able 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 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
property 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
labor, 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.

These general taxes were imposed and levied by the absolute authority
of the monarch; but the occasional offerings of the coronary goldstill
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