The steps to serfdom 425 



have nothing left to call their own, and are no longer their own masters. 

 Nay, it is even worse. For though they are admitted (to the rich 

 men's estates) as strangers (advenae), residence operates to make 

 them 1 natives of the place. They are transformed as by a Circe's cup. 

 The lord of the place, who admitted them as outside 2 aliens, begins to 

 treat them as his own (proprios) : and so men of unquestioned free 

 birth are being turned into slaves. When we are putting our brethren 

 into bondage, is it strange 3 that the barbarians are making bondsmen 

 of us? 



This is something beyond 4 mere partisan polemic. It finds the 

 source of misery and weakness in moral decay. Highly coloured, the 

 picture is surely none the less true. The degradation of the rustic 

 population presents itself in two stages. First, the farmer, still owning 

 his little farm (agellus, rescula), finds that, what with legal burdens and 

 illegal extortions, his position is intolerable. So he seeks the protection 5 

 of a powerful neighbour, who exploits his necessities. Apparently he 

 acquires control of the poor man's land, but contrives to do it in such 

 a form as to leave him still liable to payment of the imperial dues. 

 That this iniquity was forbidden 6 by law mattered not: corrupt officials 

 shut their eyes to the doings of the rich. From the curiales of the 

 several communities no help was to be looked for. Salvian declares 7 

 that they were tyrants to a man. And we must not forget that they 

 themselves were forced into office and held responsible for paying in 

 full the dues they were required to collect. The great machine ground 

 all, and its cruel effects were passed on from stronger to weaker, till 

 the peasant was reached and crushed by burdens that he could not 

 transmit to others. The second stage is the inevitable sequel. The 

 poor man's lot is more intolerable than before. His lesson is learnt, 

 and he takes the final step into the status of a rich man's colonus. 

 Henceforth his lord is liable 8 for his dues, but he is himself the lord's 



1 fiunt praeiudicio habitationis indigenae. That is, by prescription they acquire a new 

 origo. See cod Th v 17 (9) i, 2, 18 (ro), cod Just xi 64 2, 48 16. 



2 cxtraneos et alienos ; that is, belonging to someone else. 



3 et miramur si nos barbari capiunt, cittn fratres nostros faciamus esse captivos? 



4 I think de Coulangesis too severe on the rhetoric of Salvian (pp 141-3). After all, the 

 Codes do not give one a favourable picture of the later colonate, and the Empire did fall in 

 the West. 



5 This arrangement was especially frequent in the East. See on Libanius pp 400-1, 

 and cod Th xi 24 de patrociniis vicorum, cf cod Just xi 54. But so far as individuals were 

 concerned it was widespread. 



6 Seeck cites cod Th in i 2 [337], xi i 26 [399], 3 1-5 [319-391], and for the 

 legal tricks used to defeat the rule xi 3 3. 



7 de gub Dei v 18 quae enim sunt non modo urbes sed etiam municipia atque vici ubi 

 non quot curiales fuerint tot tyranni sunt? 



8 From adscribere, to record the liability of the lord, his coloni came to be called adscrip- 

 ticii. Weber Agrargeschich/e p 258. 



