382 The vital food-question 



and furnishing the power of recovery from disaster. Its apathetic parts 

 looked passively to the centre for guidance or relief, depending on the 

 perfection of a government whose imperfection was assured by attempt- 

 ing a task beyond the reach of human faculty and virtue. The exposure 

 of the empire's weakness came about through collision with the forces 

 of northern barbarism. What a machine could do, that it did, and its 

 final failure was due to maladies that made vain all efforts to renew 

 its internal strength. 



The wars with the northern barbarians brought out with singular 

 clearness two important facts, already known but not sufficiently taken 

 into account. First, that the enemy were increasing in numbers while 

 the people of the empire were in most parts stationary or even de- 

 clining. Bloody victories, when gained, did practically nothing to 

 redress the balance. Secondly, that at the back of this embarrassing 

 situation lay a food-question of extreme seriousness and complexity. 

 More and more food was needed for the armies, and the rustics of the 

 empire, even when fitted for military service, could not be spared from 

 the farms without danger to the food-supply. The demands of the 

 commissariat were probably far greater than we might on the face of 

 it suppose ; for an advance into the enemy's territory did not ease 

 matters. Little or nothing was found to eat : indeed it was the pressure 

 of a growing population on the means of subsistence that drove the 

 hungry German tribes to face the Roman sword in quest of abundant 

 food and the wine and oil of the South and West. The attempt of 

 Marcus and others after him, to solve the problems of the moment by 

 enlisting barbarians in Roman armies, was no permanent solution. 

 The aliens too had to be fed, and their pay in money could not be 

 deferred. Meanwhile the taxation of the empire inevitably grew, and 

 the productive industries had to stagger along under heavier burdens. 

 The progressive increase of these is sufficiently illustrated in the history 

 of indictiones. At first an indictio was no more than an occasional 1 

 impost of so much corn levied by imperial proclamation on landed 

 properties in order to meet exceptional scarcity in Rome. But it was 

 in addition to the regular tributum, and was of course most likely to 

 occur in years when scarcity prevailed. No wonder it was already felt 

 onerous 2 in the time of Trajan. Pressure on imperial resources caused 

 it not only to become more frequent, and eventually normal : it was 

 extended 3 to include other products, and became a regular burden of 



1 Cf Dig XXXIII 2 28 indictiones temporariae [Paulus], XIX i I3 6 [Ulpian]. 



2 Pliny paneg 29 (of imperial subjects) nee novis indictionibtis pressi ad vetera tributa 

 deficiunt. 



3 Hence cod Theod has a title de superindictionibus. 



