79

virtues, as well as the vices of Elagabalus, contracted a tincture of weakness and effeminacy from the soft climate of Syria, of which he was a native; though he blushed at his foreign origin, and listened with a vain complacency to the flattering genealogists, who derived his race from the ancient stock of Roman nobility. The pride and avarice of his mother cast a shade on the glories of his reign; and by exacting from his riper years the same dutiful obedience which she had justly claimed from his unexperienced youth, Mamæa exposed to public ridicule both her son's character and her own.80 The fatigues of the Persian war irritated the military discontent; the unsuccessful event" degraded the reputation of the emperor as a general, and even as a soldier. Every cause prepared, and every circumstance hastened, a revolution, which distracted the Roman empire with a long series of intestine calamities.

finances of

The dissolute tyranny of Commodus, the civil wars occasioned by his death, and the new maxims of policy introduced by the Digression house of Severus, had all contributed to increase the on the dangerous power of the army, and to obliterate the faint the empire. image of laws and liberty that was still impressed on the minds of the Romans. This internal change, which undermined the foundations of the empire, we have endeavoured to explain with some degree of order and perspicuity. The personal characters of the emperors, their victories, laws, follies, and fortunes, can interest us no farther than as they are connected with the general history of the Decline and Fall of the monarchy. Our constant attention to that great object will not suffer us to overlook a most important edict of Antoninus Caracalla, which communicated to all the free inhabitants of the empire the name and privileges of Roman citizens. His unbounded liberality flowed not, however, from the sentiments of a generous mind; it was the sordid result of avarice, and will naturally be illustrated by some observations on the finances of that state, from the victorious ages of the commonwealth to the reign of Alexander Severus.

79 From the Metelli. Hist. August. p. 129. [Lampr. Alex. Sev. c. 44.] The choice was judicious. In one short period of twelve years the Metelli could reckon seven consulships and five triumphs. See Velleius Paterculus, ii. 11, and the Fasti. 80 The Life of Alexander, in the Augustan History, is the mere idea of a perfect prince, an awkward imitation of the Cyropædia. The account of his reign, as given by Herodian, is rational and moderate, consistent with the general history of the age; and, in some of the most invidious particulars, confirmed by the decisive fragments of Dion. Yet, from a very paltry prejudice, the greater number of our modern writers abuse Herodian, and copy the Augustan History. See Mess. de Tillemont and Wotton. From the opposite prejudice, the emperor Julian (in Cæsarib. p. 315) dwells with a visible satisfaction on the effeminate weakness of the Syrian, and the ridiculous avarice of his mother.

"See editor's note on c. viii. note 50.-S.

Establishment

The siege of Veii in Tuscany, the first considerable enterprise of the Romans, was protracted to the tenth year, much less by the strength of the place than by the unskilfulness of the besiegers. The unaccustomed hardships of so many winter campaigns, at the distance of near twenty miles from home,81 required more than common encouragements; and the senate wisely prevented the clamours of the people, by the institution of a regular pay for the soldiers, which was levied by a general tribute, assessed according to an equitable proportion on the property of the citizens. 82 During more than two hundred years after the conquest of Veii, the victories of the republic added less to the wealth than to the power of Rome. The states of Italy paid their tribute in military service only, and the vast force, both by sea and land, which was exerted in the Punic wars, was maintained at the expense of the Romans themselves. That high-spirited people (such is often the generous enthusiasm of freedom) cheerfully submitted to the most excessive but voluntary burdens, in the just confidence that they should speedily enjoy the rich harvest of their labours. Their expectations were not disappointed. In the course of a few years, the riches of Syracuse, of Carthage, of Macedonia, and of Asia, were brought in triumph to Rome. The treasures of Perseus alone amounted to near two millions sterling, and the Roman people, the sovereign of so many nations, was for ever delivered from the weight of taxes. 83 b The increasing revenue of the provinces was found

and aboli

tion of the tribute on

Roman citizens.

81 According to the more accurate Dionysius, the city itself was only an hundred stadia, or twelve miles and a half, from Rome, though some outposts might be advanced farther on the side of Etruria. Nardini, in a professed treatise, has combated the popular opinion and the authority of two popes, and has removed Veii from Civita Castellana, to a little spot called Isola, in the midway between Rome and the lake Bracciano.

62 See the 4th [c. 59] and 5th [c. 7] books of Livy." In the Roman census, property, power, and taxation, were commensurate with each other.

83 Plin, Hist. Natur. 1. xxxiii, c. 3 (s. 17]. Cicero de Offic. ii, 22. Plutarch. in P. Emil. [c. 38] p. 275. [Valer. Max. iv. c. 3, § 8.]

A

Niebuhr contests the account of Livy, and brings forward many reasons to prove that the Roman troops received pay at a much earlier period. Hist, of Rome, vol. ii. p. 441, transl.-S.

The most important part of the revenue of the Roman state under the republic was derived from the tributum, or property-tax, imposed by the constitution of Servius Tullius upon the assessed value of every kind of property belonging to Roman citizens; but as the chief part of the property of Roman citizens consisted of land, the tributum was chiefly a land-tax. This tax was abolished in B.C. 167, upon the conquest of Macedonia, as

Gibbon has observed, and was never imposed again. From this time Italy was free from direct taxation, to which the provinces were subject. It has, indeed, been maintained, on the authority of Plutarch (P. Emil. e. 38), that the tributum was revived by the triumvirs, and continued to be levied after their time, as we nowhere read of its subsequent abolition (Walter, Geschichte des Römischen Rechts, §306); but there can be no doubt that the triumvirs only attempted to levy money for that revolutionary period by means of the tributum, and that their proceedings were never construed into a precedent. It would seem at first sight

sufficient to defray the ordinary establishment of war and government, and the superfluous mass of gold and silver was deposited in the temple of Saturn, and reserved for any unforeseen emergency of the state. 84

the pro

History has never perhaps suffered a greater or more irreparable injury than in the loss of the curious register bequeathed Tributes of by Augustus to the senate, in which that experienced prince vinces: so accurately balanced the revenues and expenses of the Roman empire. 85 Deprived of this clear and comprehensive estimate, we are reduced to collect a few imperfect hints from such of the ancients as have accidentally turned aside from the splendid to the more useful parts of history. We are informed that, by the conquests of Pompey, the tributes of Asia were raised from fifty to one hundred and thirty-five millions of drachms; or about four millions and a half sterling. 86 Under the last and most indolent

of Asia,

84 See a fine description of this accumulated wealth of ages, in Lucan's Phars. 1. iii. v. 155, &c.

85 Tacit. in Annal. i. 11. It seems to have existed in the time of Appian. 86 Plutarch in Pompeio [c. 45], p. 642 [Frankf. ed. 1620].b

as if the abolition of the tributum was a pure act of favour to Italy, and as such it might be excused, since the provinces could without oppression support the land of their rulers. But Savigny remarks that there was a decisive reason for the exemption of Italy from direct taxation in the ancient principle of the Roman constitution, that the army could only be levied and equipped by the Italian states; and consequently, as Italy alone bore the burthen of military service, which was coustantly increasing with the extent of the empire, its exemption from the direct taxation of the provinces was only a fair compensation. It is true that this ancient principle was not long observed, and that in course of time the greater part of the army consisted of provincials; and as soon as this took place, the exemption of Italy from taxation was an act of favour. It was not till the time of Maximian, after the division of the empire, that a property-tax was again levied in Italy; and this was not the ancient tributum, but the system of provincial taxation, which was then introduced into Italy. See note on c. xiv. Savigny, Römische Steuerverfassung, in Vermischte Schriften, vol. ii. p. 158. The portoria, or duties on imported goods, were abolished in Italy by a law proposed by the prætor Q. Metellus Nepos in B.C. 60, after which the only tax left in Italy was the "vicesima manumissionis," or 5 per cent. upon the value of manumitted

slaves. Dion, 1. xxxvii. c. 51; Cic. ad Att. ii. 16.- S.

a

The Rationarium or Breviarium imperii. Compare, besides,Tacitus, Suet. Aug. c. ult. Dion, [lvi. c. 33] p. 832. Other emperors kept and published similar registers. See a dissertation of Dr. Wolle, de Rationario imperii Rom. Leipsig, 1773. The last book of Appian also contained the statistics of the Roman empire, but it is lost.-W.

This passage of Plutarch has been interpreted in two ways. Most modern scholars suppose Plutarch to say that Pompey raised the revenue from 50 millions of denarii (or drachmæ) to 85 millions, that is, from 2,145,000l. to 3,654,000%. sterling; while Gibbon, whom Milman follows, interprets the passage to mean that Pompey added 85 millions to the ordinary revenue: but a careful examination of the passage, and the probabilities of the case, lead to the conclusion that the former opinion is the more correct.

Again, Marquardt maintains (in Becker's Handbuch der Römischen Alterthümer, vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 213) that the statement in Plutarch refers to the entire vectigalia of the Roman state; but it is much more probable that the Asiatic taxes alone are meant, since we can hardly believe that the revenue of the Roman state amounted only to four millions. See Höck, Römische Geschichte, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 293. -S.

of the Ptolemies, the revenue of Egypt is said to have amounted to twelve thousand five hundred talents; a sum equivalent of Egypt, to more than two millions and a half of our money, but which was afterwards considerably improved by the more exact economy of the Romans, and the increase of the trade of Ethiopia

and India.87 Gaul was enriched by rapine," as Egypt was of Gaul, by commerce, and the tributes of those two great provinces have been compared as nearly equal to each other in value. The ten thousand Euboic or Phoenician talents, about four millions sterling, which vanquished Carthage was condemned to of Africa, pay within the term of fifty years, were a slight acknowledgment of the superiority of Rome,90 and cannot bear the least proportion with the taxes afterwards raised both on the lands and on the persons of the inhabitants, when the fertile coast of Africa was reduced into a province.91

Spain, by a very singular fatality, was the Peru and Mexico of the old world. The discovery of the rich western continent by of Spain, the Phoenicians, and the oppression of the simple natives, who were compelled to labour in their own mines for the benefit of strangers, form an exact type of the more recent history of Spanish America.92 The Phoenicians were acquainted only with the sea-coast of Spain; avarice, as well as ambition, carried the arms of Rome and Carthage into the heart of the country, and almost every part of the soil was found pregnant with copper, silver, and gold. Mention is made of a mine near Carthagena which yielded every day twenty-five thousand drachms of silver, or about three hundred thousand pounds

87 Strabo, 1. xvii. p. 798.

88 Velleius Paterculus, 1. ii. c. 39. He seems to give the preference to the revenue of Gaul.

89 The Euboic, the Phoenician, and the Alexandrian talents were double in weight to the Attic. See Hooper on ancient weights and measures, p. iv. c. 5. It is very probable that the same talent was carried from Tyre to Carthage.

90 Polyb. 1. xv. c. 18.

91 Appian in Punicis, p. 84.

92 Diodorus Siculus, 1. v. [c. 37.] than a thousand years before Christ.

a

Cadiz was built by the Phoenicians a little more
See Vell. Pater. i. 2.

When Cæsar had conquered Gaul, he imposed upon it a tribute of 40 millions of sesterces, or 429,000l. Sueton. Cæs. 25. But this tribute was soon afterwards increased; and in the time of Constantius, even after the reduction by Julian, the tribute of the Gallic provinces amounted to 4,200,000/. See editor's note to c. xvii. next to note 187.-S.

b This is not correct. The Euboic talent was the same as the old Attic talent, that is, the talent in use before

the time of Solon,-and was not double in weight to the later Attic or Solonian talent. It has been shown by Böckh that the true ratio between the Euboic and (later) Attic talent is 100 to 72, or nearly 4 to 3. See Böckh, Metrologische Untersuchungen über Gewichte, &c., Berlin, 1838; Grote's Review of Böckh's work, in the Classical Museum, vol. i.; and the articles Nummus and Pondera in Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities.-S.

a year.93 Twenty thousand pound weight of gold was annually received from the provinces of Asturia, Gallicia, and Lusitania.94

We want both leisure and materials to pursue this curious inquiry through the many potent states that were annihilated in the of the isle Roman empire. Some notion, however, may be formed of of Gyarus. the revenue of the provinces where considerable wealth had been deposited by nature, or collected by man, if we observe the severe attention that was directed to the abodes of solitude and sterility. Augustus once received a petition from the inhabitants of Gyarus, humbly praying that they might be relieved from one-third of their excessive impositions. Their whole tax amounted indeed to no more than one hundred and fifty drachms, or about five pounds: but Gyarus was a little island, or rather a rock, of the Ægean sea, destitute of fresh water and every necessary of life, and inhabited only by a few wretched fishermen.95

From the faint glimmerings of such doubtful and scattered lights, we should be inclined to believe, 1st, That (with every fair Amount of allowance for the difference of times and circumstances) the the revenue. general income of the Roman provinces could seldom amount to less than fifteen or twenty millions of our money ;96 and, 2ndly, That so ample a revenue must have been fully adequate to all the expenses of the moderate government instituted by Augustus, whose court was the modest family of a private senator, and whose military establishment was calculated for the defence of the frontiers, without any aspiring views of conquest, or any serious apprehension of a foreign invasion.

Taxes on
Roman

citizens in

Notwithstanding the seeming probability of both these conclusions, the latter of them at least is positively disowned by the language and conduct of Augustus. It is not easy to determine whether, on this occasion, he acted as the common father of the Roman world, or as the oppressor of liberty;

93 Strabo, 1. iii. p. 148.

stituted by Augustus.

94 Plin. Hist. Natur. 1. xxxiii. c. 3 [s. 21]. He mentions likewise a silver-mine in Dalmatia that yielded every day fifty pounds to the state.

95 Strabo, 1. x. p. 485. Tacit. Annal. iii. 69, and iv. 30. See in Tournefort (Voyages au Levant, Lettre viii.) a very lively picture of the actual misery of Gyarus. 96 Lipsius de Magnitudine Romanâ (1. ii. c. 3) computes the revenue at one hundred and fifty millions of gold crowns; but his whole book, though learned and ingenious, betrays a very heated imagination."

We have no sure data for calculating the revenue derived from the Roman provinces. Höck reckons it at 150 millions of thalers, or 22,500,0007. sterling. Römische Geschichte, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 298. The expression of Vespasian at the commencement of his reign, that he needed 40,000 millions of sesterces, if the state

were to stand (Sueton. Vesp. 16), does not refer to the yearly revenue, as some have supposed, but to the sum that was needed to put the finances in order after the civil wars. See Dureau de la Malle, Economie Politique des Romains, vol. ii. p. 405.-S.