Cæsar. Subjection to an overlordship a means of escape from oppression.
Cæsar describes how in Gaul, even before the Roman conquest, the free tribesmen, overburdened by the exactions of chieftains and the tributes imposed upon them (probably by way of 'gwestva' or food-rents), surrendered their freedom, and became little more than 'servi' of the chiefs. And so far had this practice proceeded that he describes the people of Gaul as practically divided into two classes—the chiefs, whom he likened to the Roman 'equites;' [p306] and the common people, who were in a position little removed from slavery.[452]
Tacitus.
Further, there is the evidence of Tacitus himself that oppressive Roman exactions were forcing free tribesmen, even in Frisia, to surrender their lands and their children into a condition of servitude.[453]
Gregory of Tours.
Again, Gregory of Tours[454] describes how, in a year of famine, the poor surrendered their freedom—subdebant se servitio—to escape starvation. [p307]
Salvian's complaint in the fifth century.
Lastly, in the fifth century (A.D. 450–90) Salvian[455] describes at great length the process by which Roman freemen were in the practice of surrendering their possessions to great men and becoming tributary to them, in order to escape the exactions of the officers who collected the 'tributum.' He narrates how the rich Romans threw upon the poor the weight of the public tribute, and made extra exactions of their own; how multitudes in consequence deserted their property and became bagaudæ—rebels and outlaws;—how, in districts conquered by the Franks and Goths, there was no such oppression; how Romans living in these districts had their rights respected; how people even fled for safety and freedom from the districts still under Roman rule into these Teutonic districts; and he expresses his wonder why more did not do this.
The effect of surrenders to an overlord.
Many (he says) would fly from the Roman districts if they could carry their properties and houses and families with them. As they cannot do this (he goes on to say), they surrender themselves to the care and protection of great men, becoming their dediticii or semi-servile tenants. And the rich (he complains) receive them under their 'patrocinium' or overlordship, not from motives of charity, but for gain: for they require them to surrender almost all their substance, temporary possession only being allowed to the parent making the surrender during his life,[456] while the heirs lose their inheritance. And this (he adds) is not all. [p308] The poor wretches who have surrendered their property are compelled nevertheless to pay tribute for it to these lords, as if it were still their own. Better is the lot of those who, deserting their property altogether, hire farms under great men, and so become the free coloni of the rich. For these others not only lose their property and their status, and everything that they can call their own; they lose also themselves and their liberty.[457]