G5 



only of a third part of their property, the rest devolving to the 

 Curia. They could not absent themselves from their place of 

 residence, even for a limited time, without the governor's 

 authority. The Decurion could not become an ecclesiastic, in 

 the times subsequent to the establishment of Christianity, with- 

 out leaving his property either to some one who could assume 

 his responsibilities, or to the Curia itself. ' Their condition was 

 therefore most wretched ; the state seemed to consider the pay- 

 ment of taxes to be the primary object of its existence, and the 

 rights of property and personal liberty were utterly disregarded, 

 in comparison with the filling of the imperial cofiers. We have 

 an evidence of the existence of the tax gatherer amongst us in 

 the Roman times in an inscription,^ in which Aurelius Bassus 

 bears the title of Censitor Civium Romanorum Colonice Victri- 

 censis qu<B est in Britannia Camaloduni. Three officers are 

 mentioned as concerned in the imposition of taxes : the censi- 

 tores, valuers ; the inspectores, who from their report fixed the 

 proportions in which the vectigalia were to be imposed ; and 

 the per (Equator eSi^ who either rectified the general principle 

 of the assessment, or applotted it anew, if some of those on 

 whom it had been charged proved unequal to the payment. 

 This severity of taxation was one of the chief causes of the 

 decline of the Empire ; the middle classes were empoverished 

 and destroyed, and the state was ready to crumble to pieces 

 under the rude assault of its invaders. 



This is all that I have been able to discover respecting the 

 civil condition and administration of Roman York ; but as it 

 is rather more than appears in our common histories, I have 

 thought that its communication might not be unacceptable to 

 the Society. 



1 Walther Rom. Recht. p. 392. The authorities for all that relates to the con- 

 dition of the municipal towns under the Emperors are collected in Roth de Re 

 Municipal! Romanonun. The results are given in a very able summary, in Guizot's 

 Essais sur 1' Histoire de France. Essai 1. 



9 Gruter 489, 5. » Orelli 3672. 



