39 Machinery of taxation 



the whole free population. Therefore the vast majority stood officially 

 condemned to lives of penury and wretchedness. The system became 

 more hard-set and the outlook more hopeless with the lapse of time. 



The dues exacted from the various parts of the empire varied in 

 quality 1 according to local conditions, and to some extent in methods 

 of collection. In the frontier Provinces the quantity was sometimes 

 reduced 2 by remissions, when a district ravaged by invaders was re- 

 lieved for a few years that it might recover its normal productiveness. 

 The details of these variations are beyond the scope of the present 

 inquiry. The general principle underlying the whole system was the 

 fixing of taxation-units equal in liability, and the organizing of col- 

 lection in municipal groups. Each municipal town or civitas was the 

 administrative centre of a district, and stood charged in the imperial 

 ledgers as liable for the returns from a certain number of units, this 

 number being that recorded as existing at the last quinquennial census. 

 For the collection the chief municipal authorities were responsible ; and 

 they had to hand over the amount due to the imperial authorities, 

 whether they had received it in full or not. Already burdened with 

 strictly municipal liabilities, the members of municipal senates (curiales) 

 were crushed by this additional and incalculable pressure. Unable to 

 resist, they generally took the course of so using their functions and 

 powers as to protect their own interests as far as possible. One obvious 

 precaution was to see that the number of taxable units 3 in their district 

 was not fixed too high by the census officials. This precaution was 

 certainly not overlooked, and success in keeping down the number 

 may well have been the chief reason why the system was able to go 

 on so long. The curiales were mostly considerable landlords, residing 

 in their town and letting their land to tenants. But there were other 

 landlords, smaller men, some also resident in the towns, others in the 

 country. We still hear of men farming land 4 of their own, and it seems 

 that some of these held and farmed other land also, as coloni of larger 

 landlords. When any question arose as to the number of units for the 

 tax on which this or that farm was liable, it is clear that the interests 

 of different classes might easily clash. And the curiales undoubtedly 

 took care 5 that their own and those of their friends did not suffer. 



These remarks imply that the system practically worked in favour 



3 Seeck, Schatzungsordnung, cited above. 



2 A long title in cod Th is devoted to remissions, XI 28, consisting of temporary laws. 

 And these deal chiefly with Italian and African Provinces, notably 7, 12, with Campania. 

 They date from 395 to 436. 



3 In the panegyric (No vm cap n) on Constantine we have mention of a reduction of 

 7000 capita for relief of a district in Gaul. 



4 Cod Th XI i 14. Cf. Seeck, Schatzungsordnung pp 315-6. 



6 Compare the conduct of the magistrates of Antioch in the evidence of Libanius cited 

 below. 



