in the shape of rent or of land tax. Thus, although vineyards and oliveyards usually paid a fifth, this was included under the designation of Decumae. The occupiers of the public lands who paid Decumae are usually termed Aratores, and as such are opposed to the Pecuarii or Pastores, to be mentioned in the next paragraph.

Scriptura. In addition to the arable lands from which Decumae were exacted, the state possessed vast tracts of wild, woody, and mountain pasture (silvae-saltus-pascua-pastiones) in various parts of Italy, especially in Samnium and Lucania, to which sheep and cattle were driven in summer from the hot plains on the sea coast (greges ovium longe abiguntur ex Apulia in Samnium aestivatum). Those who turned out their flocks and herds on the public pastures were termed Pecuarii or Pastores, and were obliged to make a declaration to the Collector of Revenue for the district (ad Publicanum profiteri) of the number, which was written down in a register, and hence the money levied was called Scriptura, and the land itself Ager Scripturarius.

Metalla, &c.—In addition to the income derived from Decumae and Scriptura, large sums were obtained from mines (metalla), including minerals of every description, together with the timber of the public forests. An ancient decree of the Senate forbade the working of mines in Italy; but mines of gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, and cinnabar, the property of the state, were worked with great profit in the provinces, especially in Spain. In like manner, revenue was obtained from stone quarries (lapicidinae), especially the grindstone quarries of Crete (cotoriae), from chalk-pits (cretifodinae), and, above all, from salt-works (salinae).

Finally, under this head we may class the money raised from the sale of timber, and from the tar-works (picariae) in the public forests.

Portoria. The export and import dues formed another very important branch of revenue. We hear of the existence of Portoria during the regal period. The amount of the Portoria was augmented as the empire extended, both by the vast increase of the foreign trade of Italy, and also by the duties levied in other countries, which were appropriated by the Roman treasury. Portorium, although properly denoting what we call Customs, was sometimes applied to a toll paid on crossing a bridge, and also to transit dues for goods.

The Portoria, Decumae, and Scriptura, formed the three chief sources of revenue during the most flourishing period of the Republic, and as such are classed together by Cicero.

Tributum was a property tax, being a per centage levied upon the fortune of each Roman citizen. When the practice of granting pay to the troops was introduced, the proceeds of the Tributum

were chiefly, if not altogether, applied to make provision for the aes militare and other expenses of war. It was paid by all citizens who were censi. We find, indeed, on one occasion a claim for exemption preferred by the pontiffs and augurs, but it was not allowed.

After the subjugation of Macedonia, such vast sums were poured into the Roman treasury, that this tax was abolished, as no longer necessary; this immunity continued for one hundred and twentyfour years. Tributum was levied in the provinces also. We hear from Cicero of a poll tax in the province of Cilicia, which was levied also in the time of Hadrian, amounting at that time to 1 per cent. per annum on the property of each individual.

Another tax, dating from an early period of the Commonwealth, was the

Vigesima Manumissionum—a duty of 5 per cent. on the value of manumitted slaves, a tax instituted B.C. 357, and passed, not in the Comitia at Rome, but in the camp at Sutrium.

Vectigal Rerum Venalium.-This was introduced after the civil wars, and consisted of a per centage levied upon all commodities sold by auction or in open market. It was originally 1 per

cent. upon the price (centesima rerum

venalium.) In A.D. 17, Tiberius

lowered the duty to per cent. (ducentesimam in posterum statuit); but in A.D. 31 he returned to the centesima, which was finally abolished

by Caligula, in A.D. 38, a concession commemorated upon the small brass coins of that emperor by the letters R.CC. (remissis centesimis.)

Vectigal Mancipiorum Venalium.-The last mentioned tax did not apply to the sale of slaves, upon the price of whom Augustus levied a duty of 2 per cent. (quinquagesima), which he applied to military purposes and to the payment of night watchmen.

Vigesima Hereditiatium— instituted by Augustus A.D. 6, was, as the name implies, a tax of 5 per cent. on successions and legacies.

Quadragesima Litium.-Among the various new taxes (vectigalia nova et inaudita) imposed by Caligula was a duty of 2 per cent. on the amount

in dispute in all suits at law (pro litibus atque iudiciis, ubicumque conceptis, quadragesima summae de qua litigaretur.) This was pro

bably the tax whose abolition is commemorated, on large brasses of Galba, by the legend R. XL. or REMISSAE XXXX. or QUADRAGENS. REMISSAE.

Mode of Collecting the Revenue.-The different taxes in Italy and in the provinces were farmed out, that is, were let upon lease to contractors, who undertook, at their own risk, to levy the dues, and to pay a fixed sum annually into the treasury.

These persons, forming a distinct class (ordo), were named PUBLICANI ; (quia publico fruuntur); the terms Decumani, Scripturarii, and Portitores are applied to the lessees of the special imposts Decumae, Scriptura, and Portoria. Asiani is used by Cicero to denote the Publicani who farmed the revenues of the Roman province of Asia.

The state, in granting the lease, was said locare vectigalia, and the process was called locatio; those who took the lease were said conducere or redimere, and hence redemtores is sometimes synonymous with Publicani.

To farm the revenues of a large province was an enterprise beyond the means of any private individual, and was undertaken by joint-stock companies (societates), the partners being termed socii.

The numbers, wealth, and influence of the Publicani increased with the extension of the Roman Empire. The societates were composed chiefly of members of the Equestrian order; and, in all matters relating to the collection of the public revenue Equites and Publicani became convertible terms.

The duty of letting the revenue to the Publicani devolved on the Censors, hence these leases were generally for a period of five years. The locatio of the taxes for all the provinces, except Sicily, took place in the forum, by public auction; the upset price was augmented by the bidding (licitatione) of the competitors, the person who offered the advance holding up his finger, hence the phrases tollere digitum-digito liceri.

Each Societas had a chairman or president called Manceps, who conducted the bidding (auctor emptionis), and who gave security to the state; the contracts, from being drawn up by the Censors, were called Leges Censoriae. In addition to the Manceps, each Societas had a manager styled Magister Societatis, who generally remained at Rome, kept the accounts, conducted the correspondence, and exercised a general superintendence.

Although nearly the whole of the Roman revenue was collected according to the system described above, the Tributum, paid by Roman citizens, formed an exception. The tax was originally applied to the payment of the army (aes militare,) and was, it would seem, levied by persons entitled Tribuni aerarii, by whom it was

disbursed to the soldiers, without passing through the public treasury.

Total Revenue. It has been stated, on the authority of Plutarch, that the total amount of the income of the state, from every source, was, before the conquests of Pompeius in the East, a sum equivalent, in round numbers, to £2,800,000.

Gibbon has calculated that the general income of the Roman provinces could seldom have amounted, after the accession of Augustus, to less than fifteen or twenty millions of our money, while both Wenck and Guizo+ consider this estimate too low.

CHAPTER IX.

ROMAN LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

Signification of the word Ius.—IUus, when used in a general sense, answers to our word Law in its widest acceptation. Roman writers usually recognize a threefold division-1. Ius Naturale; 2. Ius Gentium; 3. Ius Civile.

1. Ius Naturale, comprehending those duties which are acknowledged and performed by the great mass of mankind, whether civilized or barbarous. Such are, the union of the sexes in marriage or otherwise, the rearing of children, and the submission of the latter to their parents.

2. Ius Gentium, comprehending the principles of right and wrong, which are generally acknowledged and acted upon by all bodies of men who have attained to political organization-quod semper aequum et bonum est. Such are, the plain rules of honesty and equity, the importance of truth, the expediency and necessity of adhering to treaties and compacts deliberately concluded.

3. Ius Civile, comprehending all the usages and laws which serve to regulate the internal administration of any particular community. Hence, when speaking of the Romans, Ius Civile denotes the whole body of Roman law, from whatever source derived. The most important of these sources we shall now proceed briefly

to enumerate.

I. Leges XII. Tabularum.—Formal laws were enacted under the Kings, first in the Comitia Curiata, and subsequently in the Comitia Centuriata also, after the establishment of that assembly by Servius Tullius. A few fragments of these Leges Regiae, as they were termed, have been preserved by Livy and Dionysius. We have no reason, however, to suppose that any attempt was made to draw up and introduce a system which should establish general principles and rules of practice, binding upon all classes of the community, until the appointment of the ten commissioners-the Decemviri-for that special purpose, in B. C. 451, fifty-nine years after the expulsion of the Kings. We have already had occasion to mention (p. 76) that the result of their labours was the far-famed Code of the XII. Tables, which although necessarily brief and imperfect, was ever after regarded as the spring in which the ample and constantly increasing stream of Roman law took its rise (fons omnis publici privatique iuris). During the period of the Republic