CHAP. vin. IN THE EMPIRE. 193 



Whether the revenue of Rome amounted to 

 more or less than forty millions, or how nearly 

 it approximated to that sum, is of less import- 

 ance to this .part of the subject of our inquiry, 

 than the mode in which it was brought to the 

 capital, and the means by which it was distri- 

 buted and put into circulation in the several 

 provinces which were connected with that ex- 

 tended empire. 



It is well known that the orders of Augustus 

 were that the tribute should be collected in 

 silver money, and transmitted to the imperial 

 treasury; but it is not credible that such a sum 

 as forty millions annually could have been con- 

 veyed from the distant provinces. The roads 

 were indeed extended to the limits of the em- 

 pire, but they were not calculated for wheel 

 carriages, and rarely used but by horsemen or 

 by the military. The silver must be brought 

 on the backs of horses, and the conveyance of 

 such a quantity of money would make the 

 arrival of horses loaded with silver alone amount 

 to one hundred thousand in each year. Much 

 of the money circulating in the provinces was 

 debased, and the money issued from some of 

 the provincial mints did not contain as much of 

 silver as of baser metal. This circumstance 

 would increase the weight of the sum to be 

 remitted, and consequently require an additional 

 number of horses. The provinces most remote 



VOL. i. o 



