the weight of his iron sceptre.

When all the provincials became liable to the peculiar impositions
of Roman citizens, they seemed to acquire a legal exemption from the
tributes which they had paid in their former condition of subjects. Such
were not the maxims of government adopted by Caracalla and his pretended
son. The old as well as the new taxes were, at the same time, levied in
the provinces. It was reserved for the virtue of Alexander to relieve
them in a great measure from this intolerable grievance, by reducing
the tributes to a thirteenth part of the sum exacted at the time of his
accession. It is impossible to conjecture the motive that engaged him
to spare so trifling a remnant of the public evil; but the noxious weed,
which had not been totally eradicated, again sprang up with the most
luxuriant growth, and in the succeeding age darkened the Roman world
with its deadly shade. In the course of this history, we shall be too
often summoned to explain the land tax, the capitation, and the heavy
contributions of corn, wine, oil, and meat, which were exacted from the
provinces for the use of the court, the army, and the capital.

As long as Rome and Italy were respected as the centre of government, a
national spirit was preserved by the ancient, and insensibly imbibed by
the adopted, citizens. The principal commands of the army were filled
by men who had received a liberal education, were well instructed in
the advantages of laws and letters, and who had risen, by equal steps,
through the regular succession of civil and military honors. To their
influence and example we may partly ascribe the modest obedience of the
legions during the two first centuries of the Imperial history.

But when the last enclosure of the Roman constitution was trampled down
by Caracalla, the separation of professions gradually succeeded to
the distinction of ranks. The more polished citizens of the internal
provinces were alone qualified to act as lawyers and magistrates. The
rougher trade of arms was abandoned to the peasants and barbarians of
the frontiers, who knew no country but their camp, no science but that
of war no civil laws, and scarcely those of military discipline. With
bloody hands, savage manners, and desperate resolutions, they sometimes
guarded, but much oftener subverted, the throne of the emperors.

Chapter VII: Tyranny Of Maximin, Rebellion, Civil Wars, Death Of
Maximin.--Part I.

The Elevation And Tyra