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XIV.

CHAP. These official spies, who regularly corresponded with the palace, were encouraged, by favour and reward, anxiously to watch the progress of every treasonable design, from the faint and latent symptoms of disaffection, to the actual preparation of an open revolt. Their careless or criminal violation of truth and justice was covered by the consecrated mask of zeal; and they might securely aim their poisoned arrows at the breast either of the guilty or the innocent, who had provoked their resentment, or refused to purchase their silence. A faithful subject, of Syria perhaps, or of Britain, was exposed to the danger, or at least to the dread, of being dragged in chains, to the court of Milan or Constantinople, to defend his life and fortune against the malicious charge of these privileged informers. The ordinary administration was conducted by those methods which extreme necessity can alone palliate; and the defects of evidence were diligently supplied by the use of

Use of torture.

torture.

The deceitful and dangerous experiment of the criminal quæstion, as it is emphatically styled, was admitted, rather than approved, in the jurisprudence of the Romans. They applied this sanguinary mode of examination only to servile bodies, whose sufferings were seldom weighed by those haughty republicans in the scale of justice or humanity: but they would never consent to violate the sacred person of a citizen, till they possessed the clearest evidence of his guilt*. The annals of tyranny, from the reign of Tiberius to that of Domitian, circumstantially relate the executions of many innocent victims; but, as long as the faintest remembrance was kept alive of the national freedom and honour, the

The Pandects (1. xlviii. tit. xviii.) contain the sentiments of the most celebrated civilians on the subject of torture. They strictly confine it to slaves; and Ulpian himself is ready to acknowledge, that Res est fragilis, et periculosa, et quæ veritatem fallat.

of a Roman were secure from the danger CHAP.
The conduct of the provin-

ous torture.
ates was not, however, regulated by the
the city, or the strict maxims of the ci-
hey found the use of torture established
mong the slaves of oriental despotism,
the Macedonians, who obeyed a limited
mong the Rhodians, who flourished by the
mmerce; and even among the sage Athe-
had asserted and adorned the dignity of

The acquiescence of the provincials
their governors to acquire, or perhaps
discretionary power of employing the
ort from vagrants or plebeian criminals
n of their guilt, till they insensibly pro-
onfound the distinction of rank, and
the privileges of Roman citizens. The
s of the subjects urged them to solicit,
rest of the sovereign engaged him to
ty of special exemptions, which tacitly
even authorised, the general use of
y protected all persons of illustrious
è rank, bishops and their presbyters,
the liberal arts, soldiers and their fa-
pal officers, and their posterity to the
on, and all children under the age of
a fatal maxim was introduced into
prudence of the empire, that in the
, which included every offence that
lawyers could derive from an hostile
rds the prince or republic, all pri-
spended, and all conditions were re-
me ignominious level. As the safety
was avowedly preferred to every con-
tice or humanity, the dignity of age,
ess of youth, were alike exposed to
tortures; and the terrors of a mali-

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XIV.

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XIV.

CHAP. cious information, which might select them as the accomplices, or even as the witnesses, perhaps, of an imaginary crime, perpetually hung over the heads of the principal citizens of the Roman world.

Finances.

These evils, however terrible they may appear, were confined to the smaller number of Roman subjects, whose dangerous situation was in some degree compensated by the enjoyment of those advantages, either of nature or of fortune, which exposed them to the jealousy of the monarch. The obscure millions of a great empire have much less to dread from the cruelty than from the avarice of their masters; and their humble happiness is principally affected by the grievance of excessive taxes, which, gently pressing on the wealthy, descend with accelerated weight on the meaner and more indigent classes of society. An ingenious philosopher * has calculated the universal measure of the public impositions by the degrees of freedom and servitude; and ventures to assert, that, according to an invariable law of nature, it must always increase with the former, and diminish in a just proportion to the latter. But this reflection, which would tend to alleviate the miseries of despotism, is contradicted at least by the history of the Roman empire; which accuses the same princes of despoiling the senate of its authority, and the provinces of their wealth. Without abolishing all the various customs and duties on merchandizes, which are imperceptibly discharged by the apparent choice of the purchaser, the policy of Constantine and his successors preferred a simple and direct mode of taxation, more congenial to the spirit of an arbitrary government.

The name and use of the indictions, which serve to ascertain the chronology of the middle ages, were derived from the regular practice of the Roman

• Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, 1. xii. c 15.

And, by a very easy con

XIV.

The emperor subscribed with his own CHAP.
En purple ink, the solemn edict, or in-
ch was fixed up in the principal city
ese, during two months previous to the
September.
eas, the word indiction was transferred to
of tribute which it prescribed, and to
erm which it allowed for the payment.
I estimate of the supplies was propor-
real and imaginary wants of the state;
s the expense exceeded the revenue, or
fell short of the computation, an addi-
nder the name of superindiction, was
he people, and the most valuable attri-
-ignty was communicated to the Præ-
Es, who, on some occasions, were per-
vide for the unforeseen and extraor-
cies of the public service. The execu-
aws (which it would be tedious to pur-
inute and intricate detail) consisted of
perations; the resolving the general
o its constituent parts, which were as-
provinces, the cities, and the indivi-
oman world; and the collecting the
butions of the individuals, the cities,
ces, till the accumulated sums were
› Imperial treasuries. But as the ac-
the monarch and the subject was per-
and as the renewal of the demand an-
rfect discharge of the preceding obli-
ighty machine of the finances was
same hands round the circle of its
n. Whatever was honourable or im-
administration of the revenue was
e wisdom of the præfects, and their
sentatives; the lucrative functions
y a crowd of subordinate officers,

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OF THE ROMAN EMP

indiction, was furnished in a m direct, and still more oppressive. different nature of lands, their real various articles of wine or oil, corn or iron, was transported by the lab pense of the provincials to the Imp from whence they were occasionally the use of the court, of the army, capitals, Rome and Constantinople. sioners of the revenue were so freque make considerable purchases, that th prohibited from allowing any compen. receiving in money the value of those were exacted in kind. In the primiti small communities, this method may to collect the almost voluntary offerings but it is at once susceptible of the utmo of the utmost strictness, which in a co solute monarchy must introduce a perbetween the power of oppression and the The agriculture of the Roman provine sibly ruined, and, in the progress of desp tends to disappoint its own purpose,

nom depended on the treasurer, others on or of the province; and who, in the innflicts of a perplexed jurisdiction, had frertunities of disputing with each other the he people. The laborious offices, which roductive only of envy and reproach, of danger, were imposed on the Decurions, I the corporations of the cities, and whom of the Imperial laws had condemned to burthens of civil society. The whole perty of the empire (without excepting nial estates of the monarch) was the obnary taxation; and every new purchaser he obligations of the former proprietor. e census, or survey, was the only equitaascertaining the proportion which every ld be obliged to contribute for the public d from the well-known period of the inere is reason to believe that this difficult ve operation was repeated at the regular ifteen years. The lands were measured s, who were sent into the provinces; whether arable or pasture, or vineyards as distinctly reported; and an estimate their common value from the average ive years. The numbers of slaves and stituted an essential part of the report; administered to the proprietors, which to disclose the true state of their affairs; empts to prevaricate, or elude the ine legislator, were severely watched, and a capital crime, which included the of treason and sacrilege. A large poribute was paid in money; and of the of the empire, gold alone could be zed. The remainder of the taxes, ace proportions determined by the annual

were

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obliged to derive some merit from ness of debts, or the remission of tri their subjects were utterly incapable of cording to the new division of Italy, the happy province of Campania, the scene victories and of the delicious retirements zens of Rome, extended between the Apennine, from the Tyber to the Silaru xty years after the death of Constanti the evidence of an actual survey, an exe granted in favour of three hundred and t and English acres of desert and uncultiv which amounted to one-eighth of the wh of the province. As the footsteps of the

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