The horrors of the census 42 1 



an enemy invades a country and enslaves the inhabitants. There was 

 measuring of fields clod by clod, counting of vines and fruit trees, 

 cataloguing of every sort of animals, recording of the human 1 heads. 

 In the municipalities (civitatibus) the common folk of town and country 

 put on the same 2 footing, everywhere the marketplace crammed with 

 the households assembled, every householder with his children and 

 slaves. The sounds of scourging and torturing filled the air. Sons were 

 being strung up to betray parents ; all the most trusty slaves tortured 

 to give evidence against their masters, and wives against husbands. 

 If all these means had failed, men were tortured for evidence against 

 themselves, and when they broke down under the stress of pain they 

 were credited with admissions 3 never made by them. No plea of age 

 or infirmity availed them: informations were laid against the invalids 

 and cripples: the ages of individuals were recorded by guess, years 

 added to those of the young and subtracted from those of the old. All 

 the world was filled with mourning and grief.' In short, Romans and 

 Roman subjects were dealt with as men of old dealt with conquered 

 foes. 'The next step was the paying 4 of moneys for heads, a ransom 

 for a life. But the whole business was not entrusted to the same body 

 of officials (censitoribus) ; one batch was followed by others, who were 

 expected to make further discoveries: a continual doubling of demands 

 went on, not that they discovered more, but that they made additions 

 arbitrarily, for fear they might seem to have been sent to no purpose. 

 All the while the numbers of live stock were falling, and mankind 

 dying ; yet none the less tribute was being paid on behalf of the dead, 

 for one had to pay for leave to live or even to die. The only survivors 

 were the beggars from whom nothing could be wrung, immune for the 

 time from wrongs of any sort by their pitiful destitution.' He goes on 

 to declare that, in order to prevent evasion of the census on pretence 

 of indigence, a number of these poor wretches were taken out to sea 

 and drowned. 



In this picture 5 we may reasonably detect high colouring and 

 perhaps downright exaggeration. Probably the grouping together of 

 horrors reported piecemeal from various quarters has given to the 

 description as a whole a somewhat deceptive universality. That the 

 imperial system, though gradually losing ground, held its own against 



1 hominum capita. In most provinces the taxable unit was fixed by taking account of 

 the number of able-bodied on each estate as well as of the acreage. Seeck n 266 foil, also 

 Schatzitng^ 285-7. 



2 The urban taxation was conducted in each town by the local decemprimi, aldermen, 

 and was quite distinct. 



3 adscribebantur quae non habebantur may mean * were put on the record as owning what 

 they did not own.' 



4 pecuniae pro capitibus pendebantur. The capita here seem to have a double sense. 

 6 De Coulanges pp 75-6 treats it severely on the score of Christian prejudice. 



