ndition
of the cities of the empire, especially those which were on the shores
of the Mediterranean, even so late as the eighth century, Mr Finlay
gives the following account:--

"The strongest proof of the _wealth and prosperity of the_ CITIES _of
Greece_, even in the last days of the empire, is to be found in the
circumstance of their being able to fit out the expedition which
ventured to attempt wresting Constantinople from the grasp of a soldier
and statesman such as Leo the Isaurian was known to be, when the Greeks
deliberately resolved to overturn his throne. The _rural_ districts, in
the eighth century, were reduced to a _state of desolation_, and the
_towns were flourishing in wealth_. _Agriculture was at the lowest ebb,
and trade in a prosperous condition._"[29] Sismondi gives his valuable
testimony to the same effect:--"It was at this very time, _when industry
in the country was declining_, that the _towns_ of the provinces arrived
_at their highest degree of opulence_. Adrian excited the emulation of
their rich citizens, and he extended to the furthest extremities of the
empire the luxury of monuments and decorations, which had hitherto been
reserved for the illustrious cities which scorned to be the depots of
the civilisation of the world."[30] Such, in a few words, was the
condition, generally speaking, of all the part of the empire to the
north of the Mediterranean, in the decaying period of its existence. The
towns were every where flourishing; but it was in Africa, Sicily, and
Spain alone that agriculture was undecayed. And the decay and ruin of
rural industry, and of the inhabitants of the country to the north of
the Mediterranean, left them no adequate means of resisting the attacks
of the brave but artless barbarians, who there pressed upon the yielding
frontiers of the empire.

Coexistent with this fatal decline in the rural population and
agricultural industry, was the increase of _direct taxation_, which was
so keenly felt and loudly complained of in all the later stages of the
Roman history. This is a branch of the subject of the very highest
importance, because it leads to precisely the same conclusions, as to
the real causes of the fall of Rome, as the others which have been
already considered.

It is well known that when the Romans first conquered Macedonia, the
senate proclaimed a general liberation from taxes and imposts of every
kind to the Roman citizens, as the reward of their victories