4OO Malpractices at Antioch 



where. Apparently there was now no sufficient staff of public slaves at 

 disposal; at all events the city authorities resorted to illegal means 

 for procuring the removal. When the country folk came into town to 

 dispose of their produce, the magistrates requisitioned their carts asses 

 mules (and themselves as drivers) for this work. Thus the time of the 

 poor rustics was wasted, their carts and sacks damaged, and they and 

 their beasts sent back to their homes in a state of utter exhaustion. 

 No law empowered the city magnates to act thus. From small be- 

 ginnings a sort of usage had been created, which nothing short of im- 

 perial ordinance could now break and abolish. That the magistrates 

 were conscious of doing wrong was shewn by what they avoided doing. 

 They did not impress slaves or carts from houses in the city. They 

 did not exact like services from the military or powerful landlords. 

 Nor did they lay the burden on the estates 1 of the municipality, the 

 rents from which were part of the revenues of Antioch. Favour is only 

 justified by equity; and there is, says Libanius, no equity in sparing 

 the luxurious rich by ruining the poor. So he entreats his most gracious 2 

 Majesty to protect the farms as much as the cities, or rather more. 

 For the country is in fact the foundation on which cities rest. Without 

 it they could never have existed : and now it is on the rise and fall of 

 rural wellbeing that urban prosperity depends. This appeal speaks 

 for itself. But it is significant that the skilled pleader thinks it wise to 

 end on a note of imperial interest. * Moreover, Sire, it is from the 

 country that your tribute is drawn. It is to the cities that you address 

 your orders 3 for taxation, but the cities have to raise it from the country. 

 Therefore, to protect the farmers is to preserve your interests, and to 

 maltreat the farmers is to betray them.' 



In the oration numbered 47 the abuse dealt with is of a very different 

 kind. The date is 391 or 392, and the subject is the 'protections' 

 (patrociniaY of villages. The pressure of imperial taxation and the 

 abuses accompanying its collection had driven the villagers to seek 

 help in resisting the visits of the tax-gatherers. This help was generally 

 found in placing the village under the protection of some powerful 

 person, commonly a retired soldier, who acted as a rallying-centre and 

 leader, probably in most cases backed by some retainers of his own 

 class. Of course these men did not undertake opposition to the public 

 authorities for nothing. But it seems that their exactions were, at least 

 in the earlier stages, found to be less burdensome than those of the 

 official collectors. The situation thus created was, as follows. The local 



1 For such properties see cod Th X 3. 2 0iXav0/>wn-6Tare /ScunXeu. 



3 36 ypd/jifjiaffi, which I take to be = indictiones. 



4 In cod Th the title XI 24 is de patrociniis vicorum, and the laws range from 360 to 415. 

 Cod Just xi 54 shews that the evil was still in existence in 468. 



