81-78 B.C.

On the completion of his work Sulla abdicated the extraordinary office conferred on him by the Valerian law. Although endowed with absolute power, he had, in the case of many of his enactments, consulted the people or the senate. Consuls had been elected for 81 B.C.; and for the next year Sulla himself was consul with Quintus Metellus, retaining the regency, but without exercising it for the time. For 79 B.C. the elections were left entirely free, and early in that year he resigned the regency, dismissed his lictors, and invited any citizen who wished to call him to account to speak.

The family to which Sulla belonged had remained for many generations in comparative obscurity, and his character at first gave no promise of an extraordinary career. In person he was blue-eyed and of a fair complexion, with piercing eyes. His tastes made him incline to a life of cultivated luxury, sometimes descending to debauchery. He was a pleasant companion in city or in camp, and even in the days of the regency would unbend after the business of the day. One of the most curious traits in his character was a vein of cynicism, which showed itself in the playful but dangerous irony of many of his acts. Thus he ordered a donation from the spoil of the proscribed to be given to a wretched author who had written a panegyric upon him, upon condition of never singing his praises again. When he seized the treasures of the Greek temples he declared that the. man could never fail whose chest was replenished by the gods themselves. He displayed great vigor both of body and mind; even in his last years he was devoted to the chase, and after the conquest of Athens he could remember to bring with him the writings of Aristotle to Rome. In religion he followed the general tendency of the age towards unbelief and superstition. He flattered himself that he was the chosen favorite of the gods, and believed that he held intercourse with them in dreams and omens. When at the summit of his power he formally adopted the surname of Felix, and used it from that time forward.

Sulla's brilliant career seemed to come to him rather by caprice of fortune than by any seeking of his. He passed, like the ordinary aristocrat, through the usual routine of office; and in 107 B.C. the questorship under Marius in Africa fell to his lot. He soon made himself master of the military art, and, after the close of the Jugurthine war, performed the task of organizing supplies for the Roman army in the war with the Cimbri. During his pretorship,

81-78 B.C.

93 B.C., the first Roman victory over Mithradates and the first treaty with the Parthians took place. He took a prominent part in the social war, and, as consul, suppressed the Sulpician revolution with startling energy. Wherever Sulla and Marius had come into competition the result had always been loss of renown to the elder general and increase of reputation to the younger; and the revolution of 88 B.C., which ended in the outlawry and flight of Marius, gave to Sulla the most important position within the empire. Then came the Mithradatic war and the Cinnan revolution-and it was Sulla who crushed the enemies of Rome abroad and put down anarchy at home. Now absolute autocrat of the state, he abolished the Gracchan constitution which had fettered the oligarchy for forty years, and compelled all orders and classes to yield a common obedience to the law; he established the oligarchy with all the stability that laws and constitution can give, and provided it with a bodyguard and an army. He was one of the few generals who never lost a battle, nor in his political career was he ever compelled to retrace a single step.

There is nothing original in the character of Sulla's constitution; and the reason is to be found in the very nature of his work. His task was to restore, not to create: the germ at least of every one of his institutions existed before; they had grown up out of the previous régime, and were merely regulated and fixed by Sulla. But his constitution could not last, because of the worthlessness of the aristocracy. Sulla might erect a fortress, but could not create a garrison. The gratitude of posterity is due to the man who, in the course of his hopeless task, carried out such admirable isolated reforms as those of the Asiatic revenue system and of criminal justice.

The short remainder of his life was passed in the strictest retirement; in a little more than a year he died, at the age of sixty, in full vigor of body and mind. Immediately after his death voices were raised in opposition to the proposal of a public burial; but his memory was still too fresh, and he was honored with, perhaps, the grandest funeral procession Italy had ever seen.

Chapter XXV

ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE EMPIRE DURING THE REVOLUTION PERIOD. 133-78 B. C.

T

HE general tendency and result of the revolution period are evident from the history of the time and from the legislation of Sulla. The financial condition of the empire is worth more particular attention, and will furnish valuable evidence on many points with regard to the social and political relations of the time.

The revenues paid into the state treasury may be divided into two classes: those received from Italy and those contributed by the various provinces.

With regard to the former, the land-tax, with minor imposts upon Italians, had for some time been in abeyance; so that from the peninsula, including Cisalpine Gaul, the Roman exchequer drew nothing but the produce of the state lands, chiefly those in Campania, and of the gold mines in the North; customs dues on goods imported for trading purposes; and taxes levied on the manumission of slaves.

The provinces furnished two sources of revenue to the government, the proceeds from state lands and the returns from taxation. The state lands comprised the territory belonging to cities destroyed by martial law, such as Leontini, Carthage, and Corinth; and domain lands which had belonged to former rulers dispossessed by the Romans, such as the lands of the kings of Macedonia, Pergamus, Cyrene, and the mines in Spain. All such property was leased, like the state lands in Italy, by the state to tenants, and the rents formed a large part of the public revenue.

Within the bounds of the empire there were some states, like the kingdoms of Numidia and Cappadocia, which were recognized as fully sovereign and independent; there were others, like Rhodes, Massilia, and Gades, which enjoyed a free and equal alliance by special treaty with Rome. Both classes were exempt from ordinary taxation, and were merely bound to supply ships and men at their

133-78 B.C.

own expense in time of war. Besides these there were a few scattered cities, like Narbo, on which the Roman franchise had been specially conferred; and others, such as Centuripa in Sicily, which were specially exempted from taxation; but with these four exceptions the whole extent of the empire contributed to the Roman exchequer by a regular system of taxation which fell under three principal heads:

First, the decumae and scriptura. The former was a tenth of the produce of arable land; the latter, a corresponding tax upon pasture land. Of these kinds were the taxes levied in the fertile. islands of Sicily and Sardinia.

Second, the stipendium, or tributum-i. e., a fixed sum paid annually by a community to the Roman exchequer, amounting, for Macedonia, to about $120,000 of our money; for Gyaros, a small island near Andros, to about $31. This tax was usually lower than that paid by the community to its former rulers before the Roman conquest: the amount was fixed by the Roman authorities, while the magistrates of each community were responsible for collecting and paying over the amount to the Roman treasury.

Third, the customs. The Romans recognized the right of each community to levy its own customs at its own ports and frontiers, and made no attempt to set up a general tariff for the whole empire. Dues were levied by the Romans themselves at all the ports of Italy; most of the subject communities in the same way levied dues on their own frontiers, which would have to be paid even by Roman citizens, unless special exemption was secured by treaty. But in the provinces proper, like Sicily and Asia, where the Roman state was sole ruler and sovereign, the customs, of course, went into the imperial coffers. The amount raised was five per cent. on all imports or exports in Sicily, and two and a half in Asia. The customs, like the decumae and scriptura, were invariably leased to tax farmers.

These, with the unimportant item of tolls from roads, bridges, canals, etc., were the only regular taxes imposed upon the provincials by the Roman government. But they are far from representing the full amount of the burdens borne by the provinces.

In the first place, the expenses of collection were large; so that the amount paid by the contributors was much greater than that received by the government. Collection by middlemen is. well known to be the most expensive system of all; and at Rome the

133-78 B.C.

lettings were so large that only a few capitalists could undertake them, and consequently the competition was small, and the profits of the lessees large.

Secondly, there were the military requisitions in time of war, frequently, also, in time of peace. Legally, all transport pay and provisions for the soldiers were provided by the Roman government; the provincial communities had only to furnish housing, wood, hay, and such things. But in time of war the governor demanded from them grain, ships, money, or anything he required; and though such requisitions were considered as advances to be made good by the government, yet practically they became a serious burden. This is proved by frequent laws restricting requisitions, fixing their maximum amount and the rate of compensation. At extraordinary times of course requisitions assumed the form of punishment, as when Sulla compelled the subjects of Asia to give fortyfold pay to every common soldier among them, and seventyfive fold to every centurion.

Thirdly, there were all kinds of extortions, legal or illegal, for which the Roman official had ample opportunity. The right of requisition, the free quartering of soldiers and of the clerks and lictors and innumerable officials in the train of a Roman governor, gave him sufficient pretext for amassing a princely fortune. The existence of a standing commission for the trial of such offenses shows their frequency.

Lastly, it must be remembered that Rome undertook the military expenses only of her subjects: all other burdens-the maintenance of roads and buildings, the pay of fleets and of the local contingent to the Roman army-were supported by the subject community, and must have formed a considerable addition to their taxation. For instance, in Judea the Jews paid a tenth to their native princes in addition to the temple tribute and to their payments to Rome.

The general conclusion at which we must arrive with regard to provincial taxation is, that, though moderate in theory, it must have been extremely oppressive in practice.

The revenues of the empire were devoted either to military or administrative purposes. Roman taxation, like the tribute paid to Athens by her subject allies, was in the main meant to defray the expense of the military system alone. Hence its comparatively small amount, $10,275,000-only two-thirds of the annual revenue