called rationalis. But under Diocletian's system, each governor became
the chief financial officer in his province. For each Dioecesis there was
appointed a rationalis summae rei, in which name summae rei refers to
the complex of provinces forming the Dioecesis. The great Imperial
minister of finance at the centre bore the same name at first; summa res
in his case indicated the whole Empire. But the title comes sacrarum
largitionum came into use in the reign of Constantine. This officer
advanced from the rank of perfectissimus to a high place among the
illustres. The appellation comes came to be given to all the chief
financial officers in the Dioeceses of the East and to some of those in the
West, while others continued to bear the name rationalis. Disputes
between taxpayers and the lower government financial officers were
doubtless decided in the last resort by the comes sacrarum largitionum.
A number of treasury officials and officers of the mint were under his
orders. In certain places (Rome, Milan, Lugdunum, London and
others) sub-treasuries of the government were maintained. There were
also factories for the supply to the Court of many fabrics ; all these the
comes had under his charge. And he was in touch with the administrators
of all public income and expenditure throughout the Empire.
The emperor had revenues which he distinguished as personal to
himself rather than public, although they doubtless were largely expended
on imperial administration. These personal revenues were derived
from two sources distinguished as res privata and patrimonium, and
administered to some extent by different staffs. In theory the patri-
monium consisted of property which might be regarded as belonging
to the emperor apart from the crown, while the res privata attached to
the crown itself. But these distinctions were of no great practical value.
The imperial estates and possessions had come to be enormous, and
covered large parts of some provinces. We have seen that the control
of the imperial domains in one province, Cappadocia, was entrusted to
the quaestor sacri cubiculi. The concentration of these immense estates
in the hands of the ruler had an important effect upon the general
evolution of society in the Empire. These properties had largely accrued
by confiscation, mainly as a consequence of struggles for the supreme
power. The head of the administration of the res privata, designated as
CA. II.
## p. 44 (#74) ##############################################
1
44
The Organisation of the Army
a
comes rei privatae or rerum privatarum, had a whole army of subordinates
scattered over the provinces, and the staff which managed the patri-
monium under an officer usually called procurator patrimonii, though
smaller, must have been considerable.
The new hierarchy of office was swollen in its dimensions also by
the reorganisation of the army, which placed a series of new dignitates
militares beside the dignitates civiles. Diocletian completed the severance
of military from civil duties, excepting in some frontier districts, where
they were still combined. The regular title for a commanding officer is
dux; and the army, like the Empire, was broken up into smaller sections
than of old, and for the same reason, jealousy of the concentration of
much power in private hands. The whole force of the army was
considerably increased. The distinction between the legions and the
auxilia was maintained. The senatorial legatus who had been the
commander of the legion since Caesar's day, was replaced by a praefectus
of equestrian rank, and other changes were made in the legionary officers.
To the older auxilia were added new detachments to which the same
name was given, but filled chiefly with soldiers from beyond the bounds
of the Empire, free Germans, Franks, and others. The barbarian chiefs
who came into the service became very prominent, and more and more
frequently as time went on rose to the highest commands in the whole
army. Other barbarian forces were within the Empire, recruited from
peoples who had been deliberately planted there to defend the frontiers,
and owing no other duty to the government. The general term for these
auxiliaries is laeti, but in the region of the Danube their designation
was gentiles. They were commanded sometimes by men of their own
race, sometimes by Roman praefecti. The tendency also to compose the
cavalry of barbarians was conspicuous, and new designations for the
different detachments came into use. The common title for the more
regular corps was vexillationes ; the frontier forces passed under the
names of cunei, alae, or sometimes equites only.
The greatest military reform introduced by the new monarchy lay in
the construction of a mobile army. The want of this had been early felt
in the imperial period, when war on any frontier compelled the removal
of defensive forces from other frontiers. The difficulty had been one of
the causes which led Septimius Severus to station a legion at Alba
near Rome, thus breaking with the tradition that Italy was not governed
like the provinces. So long as the old Praetorian Cohorts existed, their
military efficiency as a field force was not great, and they were destroyed
in consequence of the rising of Maxentius. Diocletian created a regular
field army, the title for which was comitatenses. The name indicates the
practice under the new system, whereby the emperor himself took
command in all important wars, and therefore these troops were his
retinue (comitatus). The description comitatenses applied both to the
foot-soldiers (legiones), and the cavalry (vexillationes). In the later
## p. 45 (#75) ##############################################
The new Imperial Guards
45
fourth century a section of the comitatenses appear as palatini ; and
another body is named pseudo-comitatenses, probably detachments not
forming a regular part of the field army, but united with it temporarily,
and recruited from the frontier forces. The designation riparienses
denotes the garrisons of the old standing camps on the outside of the
Empire. These are distinct from the newer limitanei, who cultivated
lands (terrae limitaneae, or fundi limotrophi) along the limites, and held
them by a kind of military tenure. The castriciani and castellani seem
to have held lands close to the castra and castella respectively, and did not
differ essentially from the riparienses and limitanei. Their sons could
not inherit the lands unless they entered the same service. The
comitatenses were in higher honour than the soldiers stationed on the
outmost edges of the Empire, and their quarters were usually in the inner
regions. The whole strength of the army under Diocletian, Constantine,
and their successors is difficult to calculate. The number of men in the
legion seems to have steadily diminished, and by the end of the fourth
century to have sunk to two, or even one thousand. An estimate based
on the Notitia gives 250,000 infantry, and 110,000 cavalry on the
frontiers, while the comitatenses comprise 150,000 foot and 46,000 horse.
But the calculation is dubious, probably excessive. Generally speaking,
the burden of army service fell chiefly on the lowest class. Though every
subject of the Empire was in theory liable to service, the wealthier, when
any levy took place, were not only allowed, but practically compelled to
find substitutes, lest the finances of the Empire should suffer.
In addition to the forces already mentioned, there grew up some
corps which may be described as Imperial Guards. From the early Empire
the practice of surrounding the emperor with an intimate bodyguard
composed of barbarians, principally Germans, had prevailed. Augustus
possessed such a force, which he disbanded after the disaster suffered by
Varus in Germany, but it was reestablished by his successors down to
Galba. A little later came the equites singulares, also mainly recruited
from Germans, who had a special camp in the capital, and were an
appendage to the Praetorians. Probably when Constantine abolished
the Praetorians the equites singulares also disappeared. But before
this happened, a new bodyguard had come into existence, bearing the
name of the protectores divini lateris. It included Germans (often of
princely origin), and Romans of several classes high and low. Diocletian
added a new set of protectores, composed partly of infantry and partly
of cavalry, which formed a sort of corps d'élite, and served for the training
of officers.
In it were found officers' sons, men of different ranks, promoted
from the regular army, and young members of noble or wealthy families.
The distinction between the two sets of protectores was not maintained,
and the later title was domestici only. They served in close proximity
to the emperor, who thus made personal acquaintance with men among
them who were destined to hold commands, often important commands,
CH. II.
## p. 46 (#76) ##############################################
46
The Magistri Militum
in the regular army. The members of the body were raised far above
the ordinary soldier by their personnel, their privileges, their pay,
in
some cases equal to that of civil officials of a high grade, by their equip-
ment, and by the estimation in which they were held. The historian
Ammianus Marcellinus served in their ranks. They were divided into
sections called scholae.
Still another corps of Imperial Guards was created by Constantine,
consisting of scholae palatinae, distinguished as scholae scutariorum,
who were Romans, and scholae gentilium, who were barbarians. They
were detached from the general army organisation and were under the
orders of the magister officiorum. Their history was not unlike that of
the Praetorians; they became equally turbulent, and equally inefficient
as soldiers.
With the new organisation of the army, there sprang up new military
offices of high importance, with new names. Constantine created two
high officers as chief commanders of the mobile army, a magister equitum
and a magister peditum. Their position resembled that of the Praefecti
Praetorio of the early Empire in several respects. They were immediately
dependent on the emperor, and also, from the nature of their commands,
on one another. But circumstances in time changed their duties and
their numbers. They had sometimes to take the field when the emperor
was not present, and the division between the infantry command and the
cavalry command thus broke down. Hence the titles magister equitum
et peditum, and magister utriusque militiae, or magister militum simply.
The jealousy which the emperors naturally entertained for all high
officers caused considerable variations in the position and importance of
these magistri. After the middle of the fourth century the necessary
connexion of the magistri with the emperor's person had ceased, and the
command of a magister generally embraced the Dioecesis, within which
occurred or threatened. Where the emperor was, there would be
two magistri called praesentales, either distinguished as commanders of
infantry and cavalry, or bearing the title of magistri utriusque militiae
praesentales. But in the fifth century the emperor was generally in
practice a military nonentity and was in the hands of one magister who
was not unfrequently the real ruler of the Empire. As was the case with
all high officials the magistri exercised jurisdiction over those under
their dispositio, not only in matters purely military, but in cases of crime
and even to some extent in connexion with civil proceedings. The lower
commanders also possessed similar jurisdiction, but the details are not
known. Appeal was to the emperor, who delegated the hearing as a rule
to one or other of the highest civil functionaries.
No view of the great imperial hierarchy of officials would be complete
which did not take account of the new title comes. Its application
followed no regular rules. In the earlier Latin it was used somewhat
loosely to designate men who accompanied a provincial governor, and
war
## p. 47 (#77) ##############################################
Comites
47
were attached to his staff (cohors), especially such as held no definite
office connected with administration, whether military or civil. Such
unofficial members of the staff seem especially to have assisted the
governor in legal matters, and in time they were paid, and were
punishable under the laws against extortion in the provinces. In
the early Empire the title comes begins to be applied in no very
precise manner to persons attached to the service of the emperor or of
members of the imperial family; but only slowly did it acquire an official
significance. Inscriptions of the reign of Marcus Aurelius show a change;
as many persons are assigned the title in this one reign as in all the
preceding reigns put together. Probably at this time began the bestowal
of the title on military as well as legal assistants of the emperor, and
soon its possessors were chiefly military officers, who after serving with
the
emperor,
took commands on the frontier. Then from the end of
the reign of Severus Alexander to the early years of Constantine the
description comes Augusti was abolished for human beings, but attached
to divinities. Constantine restored it to its mundane employment,
and used it as an honorific designation for officers of many kinds, who
were not necessarily in the immediate neighbourhood of an Augustus
or Caesar, but were servants of the Augustus or Augusti and Caesars
generally, that is to say might occupy any position in the whole imperial
administration. Constantine seems to have despatched comites, not all
of the same rank or importance, to provinces or parts of the Empire
concerning which he wished to have confidential information. Later they
appear in most districts, and the ordinary rulers are in some degree
subject to them, and they hear appeals and complaints which otherwise
would have been laid before the Praefecti Praetorio. The comites
provinciarum afford a striking illustration of the manner in which offices
were piled up upon offices, in the vain attempt to check corruption and
misgovernment.
In the immediate neighbourhood of the Court the name comes was
attached to four high military officers; the magister equitum and magister
peditum, and the commanders of the domestici equites and the domestici
pedites. Also to four high civil officers, the High Treasurer (comes
sacrarum largitionum) and the controller of the Privy Purse (comes rerum
privatarum); also the quaestor sacri palatii and the magister officiorum.
These high civil functionaries appear as comites consistoriani, being
regular members of the Privy Council (consistorium). Before the end
of Constantine's reign the words connecting the comes with the emperor
and the Caesars drop out, possibly because the imperial rulers were
deemed to be too exalted for any form of companionship. A man is
now not comes Augusti but comes merely or with words added to
identify his duties, as for instance when the district is stated within
which a military or civil officer acts, on whom the appellation has been
bestowed. The former necessary connexion of the comes with the Court
CH, II.
## p. 48 (#78) ##############################################
48
Comites. Patricii.
Consistorium
As a
having ceased, the name was vulgarised and connected with offices of
many kinds, sometimes of a somewhat lowly nature. In many cases it
was not associated with duties at all, but was merely titular.
natural result, comites were classified in three orders of dignity (primi,
secundi, tertii ordinis). Admission to the lowest rank was eagerly coveted
and often purchased, because of the immunity from public burdens which
the boon carried with it. Constantine also adapted the old phrase
patricius to new uses. The earlier emperors, first by special authorisa-
tion, later merely as emperors, had raised families to patrician rank,
but the result was merely a slight increase in social dignity. From
Constantine's time onwards, the dignity was rarely bestowed and then
the patricii became a high and exclusive order of nobility. They had
precedence next to the emperor, with the exception of the consuls actually
in office. Their titles did not descend to their sons. The best known of
the patricii are some of the great generals of barbarian origin, who were
the last hopes of the crumbling Empire. The title lasted long; it was
bestowed on Charles Martel, and was known later in the Byzantine
Empire.
At the centre of the great many-storeyed edifice of the bureaucracy
was the Consistorium or Most Honourable Privy Council. There was deep-
rooted in the Roman mind the idea that neither private citizen nor
official should decide on important affairs without taking the advice of
those best qualified to give it. This feeling gave rise to the great
advising body for the magistrates, the Senate, to the jury who assisted
in criminal affairs, to the bench of counsellors, drawn from his staff,
who gave aid to the provincial governor, and also to the loosely con-
stituted gathering of friends whose opinion the paterfamilias demanded.
To every one of these groups the word consilium was applicable. It
was natural that the early emperors should have their consilium, the
constitution of which gradually became more and more formal and
regular. Hadrian gave a more important place than heretofore to the
jurisconsults among his advisers. For a while a regular paid officer
called consiliarius existed. In Diocletian's time the old name consilium
was supplanted by consistorium. The old advisers of the magistrates
sat on the bench with them and therefore sometimes bore the name
adsessores. But it was impious to be seated in the presence of the new
divinised rulers; and from the practice of standing (consistere) the
Council derived its new name. From Constantine the Council received
a more definite frame. As shewn above, certain officers became comites
consistoriani. But these officers were not always the same after Con-
stantine's reign, and additional persons were from time to time called
in for particular business. The Praefectus Praetorio praesens or in
comitatu would usually attend. The Consistorium was both a Council
of State for the discussion of knotty imperial questions, and also a High
Court of Justice, though it is difficult to determine exactly what cases
## p. 49 (#79) ##############################################
The Roman Senate
49
might be brought before it. Probably that depended on the emperor's
will.
It is necessary that something should be said of the position which
the two capitals, Rome and Constantinople, held in the new organisation,
and of the traces which still hung about Italy of its older historical
privileges. The old Roman Senate was allowed a nominal existence,
with a changed constitution and powers which were rather municipal
than imperial. Of the old offices whose holders once filled the Senate, the
Consulship, Praetorship, and Quaestorship survived, while the Tribunate
and the Aedileship died out. Two consulares ordinarii were named by
the emperor, who would sometimes listen to recommendations from the
senators. The years continued to be denoted by the consular names, and,
to add dignity to the office, the emperor or members of the imperial
family would sometimes hold it. The tenure of the office was brief, and
the consules suffecti during the year were selected by the Senate, with the
emperor's approval. But to be consul suffectus was of little value, even
from a personal point of view. A list of nominations for the Praetorship
a
and Quaestorship was laid by the Praefectus urbi before the emperor for
confirmation. Apart from these old offices, many of the new dignitates
carried with them membership of the ordo senatorius. Ultimately all
officials who were clarissimi, that is to say who possessed the lowest of
the three noble titles, belonged to it. Thus it included not merely the
highest functionaries, as the principal military officers, the civil governors,
and the chiefs of bureaux, but many persons lower down in the hierarchy
of office, for example all the comites. The whole body must have
comprised some thousands. But a man might be a member of the ordo
without being actually a senator. Only the higher functionaries and
priests and the consulares described above, with possibly a few others,
actually took part in the proceedings. The actual Senate and the ordo
were distinguished by high-sounding titles in official documents, and
emperors would occasionally send communications to the Senate about
high matters, and make pretence of asking its advice, out of respect for
its ancient prestige, but its business was for the most part comparatively
petty, and chiefly confined to the immediate needs of the city. But
every now and then it was convenient for the ruler to expose the Senate
to the odium of making unpopular decisions, as in cases of high
treason; and when pretenders rose, or changes of government took place,
the favour of this ancient body still carried with it a certain value.
Among the chief functions of the senators was the supervision of the
supply of panis et circenses, provisions and amusements, for the
capital. The games were chiefly paid for by the holders of the Consul-
ship, Praetorship, and Quaestorship. The obligation resting on the
Praetorship was the most serious, and therefore nomination to this
magistracy took place many years in advance, that the money might
be ready. Naturally these burdens became to a large extent compulsory;
C. MED. H. VOL. I. CH. II.
4
## p. 50 (#80) ##############################################
50
The City of Rome
and so even women who had inherited from a senator had to supply
money for such purposes. Rich men of course exceeded the minimum
largely with a view to display. The old privilege still attached to Rome
of receiving corn from Africa. Diocletian divided Italy into two
districts, of which the northern (annonaria regio) paid tribute for
support of the Court at Milan, while the southern (dioecesis Romae,
or suburbicaria regio) supplied wine, cattle, and some other necessaries
for the capital.
Senators as such and the senatorius ordo were subject to special
taxation, as well as the ordinary taxation of the provinces (with
exception perhaps of the aurum coronarium). The follis senatorius was
a particular tax on senatorial lands, and even a landless senator had to
pay something. The aurum oblaticium already mentioned, was specially
burdensome.
The most important officer connected with the Senate was the
Praefectus urbi. His office had grown steadily in importance during the
whole existence of the Empire. From the time of Constantine its holder
was vir illustris. He was the only high official of the Empire who
continued to wear the toga and not the military garb. He was at the
head of the Senate and was the intermediary between that body and the
emperor. The powers of his office were extraordinary. The members of
the Senate resident in Rome were under his criminal jurisdiction. There
was an appeal to him from all the lesser functionaries who dealt with
legal matters in the first instance, not only in the capital, but in a
district extending 100 miles in every direction. His control spread over
every department of business. He was the chief guardian of public
security and had the cohortes urbanae, as well as the praefectus vigilum
under his command. The provisioning of the city was an important
part of his duty, and the praefectus annonae acted under his orders. A
whole army of officials, many of them bearing titles which would have
been strange to the Republic and early Empire, assisted him in looking
after the water-supply, controlling trade and the markets, and the
traffic on the river, in maintaining the river banks, in taking account of
the property of senators and in many other departments of affairs. It
is difficult to say how far his position was affected by the presence in the
city of a Corrector, and a Vicarius of the Praefectus Praetorio. The
material welfare of Rome was at least abundantly cared for by the
new monarchy. The city had already grown accustomed to the loss
of dignity caused by the residence of the emperors in cities more
convenient for the purposes of government. But the foundation of
Constantinople must have been a heavy blow. The institutions of the
old Rome were to a great extent copied in the new. There was a Senate
subject to the same obligations as in Rome. Most of the magistracies
were repeated. But until 359 no Praefectus urbi seems to have existed
at Constantinople. Elaborate arrangements were made for placing the
## p. 51 (#81) ##############################################
The Subjects of the Empire
51
new city on a level with the old as regards tributes of corn, wine, and
other necessaries from the provinces. The more frequent presence of
the ruler gave to the new capital a brilliance which the old must have
envied.
So far the machinery of the new government in its several parts has
been described. We must now consider in outline what was its total
effect upon the inhabitants of the Empire. The inability of the ruler to
assure good government to his subjects was made conspicuous by the
frequent creation of new offices, whose object was to curb the corruption
of the old. The multiplication of the functionaries in close touch with
the population rendered oppression more certain and less punishable
than ever.
Lactantius declares, with pardonable exaggeration, that the
number of those who lived on the taxes was as great as the number who
paid them. The evidence of official rapacity is abundant. The laws
thundered against it in vain. Oftentimes it happened that illegitimate
.
exactions were legalised in the empty hope of keeping them within
bounds. Penalties expressed in laws were plain enough and numerous
enough. For corruption in a province not only the governor but his
whole officium were liable to make heavy recompense. And the compara-
tive powerlessness of the governor is shewn by the fact that the officium
is more heavily mulcted than its head. But a down-trodden people
rarely will or can bring legal proof against its oppressors. Nothing
but extensive arbitrary dismissal and punishment of his servants by
the emperor, without insistence on forms of law, would have met the
evil. As it was, corruption reigned through the Empire with little
check, and the illicit gains of the emperor's servants added to the strain
imposed by the heavy imperial taxation. Thus the benefit which the
provincials had at first received by the substitution of Imperial for
Republican government was more than swept away. Their absorption
into the Roman polity on terms of equality with their conquerors,
brought with it degradation and ruin.
During the fourth century that extraordinary developinent was
completed whereby society was reorganised by a demarcation of classes
so rigid that it became extremely difficult for any man to escape from
that condition of life into which he was born. In the main, but not
altogether, this result was brought about by the fiscal system. When
the local Senates or their leaders were made responsible for producing to
the government the quota of taxation imposed on their districts, it
became necessary to prevent the members (decuriones or curiales) from
escaping their obligations by passing into another path of life, and also
to compel the sons to walk in their fathers' footsteps. But the main-
tenance of the local ordo was necessary also from the local as well as
the imperial point of view. The magistracies involved compulsory as
well as voluntary payments for local objects, and therefore those capable
of filling them must be thrust into them by force if need were. Every
CH. II.
4-2
## p. 52 (#82) ##############################################
52
Curiales. Collegia
kind of magistracy in every town of the Empire, and every official position
in connexion with any corporate body, whether priestly college or trade
guild or religious guild, brought with it expenditure for the benefit of
the community, and on this, in great part, the ordinary life of every
town depended. The Theodosian Code shews that the absconding
decurio was in the end treated as a runaway slave ; five gold pieces
were given to any one who would haul him back to his duties.
In time the members also of all or nearly all professional corporations
(collegia or corpora) were held to duties by the State, and the burden of
them descended from father to son. The evolution by which these free
unions for holding together in a social brotherhood all those who
followed a particular occupation were turned into bodies with the stamp
of caste upon them, is to be traced with difficulty in the extant inscrip-
tions and the legal literature. Here as everywhere the fiscal system
instituted by Diocletian was a powerful agent. A large part of the
natural fruits of the earth passed into the hands of government, and
a vast host of assistants was needed for transport and distribution. And
the organisation for maintaining the food-supply at Rome and Con-
stantinople became more and more elaborate. For the annona alone
many corporations had to give service, in most cases easily divined from
their names, as navicularii, frumentarii, mercatores, olearii, suarii, pecuarii,
pistores, boarii, porcinarii and numerous others. Similar bodies were con-
nected with public works, with police functions, as the extinction of fires,
with government operations of numerous kinds, in the mints, the mines,
the factories for textiles and arms and so on. In the early Empire the
service rendered to the State was not compulsory, and partly by rewards,
such as immunity from taxation, partly by pay, the government was
willingly served. But in time the burdens became intolerable. State
officers ultimately controlled the minutest details connected with these
corporations. And the tasks imposed did not entirely proceed from the
imperial departments. The curiales of the towns could enforce assistance
from the local collegia within their boundaries. And the tentacles of the
great octopus of the central government were spread over the provinces.
In the fourth and later centuries the restrictions on the freedom of these
corporations were extraordinarily oppressive. Egress from inherited
membership was inhibited by government except in rare instances.
Ingress, as into the class of curiales, was, directly or indirectly, com-
pulsory. The colleges differed greatly in dignity. In some, as in that
of the navicularii, even senators might be concerned, and office-holders
might obtain, among their rewards, the rank of Roman knight. On the
other hand, the bakers (pistores) approached near the condition of
slavery. Marriage, for instance, outside their own circle was forbidden,
whereas, in other cases, it was only rendered difficult. Property which
had once become subject to the duties required of a collegium could
hardly be released. The end was that collegiati or corporati all over the
1
1
## p. 53 (#83) ##############################################
Demarcation of Classes
53
Empire took any method they could find of escaping from their servitude,
and the law's severest punishments could not check the movement. If we
may believe some late writers, thousands of citizens found life in barbarian
lands more tolerable than in the Roman Empire.
The status of other classes in the community also tended to become
hereditary. This was the case with the officiales and the soldiers, though
here compulsion was not so severe. But the tillers of the ground (coloni)
were more hardly treated than any other class. It became impossible
for them, without breach of the law, to tear themselves away from the
soil of the locality within which they were born. The evolution of this
peculiar form of serfdom, which existed for the purposes of the State, is
difficult to trace. Many causes contributed to its growth and final
establishment, as the extension of large private and especially of vast
imperial domains, the imitation of the German half-free land-tenure
when barbarians were settled as laeti or inquilini within the Empire, the
influence of Egyptian and other Eastern land-customs, but above all the
drastic changes in the imperial imposts which Diocletian introduced.
The cultivator's principal end in life was to insure a contribution of
natural products for the revenue. Hence it was a necessity to chain him
to the ground, and in the law-books adscripticius is the commonest title
for him. The details of the scheme of taxation, given above, shew how
it must have tended to diminish population, for every additional person,
,
,
even a slave, increased the contribution which each holding must pay.
The owners of the land were in the first instance responsible, but the
burdens of course fell ultimately and in the main on the agricultural
workers
. The temporary loss of provinces to the invader, the failure of
harvest in any part of the Empire, the economic effects of pestilence, and
other accidents, all led to greater sacrifices on the part of those provinces
which were not themselves affected. The exactions became heavier and
heavier, the punishments for attempts to escape from duty more and more
severe, and yet flight and disappearance of coloni took place on a large
scale. By the end of the fourth century it was possible for lawyers to
say
of this unhappy class that they were almost in the condition of slaves,
and a century or so later that the distinction between them and slaves
no longer existed ; that they were slaves of the land itself on which they
were born.
In many other ways, under the new monarchy, the citizens of the
,
Empire were treated with glaring inequality. The gradations of official
station were almost as important in the general life of the Empire as they
now are in China, and they were reflected in titular phrases, some of
which have been given above. Etiquette became most complicated.
