The History of Rome, Book IV / The Revolution

by Theodor Mommsen

Chapter XI

1. IV. V. Transalpine Relations of Rome, IV. V. The Romans Cross the Eastern Alps

2. IV. I. The Callaeci Conquered

3. IV. V. And Reach the Danube

4. -Exterae nationes in arbitratu dicione potestate amicitiave populi Romani- (lex repet. v. i), the official designation of the non-Italian subjects and clients as contrasted with the Italian "allies and kinsmen" (-socii nominisve Latini-).

5. III. XI. As to the Management of the Finances

6. III. XII. Mercantile Spirit

7. IV. III. Jury Courts, IV. III. Character of the Constitution of Gaius Gracchus

8. This tax-tenth, which the state levied from private landed property, is to be clearly distinguished from the proprietor's tenth, which it imposed on the domain-land. The former was let in Sicily, and was fixed once for all; the latter—especially that of the territory of Leontini—was let by the censors in Rome, and the proportion of produce payable and other conditions were regulated at their discretion (Cic. Verr. iii. 6, 13; v. 21, 53; de leg. agr. i. 2, 4; ii. 18, 48). Comp, my Staatsrecht, iii. 730.

9. The mode of proceeding was apparently as follows. The Roman government fixed in the first instance the kind and the amount of the tax. Thus in Asia, for instance, according to the arrangement of Sulla and Caesar the tenth sheaf was levied (Appian. B. C. v. 4); thus the Jews by Caesar's edict contributed every second year a fourth of the seed (Joseph, iv. 10, 6; comp. ii. 5); thus in Cilicia and Syria subsequently there was paid 5 per cent from estate (Appian. Syr. 50), and in Africa also an apparently similar tax was paid—in which case, we may add, the estate seems to have been valued according to certain presumptive indications, e. g. the size of the land occupied, the number of doorways, the number of head of children and slaves (-exactio capitum atque ostiorum-, Cicero, Ad Fam. iii. 8, 5, with reference to Cilicia; —phoros epi tei gei kai tois somasin—, Appian. Pun. 135, with reference to Africa). In accordance with this regulation the magistrates of each community under the superintendence of the Roman governor (Cic. ad Q. Fr. i. 1, 8; SC. de Asclep. 22, 23) settled who were liable to the tax, and what was to be paid by each tributary ( -imperata- —epikephalia—, Cic. ad Att. v. 16); if any one did not pay this in proper time, his tax-debt was sold just as in Rome, i. e. it was handed over to a contractor with an adjudication to collect it (-venditio tributorum-, Cic. Ad Fam. iii. 8, 5; —onas— -omnium venditas-, Cic. ad Att. v. 16). The produce of these taxes flowed into the coffers of the leading communities—the Jews, for instance, had to send their corn to Sidon—and from these coffers the fixed amount in money was then conveyed to Rome. These taxes also were consequently raised indirectly, and the intermediate agent either retained, according to circumstances, a part of the produce of the taxes for himself, or advanced it from his own substance; the distinction between this mode of raising and the other by means of the -publicani- lay merely in the circumstance, that in the former the public authorities of the contributors, in the latter Roman private contractors, constituted the intermediate agency.

10. IV. III. Jury Courts

11. III. VII. Administration of Spain

12. IV. X. Regulation of the Finances

13. For example, in Judaea the town of Joppa paid 26,075 -modii- of corn, the other Jews the tenth sheaf, to the native princes; to which fell to be added the temple-tribute and the Sidonian payment destined for the Romans. In Sicily too, in addition to the Roman tenth, a very considerable local taxation was raised from property.

14. IV. VI. The New Military Organization

15. IV. II. Vote by Ballot

16. III. VII. Liguria

17. IV. V. Province of Narbo

18. IV. V. In Illyria

19. IV. I. Province of Macedonia

20. III. XI. Italian Subjects, III. XII. Roman Wealth

21. IV. V. Taurisci

22. III. IV. Pressure of the War

23. IV. VII. Outbreak of the Mithradatic War

24. IV. IX. Preparations on Either Side

25. III. XII. The Management of Land and of Capital

26. IV. V. Conflicts with the Ligurians. With this may be connected the remark of the Roman agriculturist, Saserna, who lived after Cato and before Varro (ap. Colum. i. 1, 5), that the culture of the vine and olive was constantly moving farther to the north.—The decree of the senate as to the translation of the treatise of Mago (IV. II. The Italian Farmers) belongs also to this class of measures.

27. IV. II. Slavery and Its Consequences

28. IV. VIII. Thrace and Macedonia Occupied by the Pontic Armies.

29. IV. I. Destruction of Carthage, IV. I. Destruction of Corinth

30. IV. V. The Advance of the Romans Checked by the Policy of the Restoration

31. IV. IV. The Provinces

32. IV. VII. Economic Crisis

33. IV. VII. The Sulpician Laws

34. IV. VII. Legislation of Sulla

35. IV. IX. Government of Cinna

36. IV. VIII. Orders Issued from Ephesus for A General Massacre

37. IV. VIII. Thrace and Macedonia Occupied by the Pontic Armies.

38. IV. VI. Roman Intervention

39. III. XII. Roman Wealth

40. IV. V. Taurisci

41. III. VI. Pressure of the War

42. II. VIII. Silver Standard of Value

43. III. VI. Pressure of the War

44. III. I. Comparison between Carthage and Rome

45. IV. X. Proscription-Lists

46. III. III. Autonomy, III. VII. the State of Culture in Spain, III. XII. Coins and Moneys

47. III. XII. Coins and Moneys

48. III. XIII. Increase of Amusements

49. In the house, which Sulla inhabited when a young man, he paid for the ground-floor a rent of 3000 sesterces, and the tenant of the upper story a rent of 2000 sesterces (Plutarch, Sull. 1); which, capitalized at two-thirds of the usual interest on capital, yields nearly the above amount. This was a cheap dwelling. That a rent of 6000 sesterces (60 pounds) in the capital is called a high one in the case of the year 629 (Vell. ii. 10) must have been due to special circumstances.

50. III. I. Comparison between Carthage and Rome

51. IV. II. Tribunate of Gracchus

52. "If we could, citizens"—he said in his speech—"we should indeed all keep clear of this burden. But, as nature has so arranged it that we cannot either live comfortably with wives or live at all without them, it is proper to have regard rather to the permanent weal than to our own brief comfort."