CHAP. IX. TAXATION. 219 



Gaul by exacting twenty-five pieces of gold 1 for 

 the annual tribute of every head. The humane 

 policy of his successor reduced the capitation to 

 seven pieces. A moderate proportion between 

 these opposite extremes of extravagant oppres- 

 sion and of transient indulgence may therefore 

 be fixed at sixteen pieces of gold, or about 9 

 sterling, the common standard, perhaps, of the 

 impositions of Gaul." 



Though this task was imposed according to 

 the number of inhabitants, it seems only to have 

 comprehended the heads of families, and did 

 not include the slaves or feudal tenants, which, 

 as the land was chiefly cultivated by them, must 

 have formed a great majority of the inhabitants 

 of each province. The exactions of Constantine 

 upon the province of Gaul have been estimated 

 by Gibbon, who adopted his data from the Abb6 

 du Bos, at " seven millions sterling, which were 

 reduced to two millions by the humanity or 

 the wisdom of Julian." 



1 The aureus, or piece of gold, as calculated by Graves, 

 and sanctioned by Gibbon, was equal in value to the fifth 

 part of a pound of silver. The pound of gold, which had 

 been originally coined into forty pieces, was, in the time of 

 Constantine and his successors, formed into seventy-two 

 pieces. The Roman pound of gold contained 5256 grains ; 

 the English pound contains 5760 grains. If the Roman 

 pound of gold be estimated to be worth forty pounds of our 

 money, the aureus may be taken as somewhat more than 

 eleven shillings. Sec Gibbon, cap. xxvii. p. 89. 



