sal freedom of Rome. As long as Rome and Italy were respected as the centre of government, a national spirit was preserved by the ancient, Consequences and insensibly imbibed by the adopted, citizens. of the univer- 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 quali 116 See the lives of Agricola, Vespasian, Trajan, Severus and his three competitors; and, indeed, of all the eminent men of those times. duties (tithes, etc.), and substituting a land-tax in their place. With this view a census or register of property was taken by order of Augustus in several of the provinces (Liv. Epit. 134; Dion, liii. 22; St. Luke, c. 2); and indeed we might conclude from some other statements that the land-tax had been introduced into all the provinces by Augustus, if it were not for a passage in Hyginus, from which we learn that a part of the produce was still paid in the time of Trajan. (Hyginus, de Limitibus Constituendis, p. 198, ed. Goesius, p. 205, ed. Lachmann.) It appears, however, from this passage, that some provinces, which had formerly paid part of their produce, then paid a land-tax. But it was under M. Aurelius that the land-tax was at length established in all the provinces, and the new system of taxation fully completed. This may be inferred from the altered use of the words relating to taxation. Gaius says (ii. § 21) that all provincial land was called either stipendiaria or tributaria, which only differed in name, since the former applied to land in the provinces of the Roman people, and the latter to land in the provinces of the Cæsar; but he does not use the old expression, ager vectigalis. Moreover, we do not find in the classical jurists any mention of tithes or other variable duties. Besides the land-tax there was also a poll-tax (tributum capitis, Dig. 50, tit. 15, 1. 8, § 7; Tertull. Apolog. c. 13) in the provinces; but of the latter we have not any exact information. The towns in the provinces which possessed the jus Italicum were free from the above-mentioned taxes. The term indicates that these towns possessed the privileges enjoyed by the towns in Italy, one of the most important of which was exemption from the land and poll tax. This is proved by a striking passage in the Digest (50, tit. 15, 1. 8. § 7): "D. Vespasianus Cæsarienses colonos fecit, non adjecto ut et juris Italici essent: sed tributum his remisit capitis. Sed D. Titus etiam solum immune factum interpretatus est:" that is, Vespasian gave the town the right of a colony without the jus Italicum, though he gave it one of the privileges of the jus Italicum in exempting it from the poll-tax; but Titus bestowed upon it the other privilege of the jus Italicum, namely, exemption from the land-tax.-S. fied 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. The Elevation and Tyranny of Maximin.-Rebellion in Africa and Italy under the Authority of the Senate.-Civil Wars and Seditions.-Violent Deaths of Maximin and his Son, of Maximus and Balbinus, and of the Three Gordians.→ Usurpation and Secular Games of Philip. The apparent ridicule Or the various forms of government which have prevailed in the world, an hereditary monarchy seems to present the fairest scope for ridicule. Is it possible to relate without an indignant smile, that, on the father's decease, the property of a nation, like that of a drove of oxen, descends to his infant son, as yet unknown to mankind and to himself, and that the bravest warriors and the wisest statesmen, relinquishing their natural right to empire, approach the royal cradle with bended knees and protestations of inviolable fidelity? Satire and declamation may paint these obvious topics in the most dazzling colors, but our more serious thoughts will respect a useful prejudice that establishes a rule of succession, independent of the passions of mankind; and we shall cheerfully acquiesce in any expedient which deprives the multitude of the dangerous, and indeed the ideal, power of giving themselves a master. hereditary In the cool shade of retirement we may easily devise imaginary forms of government, in which the sceptre shall be and solid ad constantly bestowed on the most worthy by the vantages of free and incorrupt suffrage of the whole commusuccession. nity. Experience overturns these airy fabrics, and teaches us that in a large society the election of a monarch can never devolve to the wisest or to the most numerous part of the people. The army is the only order of men sufficiently united to concur in the same sentiments, and powerful enough to impose them on the rest of their fellow-citizens; but the temper of soldiers, habituated at once to violence and to slavery, renders them very unfit guardians of a legal or even a civil constitution. Justice, humanity, or political wisdom, are qualities they are too little acquainted with in themselves to appreciate them in others. Valor will acquire their esteem, and liberality will purchase their suffrage; but the first of these merits is often lodged in the most savage breasts; the latter can only exert itself at the expense of the public; and both may be turned against the possessor of the throne by the ambition of a daring rival. Want of it in the Roman empire calamities. The superior prerogative of birth, when it has obtained the sanction of time and popular opinion, is the plainest and least invidious of all distinctions among mankind. The acknowledged right extinguishes the hopes of productive of faction, and the conscious security disarms the cruelty of the monarch. To the firm establishment of this idea we owe the peaceful succession and mild administration of European monarchies. To the defect of it we must attribute the frequent civil wars through which an Asiatic despot is obliged to cut his way to the throne of his fathers. Yet, even in the East, the sphere of contention is usually limited to the princes of the reigning house, and, as soon as the more fortunate competitor has removed his brethren by the sword and the bowstring, he no longer entertains any jealousy of his meaner subjects. But the Roman empire, after the authority of the senate had sunk into contempt, was a vast scene of confusion. The royal and even noble families of the provinces had long since been led in triumph before the car of the haughty republicans. The ancient families of Rome had successively fallen beneath the tyranny of the Cæsars; and whilst those princes were shackled by the forms of a commonwealth, and disappointed by the repeated failure of their posterity,' it was impossible that any idea of hereditary succession should have taken root in the minds of their subjects. The right to the throne, which none could claim from There had been no example of three successive generations on the throne; only three instances of sons who succeeded their fathers. The marriages of the Cæsars (notwithstanding the permission, and the frequent practice, of divorces) were generally unfruitful. birth, every one assumed from merit. The daring hopes of ambition were set loose from the salutary restraints of law and prejudice, and the meanest of mankind might, without folly, entertain a hope of being raised by valor and fortune to a rank in the army, in which a single crime would enable him to wrest the sceptre of the world from his feeble and unpopular master. After the murder of Alexander Severus and the elevation of Maximin, no emperor could think himself safe upon the throne, and every barbarian peasant of the frontier might aspire to that august but dangerous station. About thirty-two years before that event, the Emperor Severus, returning from an Eastern expedition, halted in Birth and fortunes of Maximin. Thrace, to celebrate, with military games, the birthday of his younger son, Geta. The country flocked in crowds to behold their sovereign, and a young barbarian of gigantic stature earnestly solicited, in his rude dialect, that he might be allowed to contend for the prize of wrestling. As the pride of discipline would have been disgraced in the overthrow of a Roman soldier by a Thracian peasant, he was matched with the stoutest followers of the camp, sixteen of whom he successively laid on the ground. His victory was rewarded by some trifling gifts, and a permission to enlist in the troops. The next day the happy barbarian was distinguished above a crowd of recruits, dancing and exulting after the fashion of his country. As soon as he perceived that he had attracted the emperor's notice, he instantly ran up to his horse, and followed him on foot, without the least appearance of fatigue, in a long and rapid career. "Thracian," said Severus, with astonishment, "art thou disposed to wrestle after thy race?" "Most willingly, sir,” replied the unwearied youth; and, almost in a breath, overthrew seven of the strongest soldiers in the army. A gold collar was the prize of his matchless vigor and activity, and he was immediately appointed to serve in the horse-guards who always attended on the person of the sovereign. Maximin, for that was his name, though born on the terri Hist. August. p. 138. [Capitol. Maxim. c. 1 seq.] |