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]

[Footnote 188: See Cod. Theod. l. xiii. tit. i. and iv.]

[Footnote 188a: The emperor Theodosius put an end, by a law. to this
disgraceful source of revenue. (Godef. 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
legalized licentiousness, had made representations on the subject to
the emperor. To induce him to tolerate it no longer, he offered his own
property to supply the diminution of the revenue. The emperor had the
baseness to accept his offer--G.]

[Footnote 189: Zosimus, l. ii. 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.]

[Footnote 190: Cod. Theod. l. xi. tit vii. leg. 3.]

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 Caesar 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. [191