1 So, and I doubt not correctly, in our authorized English translation; the word in the original being yoke. However, Woodhouse and others after him would translate it, after its other signification, a yoke: observing that it is always so used in the New Testament; and that where it in meant to signify a pair of balances, there is generally added some other word in the context to suggest that meaning as intended.
Now surely, in regards the latter remark, one might have thought that the accompaniment of the word choenix would have been precisely all that the Dean needed, to determine him in favour of the meaning of balances in the passage before us.
As regards the former, if other words had been used in the New Testament in the sense of balances, to the exclusion of yoke, the argument would have had weight in proportion to the frequency of those instances. But the truth is, there is no mention of balances in one single passage in the New Testament, unless it be in this. So that the value of the argument is just nothing.
Thus a balance being a version of yoke; as legitimate and authorized in the sacred as well as the classic writers, as that of a yoke, the associated notice of a measure in the hieroglyphic, just as in that example above quoted from Ezekiel, might of itself induce a preference of the former rendering. Besides which (and I would beg the reader's attention to the fact), whereas in Roman usage, to which usage, as we have already seen, the apocalyptic symbols are strikingly conformed,-the balance holding was, as will be afterwards shewn, a very common symbol, that of a yoke holding was, if I am not mistaken, altogether unknown.-.Nor indeed is it so used in Scripture. In Jeremiah xxvii. 2, and xxviii. 10, we have an example of the prophet bearing upon his neck bonds and yokes, in type, passively, of the approaching oppression and captivity of Judah; but no where do we find the holding of a yoke- in the hand as a type, actively, of oppressing.
2 So Mede, ne sis injustus -. also Junius, as Brightman states, and Daubuz, and others. I shall give reasons afterwards in support of this reading.
3 So Scheidius in his edition of Lennep's Etymologicum Graecum; "tigura omnis excavata in quam aliquid infundi vel inseri potest."
4 The immediate subject of the Memoir (Tom. viii. pp. 377-401) is an inscription on a Roman standard weight yet remaining: in part as follows : " Imp. Caes. Vespas. 6 Cons Mensurie Exactoe in Capitolio P. x."-It seems that there was a correspondence between this weight and that of the congius, filled with rainwater as a measure of capacity. ln the course of the Memoir the learned Academician observes
5 It is defined as a measure equivalent to 3 cotylae by Pollux in his Onomasticon, iv. 3 ; by Table 7 in what are called the Fragments of Galen, and Table 10 published among the same Fragments from the Cosmetics of some one named Cleopatra.
6 The reason of my saying so is because the Attic choenix in specified by Thucydides iv. 16 as the or minimum of barley for a slave's daily sustenance; being the same doubtless that Herodotus also speaks of, vii. 187, as the daily ration of wheat to each of Xerxes' soldiers. And we learn both from Polybius vi. 39, and Cato De Re Rustica c. 56, (compare Terence's Phormio ii 9,) that the usual demensum or monthly allowance of corn to both the common soldier and the working slave was 4 modii; and consequently about the 8th part of a modius, L e. 2 sextarii, or 4 cotyin, the daily ration-This is the value given to the Attic chcenae, by Dr. Arnold, in Thucyd. among others. In the Thucydidean case some small measure of meat was allowed besides the barley.
7 The following is the statement in Pliny (Lib. xviii. Cap. 10). " Pretium huic, annona media, in modios farinae zi. asses: similagini castrate octonis assibus am. plius: siligini castratae duplum." On which Arbuthnot thus comments. " He tells us that the bread made of a modius of coarse flour cost 40 asses; of that which was entirely purged from the bran, or very fine flour, 48: and what was made of the flour of the siligo, or the finest of all, was double of the first. If we proceed according to our English manner, it will make the peck of the cheapest or household bread, 2s. 6d. 21/4 q, that of the wheaten bread 3s. Od. 23/4 q., and the finest 5s. I d. oiq., '-Now " the assize of wheaten bread in London is pretty near as 3 to 5 ; that is when wheat is 15d. the peck, the peck loaf is sold for 25d.
And, as the price of the middle sort of bread, which answers to our wheaten, according to Pliny, was 3s. od. 21q-reckoned according to the forementioned proportion, it will make wheat per quarter at 63s. 6d, as the common or middle price." So Dr. Arbuthnot; (Ancient Coins p. 122;) making the price in Pliny's time 2s. for a modius or peck.
I may observe that the proportion existing in his day between the prices of broad and corn still continues. Thus while I write, among the Prices Current I find wheat at 74s. a quarter; and bread at 9d, the 41b. loaf. Now, as a peck of wheat weighs on an average about 181/2 lb. (Arbuthnot, p. 89,) the weight of 32 pecks, or a quarter, is 181/2 x 32 lb., or 592 lb. Of which the present price being 74s, it is 74d. for one twelfth of 592 lb. i. e. for 49lb. Again, as the average price of bread is 9d. each 4lb.; that of 49lb. is about 110d. Hence the proportion between the prices of the same weight of wheat and of bread appears to be as 74 to 110d ; i. e. as 37 to 55, or 3 to 5 nearly.
I notice this in order to obviate a possible objection to Arbuthnot's calculation. The proportion seems to be one in the nature of things.
The calculation of prices from Pliny's statement may with advantage be made directly in terms of the denarius; the denarius, being, as it is observed by Arbuthnot, universally, in classic writings, the equivalent to ten asses. Thus, if we take Pliny's 48 asses, or about 5 denarii, as the average price of a modius of bread, we shall have 5 X 3/5----3 denarii, as the average price of a modius of wheat.
It is to be regretted that commentators on the passage before us should have given collectanea on the subject of the prices of corn from different countries, and different ages, mostly quite foreign to the case and time before them; the object being to make out a standard of average price of wheat aniong the ancients, much below the true price in St. John's time.
Thus Daubuz, for example, gives a quotation from the poet Martial, as an authority on the point; " Amphora vigessis; modius datur aere quaterno : " and he reasons as if the poet (who lived under Domitian) really intended to state four asses a modius, as the then market-price of wheat ! " It is mentioned," as Arbuthnot observes on the passage (p. 1251), " poetically! "
Again, to take the can of living expositors, Mr. Burgh (p. 155) speaks of " History telling us that in the time of plenty from 16 to 20 measures of com were given for the sum of a denarius." No doubt in the Carthaginian wars', 300 years before Domitian. But what had that to do with the price in Domitian's time? Hume speaks of 6s. 8d. a quarter of wheat, and 3s. 4d. of barley, being in our Henry the fifth's time the price of plenty.
What would Mr. B think, if any one were to make that the standard-price of plenty now? So again Dr. Wordsworth, p. 182; making the price in Cicero's time the standard.
Of authentic remaining notices of the prices of wheat in Roman pre-Apocalyptic history, we may remark that of Polybius, who reports that in the scarce times of the second Punic war wheat was at 15 denrii the medimnus, or two-fifths of a modius for a denarius; --- of the Cassian law, B.C. 73, rating it at one denarius the modius; of Cicero, in his Verreian Orations, rating it about the same;-and of Pliny, A. D, 79, whose testimony I have above given.
8 So Michaelis iv. 5 14 ; "When a choenix of wheat cost a denarius, it may be said that wheat was dear, but not that there was a famine."-We may compare here what Eusebius says in his Chronicon (i. p. 79, Scalig.) of the price of wheat in the. famine that opprest Greece in the 9th year of the emperor Claudius. i. e. that wheat was at 12 drachma (or denarii) the modius, or a denarius and a half for the Attic choenix; a price half as much again as the price in the text; and without any remarkable comparative cheapness in the barley to act as a counteractive and mitigant. Casar in his B. Civ., i. 52, speaks of the price of wheat rising in one of his campaigns to 50 denarii the modius.
9 As wheat of the medium quality was about 64s. a quarter in the time of St. John, (see the note from Pliny, 155 supra) barley would be at about 32s.
10 See my Note 1, p. 154 supra
11 The inference has been drawn from what is said of a denarius as the day's wages in the parable of the labourers in the vineyard, Matt. xx. 2 ; which proves that such was the case in the Jewish province, at the time when our Lord spoke the parable. It is indeed somewhat loose to argue thence to the general price of wages in other parts of the empire, and that at a period sixty years later. Yet as it seems that the pay of common soldiers in Julius Caesar's time was a denarius, and in Domitian's time restored to nearly that value, (see Arbuthnot's Ancient Coins, p. 180,) as well as from other data, it may perhaps be not unfairly argued that in the provinces generally the free labourers day-wages did, about St. John's time, not vary very materially from it.
12 Compare the quantity and quality allotted to Ezekiel, when appointed to typify a time of famine, Ex. 4:9, 10: " Take unto thee wheat and barley and beans and lentiles and millet and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof.. ..And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day." Now a shekel was about half an ounce, according to Calmet, Arbuthnot, (p. 37)&c. If so his daily ration of this bread (such as it was) was only ten ounces, or less than one-half of a choenix:-a choenix of wheat being about two pounds in weight; of barley a little less. Even at the shekel's higher value of 270 grains, assigned by some, as Arbuthnot tells us it would be but half a choenix.
13 How important in the Jewish world will be seen by turning to the many places in Scripture, where oil and wine are so mentioned, e. g. Deut. 7:13, 28:51, &c.
14 Let it be well marked that the whole address of the voice, like as from the throne, is to one and the same person, viz. the rider. " A choenix of wheat for a denarius; and see that thou, &c."
15 "They shall eat bread by weight, and with astonishment."
16 I See the notice of this very interesting monument, in Murray's Hand-Book for Rome p. 311. " The frieze still retains some fragments of bas-reliefs, representing the various operations of baking; from the-carrying the corn to the mill to the final weighing and distribution of the bread." It is ascribed to the age of Augustus.
17 Compare: the fitness of a personification such as by Cowper;
He calls for Famine; and the meager fiend
Blows poisonous mildew from his shriveled lips,
And taints the golden ear.
18 So Rost in his Grammar, as cited by my critic Mr. Arnold. " Since the accusative....Serves always to designate the object to which an action immediately passes over, it frequently stands also with intransitive verbs, and adjectives, containing a general expression; and indicates the part, or more definite object, to which the expression must be immediately and principally referred. This is called the accusative of nearer definition ' ; and is to be expressed in English by different prepositions especially by in, as to, in respect to"
19 In the three Apocalyptic examples of an accusative of the thing injured occurring in connection with the verb in the active sense of injury.
20 Cases of accusative neuter, in the sense of accusative of definition as to the matter wronged in, occur frequently i. e. that we should act unjustly in little things, in order to our acting justly in great things:"
I observe with some surprise as well as satisfaction, that Heintichs, the favourite expository referee of my objecting critic on this point, Mr. T. K. Arnold, prefers to construe the accusative as governed by kata understood, just as I do. After stating the apparent unsuitableness of the charge not to hurt the wine and oil to the character of the black horse's rider
21 Thus it is olives and vines that are marked out for God's judgments in the Old Testament.
22 It is a little amusing to read Dr. Moses Stewart's comment (ii. 155) on this; considering that, like so many others, he makes the seal figure famine. A difficult, if not as yet an inexplicable clause. Eichhorn indeed adopts a very easy method of interpretation; ' Positio mere ornans : ' . . . and remarks that a scarcity of wine and oil would contribute nothing towards creating famine. Yet," argues Dr. S. most justly, "is not olive oil one of the most nutritious of substances?
And would not wine contribute to the comfort of those who were undergoing starvation? "He adds; " What seems strange is that the mass of interpreters sicco pede eam sententiam prae tereunt, just as though no explanation were needed." What adds to the strangeness is that Dr. S. himself should, like others, have passed over the price of barley sicco pede. and in silence; though yet more decisive against famine being meant than even what is said of the wine and the oil.
23 Multitudes of Roman medals, of almost every emperor and every province of the empire, are extant, bearing the device of a pair of balances: and all, I believe, in symbolization of equity; excepting those relative to the coinage, and the goddess Moneta, where the primary intent of the figure is the weighing out of money. See the coin of Alexander Severus in my next Plate; and Rasche on Bilanx.
I observe in Papal medals of the Annona Pontificia, or distribution of corn in largess, that the balance is still one of the symbols made use of. See Bonanni, i 271.
24. i. 254 I have already quoted the commencement of the passage. "The dissolute tyranny of Commodus, the civil wars occasioned by his death, the new maxims of policy introduced by the house of Servus, all had contributed to increase the power of the army ... This internal change, which undermined the foundation of the empire, we have endeavored to explain with some degree of order and perspicuity.
The personal characters of the emperors, their victories, laws, follies, and fortunes, can interest us no further than as they are connected with the general history of the Decline and Fall of the monarchy. Our constant attention to that great object will not suffer us to overlook a most important edict of Antoninus Caracalla: "-that same of which I have now to speak ; and the results of which he proceeds to develop in connection with the subject of Roman taxation.
25 The Scripture reader may he reminded by the mention of this provincial money payment, of the question in Mark 7:14 ; " Is it lawful to give tribute ( the yearly census or poll tax) to Caesar?.... And he said. Bring me a denarius." In the parallel place of St. Matthew (22:17.) the same word is used; in Luke 22:22 So, again, Matt. 17:25 ; " From whom do the kings of the earth receive custom or tribute?
26 I refer especially to Salmasius and Gibbon. I doubt not to prove their opinion on the matter quite erroneous. See my Paper on this subject in the Appendix to the present Volume; or my Vindiciae Horariae on the 3rd Seal.
27 Gibb. L 252.
28 1b. i. 251
29 "His prudence was vain; his courage fatal." " The troops blushed at the patience with which they had supported the discipline imposed on them; and determined to elect for their prince one (Maximin), who would assert their glory, and distribute among his companions the treasures of the empire." ib. i. 249, 275. Compare what I have said of this emperor, with reference to the subject of the 2nd Seal, at p. 144 supra.
30 Barley, as well as wheat, was included in the required tributes from Sicily. Of it Cicero speaks more than once in his Orations against Verres.
Columella, in his Treatise De Re Rusti , (written about A.D. 42, in the reign of Claudius) speaks of wine as exacted from the Cyclades, Gaul, and Portugal. By Augustus there was drawn up a Canon frumentarius, stating the quantity of corn that each province was to pay. It is noted, with reference to the reign of Tiberius by Tacitus, Annal. vi. 13; of S. Severus by Spartian, c. 23; of Elagabalus by Lampridius, c. 27.
The corn collected in accordance with it was laid up in public granaries, both at Rome and in the provinces; from whence it was given out by the proper officers to the needy people and the soldiers gratuitously. Others might buy from the stores.
31 The laws ordaining this distribution of corn to the poorer citizens, gratuitously, or at a trifling price, were called Leges frumentaria,, corn. laws. Among the most famous was the Lex Sempronia by the celebrated T. S. Gracchus.
32 He said it was sufficient to have provided aqueducts that furnished them with good water. (Suetonius Vit. August. c. 42.) Similarly it was said by Pescennius Niger, about two centuries afterwards, to his mutinying troops in Egypt.
33 Whether he fulfilled his intention does not seem certain. The aggravation thus caused was large. The extent of imports into Rome alone " for the use of the court, army, and capital," of this fiscal corn and oil under the emperors, is illustrated by certain specifications that we find in the younger Victor and Spartian.
The former, in his life of Augustus, says that from Egypt alone " " i. e. twenty million of modii, or between 600. 000 and 700,000 quarters : a quantity increased by Tiberius. (Tac. Ann. vi. 13.) The latter, c. 23, thus writes; " The annual distribution of the government corn at Rome only would thus be about 850,000 quarters. The public allowance for Alexandria, as fixed by Diocletian, is stated in the Paschal Chronicle, (referred to by Gibbon ii. 136,) at 400,000 quarters. Other great cities also partook of the bounty. And then there were the great frontier armies too to be supplied.
34 i. 268.-The words " sprang up again" arose out of Gibbon's erroneous impression that Alexander Severus succeeded in effecting a very material temporary reduction in the produce taxation : 'that same error to which I allude Note ' p. 163. The metaphor darkened is of course as applicable to Caracalla's time as to Dinocletian's.
35 See for a more particular notice of these public officers Note 4 p. 175.-Sigonius de Provinc. if. 5, arranges the duties of the Provincial Prasides or Proconsuls, generally speaking, under three chief heads :-that concerning the jus, or judicial matters; that concerning the res fruntentaria, or corn; and that concerning the military of the province.
36 Middleton, in his Life of Cicero, (Sect. ii,) speaking of Sicily, and the times of the Roman Republic, observes that the tenth of the corn in all the conquered towns of Sicily belonged to the Romans ; which was always gathered in kind, and sent to Rome : also that. as this was insufficient for the public use, the Prietors had an appointment also of money from the treasury, to purchase such further stores as were necessary for the current year.-And Burmann De Vectigal. pp. 41, 42 ' speaks of the same right and custom of purchasing, as prevalent too in imperial times, and with reference to the Provinces generally.
Money payments were, however, sometimes taken by the Provincial Governor, in lieu of payments in kind: "a method," says Gibbon, iii. s6) " susceptible of the utmost latitude, and of the utmost strictness : and which, in a corrupt and absolute monarchy, must introduce a perpetual contest between the power of oppression and the arts of fraud."
37 In the times of the Republic there were enacted the following laws de repetundis U. C. 604 Lex (Atipurnia; by which trials for extortion were made one of the four Quaestiones perpetuse : i. e. one of the six Judicial Prmtors, annually chosen, was through the year to devote himself to the trial of those causes.
-627 Lex Junia ; by which, besides the litis erstimatio, and damages, the officer convicted was to suffer banishment.
-653 Lex Servilia, ordaining severer penalties than before against extortion but permitting that the defendant should have a second hearing.
-683 Lex Acilia; by which the defendant's right of a second hearing was abrogated.
-694 Lex Julia, by Julius Caesar; of which there were above 100 heads, some very severe.
38 It should be observed that the genitive of price, as we have it in the text, is applicable both to buying and selling. It is used of buying, Acts 7:16, of selling, Matt. 26:9, " This ointment " and is generally a term of value.
39 Definito pretio," occurs frequently in the Roman imperial laws. So Burmann De Vectigal. (p. 41, 42) says that the emperors were wont , when more corn was wanted than the tribute in kind supplied. He adds, with reference to the price enjoined by just or unjust emperors.
40 Ps. 89:14.
41" Thou shalt not steal." Thou shalt not defraud. " A just weight and a just balance are from the Lord." Again, Deut. xxv. 13 ; " Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights; " (Hebr. a stone and a stone) one, heavy, to buy with, another, light, to sell with: but only one stone," or one true weight.
42 Compare Nu. 7:89 " When Moses went into the tabernacle of the congregation, then he heard the voice of one speaking to him from off the mercy-seat that was upon the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim."
43 I had originally supposed the choenix of 8 cotylae to be distinctively the one used at Rome; being led to this impression by the French Academician's speaking of it as a measure " naturalisee a Rome." But on reverting to the Memoir I see that he only so speaks of it in common with the other choenixes ; and both the more ancient testimonies of Herodotus, Thucydides, Thcocritus, and also. under the emperors, those of Athenaeus and Galen, testify to the general diffusion and notoriety of the Attic choenix throughout the Roman world.
44 The Emperor Julian, about the middle of the fourth century, states in his Misopogan that the price of wheat was 5, 10, or 15 modii for an aureus, according as it was a time of plenty or scarcity. Now the aureus equaled at that time 11s. " Whence," says Gibbon, (iv. 146,) " and from collateral sources, I conclude that under Constantine's successors the moderate price was about 32s. a quarter;" i. e. just half the price of Pliny. Prices probably attained their maximum in the Roman empire about the end of the first century.
45 In proof I subjoin extracts to this effect from Professor Wurm's Book on the Ancient Weights and Measures; and also from Eckhel.
46 Eckhel, Vol. i. Prolegom. p. xxvii. Niebahr also remarks on this, in his History of Rome (Ed. Schmitz) Vol. ii. p. 358, with reference to a later part of the 3rd century : and Ducange notes from Pollio the brass denard of the emperor Aurelian; of which "sex millia, solidum condciebant." It is by this adulteration, and great depreciation of the value of the denarius, that the high prices of produce given in the Stratonicean inscription are alone to be explained. The inscription is an imperial decree, stating the maximum of prices in terms of the denarius; and is given in full by Col. LeLke, in his tour in Asia Minor, p. 331. It was probably of the time of Diocletian. And Lactantius, in his M. P. 7, both admirably illustrates, and is admirably illustrated by it. But this is with reference to a time 60 years after Alex. Severus.
47 At that one era. almost distinctively and alone. For under the first Severus the current denarius would have been probably more than the average price ; under Gallienus less. See the extract from Wurm in the Note preceding; stating the adulteration under the former emperor to have been to the value of but one half, under Gallienus of four-fifths.
48 Such was the proportion after the ending of the famine in Samaria. (2 Kings 7: 1, 16.) The same is noted by Cicero as the proportion in Sicily at the time of VerrW Praetorship (Lib. iii. in Verrem): " Quaternis H. S. tritici modium, binis hordei." It is nearly the proportion also in our-own country : at least according to statistical tables of prices for the list forty-seven years, J. e. from 1790 to 1837; the exact average proportion being as 87 to 160.
Daubuz broaches a curious theory, to the effect that the comparative cheapness of barley noted in the vision, as compared with that of wheat, was a sign of scarcity. His argument is quite unintelligible to me, and is indeed refuted by fact. From the above-mentioned tables it will appear that the lower or higher ratio of the price of barley to that of wheat, has no connection either with the fact of plenty or scarcity. In some of the years included in the tables, I may observe, the comparative price of barley was much lower than as I to 2; e. g. in 1816, it was as I to above 21/2. Fleetwood, in his Chronicon Pretiosum, gives examples of price from our earlier British history; in some of which the proportion is as low as I to 3, the same as in the text.
49 It is said that Alexander Severus replaced all the corn which Heliogsbalus had wasted. See too his appeal to the mutinying soldiers, on the subject of his procurstions for them. The word here used by the historian, in relation thereto is indeed annona; ("acceptarn k provincialibus annonam;" Lamprid. 53;) a word including barley. But, as the procuration was for the citizens of Rome and the army,-and by the former barley- bread was despised, and with the latter to be fed on barley, " hordeo pasci," was a military punishment,-we may safely conclude that the procurations were in by far the largest proportion of wheat. This would of course raise the price of wheat somewhat disproportionately.
Doubtless it was the despised barley-bread on which Christ often fed. " We have here five barley-loaves."
50 See the very interesting and learned Dissertation of the Jesuit Father Secchi
51 In the Codex Theodosianus, intermixed with stringent laws for the due gathering of the tributes of wine and oil, as well as of corn, we find not merely such cautions about a fair price for the corn as were exemplified by me pp. 167, 168 supra ; but generally against all extortion, injustice, and oppression of the people, in the collection of the various tributes.
These monitory laws appear from their language to have arisen generally out of complaints against the imperial officers. A circumstance this which is illustrated by what. Spartian (c. 13,) says of the emperor Hadrian's energetic proceedings against unjust and oppressive Provincial Governors in his reign. It will be observed that there is this distinction in the Apocalyptic monition, with, reference to the wheat and barley on the one hand, and the wine and oil on the other, that a price is named for the former only.
I presume that this may have been because, besides the provincial tributes of corn, a vast quantity had frequently to be bought for the imperial service. But the wants of wine and oil were for the most part abundantly supplied. by the tributes; and no buying of them consequently requisite.
52 So the Oneirocritic cited in Daubuz: " If one see in vision a balance, it indicates a judge." And Job 31:6 ; " Let him weigh me in balances of justice." Marg. i. e. as a judge.
53 The medals are noticed by Eckhel also in his 5th Volume, pp. 153, 233, 159,235. -It seems that the first has the name of Metellus Pius Scipio Imp. on the other side ; P. Crassus Junius having been his Legatus Pro Praetore, at the time when he was contending for the empire in Africa with Caesar, as the head of the Pompeians after the battle of Pharsalia.-The second has inscribed on its other side the names of the Quastors Piso and Coepio; who were appointed by the Senate, some time during the Republic, to buy corn. The third has the name of L. Regulus Prator. The precise date of the two last is uncertain.
54 See Tac. Ann. xii. 60-There were Praerfecti Annonoe at Rome, over the important department of the annona. Augustus himself once undertook the office. But it was the Provincial Governors, with whom of course the Praefecti Annona were in communication, that had to superintend the matter in the Provinces.
Of these Provincial Governors the generic title, I believe, was Praesides Provinciarum; though the appellation had property a more restricted meaning. It seems that besides the greater Provinces, governed either by the Emperor's Legati Pro Praefore or the Senate's Proconsuls, there were other smaller or less important Provinces.
In the former or larger Provinces, besides the Proprietors or Proconsuls, there were the Procuratores Caesaris, high officers charged specially with the care of the revenue; in connection however with, and in a measure subordinate to, the superior Governors. In the latter or inferior Provinces the Procurator was himself the Praeses or Governor.
Under these Praesides there were of course subordinate officers for the collection of the tributes. In the Provinces governed by higher Officers the Procurators had jurisdiction only in fiscal causes, the supreme Governor having the supreme and general jurisdiction. In the other Provinces they had of course the whole jurisdiction in their hands.
55 Shakespeare, Henry IV (2nd Pt.) Act v. Sc. 2.
56 It may illustrate the subject of the Seal, as well as Gibbon's language here quoted, if we observe that in Sicily, when the wheat-procurations were required from the islanders, the market-price being not above one denarius the modius, Verres exacted three denarii from some of them as a money equivalent for each modius due. Cicero in Frument. Verr.
57 Hosea 7:7.-The old Apocalyptic Expositor Tichonius, in his 6th Homily on the Revelations, expresses very much the same view of the rider's falsification of this symbol of equity."
58 Alex. Severus' admiration of Christian morality is well known ; and will be noted by me again under the fifth Seal.
59 See p. 164 supra I see that Mosheim, in his Church History, i. 1. 1. 2, has a paragraph on the incommoda of the Roman empire: and in it makes the evil treated of under this Seal a prominent subject; contrastedly (as here) with the equity of the Roman law, which in vain sought to furnish a defense against it. "
The Roman government, with respect both to its form and laws, was mild and equitable. But the injustice and avarice of the Provincial Governors.... together with the rapacity of the publicans, by whom the taxes of the country (vectigalia) were farmed, were the source and occasion of innumerable grievances to the people." Again Murphy, the translator of Tacitus, speaks in the same strong manner of " the rapacity of the imperial Procurators, as among the causes that finally wrought the downfall of the empire.
60 In Vopiscus Life of Aurelian. c. 47, 48, we read of vast fertile tracts in Etruria, along the Aurelian way, even then lying desolate. See Note 4 p. 185. With reference to a later period, Gibbon, iii. 87, states that sixty years after the death of Constantine, and before a barbarian had been seen in Italy, an exemption from taxes was granted for 330,000 acres in the fertile province of Campania, that is for one-eighth part of the whole province, as being by actual survey ascertained to be desert : and he ascribes it to the long impoverishing effect of fiscal oppressions; of the aggravation of which this prophetic figuration marks a chief aera.-It is to be observed. that Italy was reduced, about the end of the third century, to a level in respect of taxation with the other provinces. Aur. Victor xxxix 31.
61 In speaking of a humane law of Constantine, made early in his reign with a view to remedy the evil, Gibbon observes as follows. " The horrid practice of exposing and murdering their new-born infants was become every day more frequent in the provinces, and especially in Italy. It was the effect of distress : and the distress was principally occasioned by the intolerable burden of taxes; and by the vexatious as well as cruel prosecutions of the officers of the revenue against their insolvent debtors.
The less opulent, or less industrious,.. instead of rejoicing in an increase of family, deemed it an act of paternal tenderness to release their children from the impending miseries of a life which they were themselves unable to support The humanity of Constantine, moved perhaps by some recent and extraordinary instances of despair, engaged him to address an edict to all the cities of Italy, and afterwards of Africa, directing instant relief to those parents who should produce before the magistrates the children whom their own poverty would not allow their to educate." Vol. il. 250.
62 " Let them come then those barbarians! " So Michelet; Hist. de France, in sketch of the feelings of the French peasantry ground down by taxation, on the Gothic barbarians' first irruption.