Land and population 337 



reconstruct any clear picture of the inner life of the period 180-284 AD 

 owing to the lack of materials. 



The most significant piece of information relates to Pertinax. We 

 are told 1 that one of the useful reforms contemplated by him was the 

 reclamation of waste lands throughout the empire. He ordained that 

 any one might occupy derelict lands, even on the imperial estates: on 

 careful cultivation thereof, the farmer was to become owner 2 . For a 

 space of ten years he was to be exempt from all taxation, and his 

 ownership was to be guaranteed against future disturbance. This pas- 

 sage is good evidence of the decay of agriculture, agreeing with what 

 we have learnt from other sources. But we cannot gather from it that 

 the well-meant design had any practical effect. Pertinax was only 

 emperor for the inside of three months, and could not realize his virtuous 

 aspirations. About 80 years later we find Aurelian 3 planning the de- 

 velopment of waste lands in Etruria, and Probus 4 giving allotments in 

 the wilds of Isauria to his veterans as settlers with obligation of mili- 

 tary service. There can be little doubt that the depopulation and de- 

 cline of cultivation, made sadly manifest in the calamitous times of 

 Marcus Aurelius, had never ceased to undermine the vital forces of the 

 empire. How to fill up deserted lands, and make them productive of 

 food and revenue, was the problem that every serious ruler had to face. 

 And there was in fact only one resource available to meet the need. 

 The native population of the empire, stationary at best, had been fur- 

 ther reduced by pestilence and famine, and was not able to fill up the 

 spaces laid waste by frontier wars. Hence the policy of bringing in 

 masses of barbarians, adopted by Marcus, had to be repeated again 

 and again. 



We must not confuse these settlements with the immigrations of 

 conquering tribes that occurred later. Rome was still superior to her 

 adversaries in military organization and skill, and under fairly equal 

 conditions able to defeat them in pitched battles. Thus Claudius II 

 gained great victories over the Goths, and the biographer 5 tells us of 

 the sequel. ' The Roman provinces were filled with barbarian slaves 

 and Scythian tillers of the soil. The Goth was turned into a settler on 

 the barbarian frontier. There was not a single district but had some 

 Gothic slave whose bondage attested the triumph.' Here we seem to 

 have the echo of a somewhat boastful contemporary version. The 

 mention of both slaves and frontier colonists is to be noted. We have 

 no statistics to guide us in an attempt to estimate the relative numbers 

 of the two classes. But the settlement of defeated barbarians on the 



1 Herodian II 4 6. 

 3 Vopisc Aurel 48 2. 4 Vopisc Probus 16 6. 



6 Trebell Claud 9 4, 5. Scythicis is an emendation, senibus MSS. 

 H.A. 22. 



