Runaways. Money-values. Local usages 375 



of law. Very significant 1 however are the attempts of the Senate and 

 certain emperors to put down an inveterate scandal which is surely 

 good indirect evidence of the scarcity. It consisted in the harbouring 2 

 of runaway slaves on the estates of other landlords. A runaway from 

 one estate was of course not protected and fed on another estate from 

 motives of philanthropy. The slave would be well aware that severe 

 punishment awaited him if recovered by his owner, and therefore be 

 willing to work for a new master who might, if displeased, surrender 

 him any day. The landlords guilty of this treason to the interests of their 

 class were probably the same as those who harboured 3 brigands, another 

 practice injurious to peaceful agriculture both in Italy and abroad. 

 Another inconvenience, affecting all trades and all parts of the empire 

 in various degrees, was the local difference in the money-value 4 of com- 

 modities in different markets. This was sometimes great: and that it 

 was troublesome to farmers may be inferred from the particular men- 

 tion of wine oil and corn as cases in point. No doubt dealers had the 

 advantage over producers, as they generally have, through possessing a 

 more than local knowledge of necessary facts. These middlemen however 

 could not be dispensed with, as experience shewed, and one of the later 

 jurists 5 openly recognized. Facilities for borrowing, and rates of interest, 

 varied greatly in various centres. But all these market questions do 

 not seem to have been so acute as to be a public danger until the 

 ruinous debasement of the currency in the time of Gallienus. A few 

 references may be found to peculiar usages of country life in particular 

 Provinces. Thus we read that in Arabia 6 farms were sometimes 'boy- 

 cotted,' any person cultivating such a farm being threatened with 

 assassination. In Egypt 7 special care had to be taken to protect the 

 dykes regulating the distribution of Nile water. Both these offences 

 were summarily dealt with by the provincial governor, and the penalty 

 was death. Here we have one more proof of the anxiety of the imperial 

 government to insure the greatest possible production of food. The 

 empire was always hungry, and so were the barbarians. And the 

 northern frontier provinces could not feed both themselves and the 

 armies. 



While speaking of landlords and tenants we must not forget that 

 all over the empire considerable areas of land were owned by munici- 

 palities, and dealt with at the discretion of the local authorities. Variety 

 of systems was no doubt dictated by variety of local circumstances : 



1 xi 4 i 1 , cf Paulus sent I 6 a 5. 



2 Dealt with later in the Codes as a frequent evil. For early medieval laws on the point 

 see de Coulanges p 152. 



3 XLVII 9 3 3 , 16, Paulus sent v 3 4. 4 xm 4 3. 



5 Callistratus in L TI 2, quoting Plato rep 371 a-c. 



6 XLVII ii 9. 7 XLVII ii 10, cf cod Th ix 32 i, cod Just ix 38. 



