ation was
repeated at the regular distance of fifteen years. The lands were
measured by surveyors, who were sent into the provinces; their nature,
whether arable or pasture, or vineyards or woods, was distinctly
reported; and an estimate was made of their common value from the
average produce of five years. The numbers of slaves and of cattle
constituted an essential part of the report; an oath was administered
to the proprietors, which bound them to disclose the true state of their
affairs; and their attempts to prevaricate, or elude the intention of
the legislator, were severely watched, and punished as a capital crime,
which included the double guilt of treason and sacrilege. A large
portion of the tribute was paid in money; and of the current coin of
the empire, gold alone could be legally accepted. The remainder of the
taxes, according to the proportions determined by the annual indiction,
was furnished in a manner still more direct, and still more oppressive.
According to the different nature of lands, their real produce in the
various articles of wine or oil, corn or barley, wood or iron, was
transported by the labor or at the expense of the provincials * to the
Imperial magazines, from whence they were occasionally distributed
for the use of the court, of the army, and of two capitals, Rome and
Constantinople. The commissioners of the revenue were so frequently
obliged to make considerable purchases, that they were strictly
prohibited from allowing any compensation, or from receiving in money
the value of those supplies which were exacted in kind. In the primitive
simplicity of small communities, this method may be well adapted to
collect the almost voluntary offerings of the people; but it is at once
susceptible of the utmost latitude, and of the utmost strictness, which
in a corrupt and absolute monarchy must introduce a perpetual contest
between the power of oppression and the arts of fraud. The agriculture
of the Roman provinces was insensibly ruined, and, in the progress of
despotism which tends to disappoint its own purpose, the emperors were
obliged to derive some merit from the forgiveness of debts, or the
remission of tributes, which their subjects were utterly incapable of
paying. According to the new division of Italy, the fertile and happy
province of Campania, the scene of the early victories and of the
delicious retirements of the citizens of Rome, extended between the
sea and the Apennine, from the