A.D. 330-334. THE CAPITATION. 341 number of half a million; and if, in the ordinary administration of government, their annual payments may be computed at about four millions and a half of our money, it would appear that, although the share of each individual was four times as considerable, a fourth part only of the modern taxes of France was levied on the Imperial province of Gaul. The exactions of Constantius may be calculated at seven millions sterling, which were reduced to two millions by the humanity or the wisdom of Julian." Capitation But this tax or capitation on the proprietors of land would have suffered a rich and numerous class of free citizens to escape. With the view of sharing that species of wealth which is on trade and derived from art or labour, and which exists in money or in merchandise, the emperors imposed a distinct and personal tribute The preceding account of the taxation of Gaul needs correction in several points. The words of Eumenius, to which Gibbon refers in note 186, are,-" Septem millia capitum remisisti, quintam amplius partem nostrorum censuum. . . . Remissione ista septem millium capitum, viginti quinque millibus dedisti vires, dedisti opem, dedisti salutem," &c. The word capita in this passage means pieces of land; and Gibbon supposes that there were 25,000 capita in the land of the Edui, of which 7000 were exempted by Constantine from taxation, thus reducing the number to 18,000. This interpretation has been adopted by all subsequent writers down to Savigny, who, however, has shown that there were originally 32,000 capita, which were reduced to 25,000 by Constantine. The words "quintam amplius partem" would be inadmissible if Gibbon's interpretation were correct, since 7000 is even more than the fourth part of 25,000. Adopting Gibbon's statistics, that the population of France in his time was, in round numbers, 24,000,000 (note 182), and that the ancient district of the Edui contained, in round numbers, half a million of inhabitants (note 184), it follows that this district was about a fortyeighth part of the territory of modern France. Consequently, as Constantine fixed 25,000 capita as the right proportion for the land of the Ædui, there were 1,200,000 capita in all France. This is very different from the calculation of Gibbon, who makes the capita only 500,000; but this erroneous calculation arises from two causes: 1. He makes the capita of the Edui 18,000, instead of 25,000. 2. He supposes the territory of the Adui to have contained in his time 800,000 inhabitants, a thirtieth part of the population of France (18,000 ×30=540,000), industry. although he has himself considered this number as less probable than 500,000. (See notes 184, 185.) Since each caput paid before Julian's administration 127. 10s., and under his administration 37. 10s. (see note, p. 338), and supposing there were 1,200,000 capita in France, it follows that the taxation of the whole country amounted, according to the higher assessment, to 15,000,0007.; according to the lower, to 4,200,000l. This calculation, however, is founded on the supposition that the reduction by Constantine of the capita of the Edui to 25,000 only placed the Edui on a level with their neighbours; but if this reduction was an act of favour, or rested on special circumstances, as Eumenius intimates, the capita of France would have to be calculated according to the 32,000 capita of the Ædui, and would in that case amount to 1,536,000. Hence the higher taxation would be 19,200,000/.; the lower, 5,376,000l. In France, in the year 1818, the landtax proper (contribution foncière en principal) amounted to 172,703,000 francs, or very nearly seven millions sterling, being more than the smaller amount above mentioned, but considerably less than the larger. Gibbon calculates that the capita yielded four millions and a half sterling; and since the revenue of France was in his time 18 millions, he concludes that "a fourth part only of the modern taxes of France was levied on the province of Imperial Gaul;" but in this calculation he makes the great error of comparing the whole taxes of modern France with a single tax in the Roman empire, since he omits not only the polltax, which he did not recognise, but also all indirect taxes. See Savigny, ut supra. -S. 342 a THE LUSTRAL CONTRIBUTION. CHAP. XVII. on the trading part of their subjects.188 Some exemptions, very strictly confined both in time and place, were allowed to the proprietors who disposed of the produce of their own estates. Some indulgence was granted to the profession of the liberal arts; but every other branch of commercial industry was affected by the severity of the law. The honourable merchant of Alexandria, who imported the gems and spices of India for the use of the western world; the usurer, who derived from the interest of money a silent and ignominious profit; the ingenious manufacturer, the diligent mechanic, and even the most obscure retailer of a sequestered village, were obliged to admit the officers of the revenue into the partnership of their gain; and the sovereign of the Roman empire, who tolerated the profession, consented to share the infamous salary of public prostitutes. As this general tax upon industry was collected every fourth year, it was styled the Lustral Contribution: and the historian Zosimus 189 laments that the approach of the fatal period was announced by the tears and terrors of the citizens, who were often compelled by the impending scourge to embrace the most abhorred and unnatural methods of procuring the sum at which their poverty had been assessed. The testimony of Zosimus cannot indeed be justified from the charge of passion and prejudice; but, from the nature of this tribute, it seems reasonable to conclude that it was arbitrary in the distribution, and extremely rigorous in the mode of collecting. The secret wealth of commerce, and the precarious profits of art or labour, are susceptible only of a discretionary valuation, which is seldom disadvantageous to the interest of the treasury; and as the person of the trader supplies the want of a visible and permanent security, the payment of the imposition, which, in the case of a land-tax, may be obtained by the seizure of property, can rarely be extorted by any other means than those of corporal punishments. The cruel treatment of the insolvent debtors of the state is attested, and was perhaps mitigated, by a very humane edict of Constantine, who, disclaiming the use of racks and of scourges, allots a spacious and airy prison for the place of their confinement. 190 188 See Cod. Theod. 1. xiii. tit. i. and iv. 189 Zosimus, 1. ii. [c. 38] p. 115. There is probably as much passion and prejudice in the attack of Zosimus as in the elaborate defence of the memory of Constantine by the zealous Dr. Howell. Hist. of the World, vol. ii. p. 20. 190 Cod. Theod. 1. xi. tit. vii. leg. 3. a The emperor Theodosius put an end, by a law, to this disgraceful source of revenue. (Godefroy ad Cod. Theod. xiii. tit. i. c. 1.) But before he deprived himself of it, he made sure of some way of replacing this deficit. A rich patrician, Florentius, indignant at this legalised li centiousness, had made representations on i A.D. 330-334. FREE GIFTS. 343 Free gifts. These general taxes were imposed and levied by the absolute authority of the monarch; but the occasional offerings of the coronary gold still retained the name and semblance of popular consent. It was an ancient custom that the allies of the republic, who ascribed their safety or deliverance to the success of the Roman arms, and even the cities of Italy, who admired the virtues of their victorious general, adorned the pomp of his triumph by their voluntary gifts of crowns of gold, which, after the ceremony, were consecrated in the temple of Jupiter, to remain a lasting monument of his glory to future ages. The progress of zeal and flattery soon multiplied the number, and increased the size, of these popular donations; and the triumph of Cæsar was enriched with two thousand eight hundred and twenty-two massy crowns, whose weight amounted to twenty thousand four hundred and fourteen pounds of gold. This treasure was immediately melted down by the prudent dictator, who was satisfied that it would be more serviceable to his soldiers than to the gods his example was imitated by his successors; and the custom was introduced of exchanging these splendid ornaments for the more acceptable present of the current gold coin of the empire. The spontaneous offering was at length exacted as the debt of duty; and, instead of being confined to the occasion of a triumph, it was supposed to be granted by the several cities and provinces of the monarchy as often as the emperor condescended to announce his accession, his consulship, the birth of a son, the creation of a Cæsar, a victory over the barbarians, or any other real or imaginary event which graced the annals of his reign. The peculiar free gift of the senate of Rome was fixed by custom at sixteen hundred pounds of gold, or about sixty-four thousand pounds sterling. The oppressed subjects celebrated their own felicity that their sovereign should graciously consent to accept this feeble but voluntary testimony of their loyalty and gratitude.192 Conclusion. A people elated by pride, or soured by discontent, is seldom qualified to form a just estimate of their actual situation. The subjects of Constantine were incapable of discerning the decline of genius and manly virtue, which so far degraded them below the dignity of their ancestors; but they could feel and lament the rage of tyranny, the relaxation of discipline, and the increase of taxes. The impartial historian, who acknowledges the justice of their 1o See Lipsius de Magnitud. Romanâ, 1. ii. c. 9. The Tarragonese Spain presented the emperor Claudius with a crown of gold of seven, and Gaul with another of nine, hundred pounds weight. I have followed the rational emendation of Lipsius. 192 Cod. Theod. I. xii. tit. xiii. The senators were supposed to be exempt from the Aurum Coronarium; but the Auri Oblatio, which was required at their hands, was precisely of the same nature. 344 CONCLUSION. CHAP. XVII. complaints, will observe some favourable circumstances which tended to alleviate the misery of their condition. The threatening tempest of barbarians, which so soon subverted the foundations of Roman greatness, was still repelled, or suspended, on the frontiers. The arts of luxury and literature were cultivated, and the elegant pleasures of society were enjoyed, by the inhabitants of a considerable portion of the globe. The forms, the pomp, and the expense of the civil administration contributed to restrain the irregular licence of the soldiers, and although the laws were violated by power, or perverted by subtlety, the sage principles of the Roman jurisprudence preserved a sense of order and equity unknown to the despotic governments of the East. The rights of mankind might derive some protection from religion and philosophy; and the name of freedom, which could no longer alarm, might sometimes admonish, the successors of Augustus, that they did not reign over a nation of Slaves or Barbarians, 193 193 The great Theodosius, in his judicious advice to his son (Claudian. in iv. Consulat. Honorii, 214, &c.), distinguishes the station of a Roman prince from that of a Parthian monarch. Virtue was necessary for the one; birth might suffice for the other, A.D. 323-337. CHARACTER OF CONSTANTINE. 345 CHAPTER XVIIL CHARACTER OF CONSTANTINE. GOTHIC WAR. DEATH OF CONSTANTINE. DIVISION OF THE EMPIRE AMONG HIS THREE SONS. PERSIAN WAR.-TRAGIC DEATHS OF CONSTANTINE THE YOUNGER AND CONSTANS.- USURPATION OF MAGNENTIUS.-CIVIL WAR.-VICTORY OF CONSTANTIUS. THE character of the prince who removed the seat of empire, and introduced such important changes into the civil and religious Character of constitution of his country, has fixed the attention, and Constantine. divided the opinions, of mankind. By the grateful zeal of the Christians the deliverer of the church has been decorated with every attribute of a hero, and even of a saint; while the discontent of the vanquished party has compared Constantine to the most abhorred of those tyrants who, by their vice and weakness, dishonoured the Imperial purple. The same passions have, in some degree, been perpetuated to succeeding generations, and the character of Constantine is considered, even in the present age, as an object either of satire or of panegyric. By the impartial union of those defects which are confessed by his warmest admirers, and of those virtues which are acknowledged by his most implacable enemies, we might hope to delineate a just portrait of that extraordinary man, which the truth and candour of history should adopt without a blush. But it would soon appear that the vain attempt to blend such discordant colours, and to reconcile such inconsistent qualities, must produce a figure monstrous rather than human, unless it is viewed in its proper and distinct lights by a careful separation of the different periods of the reign of Constantine. 1 His virtues. The person, as well as the mind, of Constantine had been enriched by nature with her choicest endowments. His stature was lofty, his countenance majestic, his deportment graceful; his strength and activity were displayed in every manly exercise, and, from his earliest youth to a very advanced season of life, he preserved the vigour of his constitution by a strict adherence to the domestic virtues of chastity and temperance. He delighted in the social intercourse of familiar conversation; and though he might On ne se trompera point sur Constantin en croyant tout le mal qu'en dit Eusèbe, et tout le bien qu'en dit Zosime. Fleury, Hist. Ecclésiastique, tom. iii. p. 233. Eusebius and Zosimus form indeed the two extremes of flattery and invective. The intermediate shades are expressed by those writers whose character or situation variously tempered the influence of their religious zeal. |