[766]. If we adopt an old legal phrase, the Decuriones were cives optimo iure, or full burghers; the rest of the citizens were non optimo iure, not full burghers, not having a share in the advantages possessed by the members of the corporation.
[767]. Tacitus gives us an insight into some of the gratuitous insults and vexations inflicted upon the British provincials, while he describes the reforms introduced by Agricola into these branches of the public service. “Ceterum animorum provinciae prudens, simulque doctus per aliena experimenta, parum profici armis, si iniuriae sequerentur, causas bellorum statuit excidere.... Frumenti et tributorum exactionem aequalitate munerum mollire, circumcisis, quae in quaestum reperta, ipso tributo gravius tolerabantur: namque per ludibrium adsidere clausis horreis, et emere ultro frumenta, ac vendere pretio cogebantur: devortia itinerum et longinquitas regionum indicebatur, ut civitates a proximis hybernis in remota et avia deferrent, donec, quod omnibus in promtu erat, paucis lucrosum fieret.” Tac. Agric. xix. The same grave historian attributes the fierce insurrection under Boadicea to the tyrannous conduct of the Legati and Procuratores of the province, and the insolent conduct of their subordinates. “Britanni agitare inter se mala servitutis, conferre iniurias et interpretando accendere: ‘nihil[‘nihil] profici patientia, nisi ut graviora, tanquam ex facili tolerantibus, imperentur: singulos sibi olim reges fuisse, nunc binos imponi: e quibus Legatus in sanguinem, Procurator in bona saeviret. Aeque discordiam Praepositorum, aeque concordiam subiectis exitiosam, alterius manus, centuriones alterius, vim et contumelias miscere. Nihil iam cupiditati, nihil libidini exceptum.” Tac. Agric. xv. It is obviously with reference to the same facts that he describes the Britons as peaceable and well disposed to discharge the duties laid upon them[them], if they are only spared insult. Tac. Agric. xiii. Xiphilinus, who though a late writer is valuable inasmuch as he represents Dio Cassius, describes some of the intolerable atrocities which drove the Iceni into rebellion, destroyed Camelodunum and Verulamium, and led in those cities and in London to the slaughter of nearly seventy thousand citizens and allies. Deep as was the wrong done to the family of Prasutagus, he is no doubt right in attributing the general exasperation mainly to the confiscation of the lands which Claudius Caesar had granted to the chiefs, and which the procurator Catus Decianus attempted to call in. Πρόφασις δὲ τοῦ πολέμου ἑγένετο ἡ δήμευσις τῶν χρημάτων (publicatio bonorum), ἅ Κλαύδιος τοῖς πρώτοις αὐτῶν ἐδεδώκει· καὶ ἔδει καὶ ἐκεῖνα, ὥς γε Δεκιανὸς Κάτος ὁ τῆς νήσου ἐπιτροπεύων ἔλεγεν, ἀναπόμπιμα γενέσθαι. Boadicea is made to declare that they were charged with a poll-tax, so severely exacted that an account was required even of the dead: οὐδὲ γὰρ τὸ τελευτῆσαι παρ’ αὐτοῖς ἀζήμιόν ἐστιν, ἀλλ’ ἴστε ὅσον καὶ ὑπὲρ τῶν νεκρῶν τελεοῦμεν· παρὰ μὲν γὰρ τοῖς ἄλλοις ανθρώποις καὶ τοὺς δουλεύοντας τισιν ὁ θάνατος ἐλευθεροῖ, Ῥωμαίοις δὲ δὴ μόνοις καὶ οἱ νεκροὶ ζῶσι πρὸς τὰ λήμματα. These accusations put into the mouths of the personages themselves, must not be taken to be exaggerated statements without foundation: they are the confessions of the historians, which sometimes perhaps they lacked courage to make in another form. The sudden and violent calling in of large sums which Seneca had forced upon the British chiefs in expectation of enormous interest, was another cause of the war: διά τε οὖν τοῦτο, καὶ ὅτι ὁ Σενέκας χιλίας σφίσι μυριάδας ἄκουσιν ἐπὶ χρησταῖς ἐλπίσι τόκων δανείσας, ἔπειτ’ ἀθρόας τε ἅμα αὐτὰς καὶ βιαίως εἰσέπρασσεν. The Roman mortgages in Britain were enormous, yet easily explained. The procurator made an extravagant demand: the native state could not pay it; but the procurator had a Roman friend who would advance it upon good security, etc. Similar things have taken place in Zemindaries of later date than the British. For the references above see Joan. Xiphil. Epitome Dionis, Nero vi.
[768]. This not only appears from the digests, but from numerous merely incidental notices in the authors of the time. The population were crowded into cities, and the country was deserted. This was not the result of a healthy manufacturing or commercial movement, but of a state of universal distraction and insecurity. Had the cultivation of the land ceased through a prudent calculation of political economy, we should not have heard of compulsory tillage.
[769]. Savigny, Röm. Recht. i. 23 seq.
[770]. Cives optimo iure, optimates, senatus, patricii, rachinburgi, boni homines,—these are all more or less equivalent terms.
[771]. Savigny, Röm. Recht. i. 53.
[772]. The Bishops were the most valuable allies of Clovis in his aggressive wars. Without their co-operation that savage Merwing would perhaps never have established the Frankish pre-eminence in the Gauls.
[773]. “Consularium primus Aulus Plautius praepositus, ac subinde Ostorius Scapula, uterque bello egregius: redactaque paulatim in formam provinciae proxima pars Britanniae.” Tac. Agric. xiv.
[774]. Agric. xiii. Offices under the Empire were honores or munera: the former, places of dignity and some power, duumvirates and the like: the latter, places of much labour and great responsibility, coupled with but little distinction. The condition of a decurion already described will give some notion of a munus; and it is a painful thing to find Tacitus implying that the munera were troublesome and repulsive offices at so early a period; for this is clearly his meaning: he evidently intends to compliment the Keltic population on a disposition to behave well, if their Roman task-masters will only be content not to add insult to injury. The case would be nearly parallel if we made Heki a petty constable, and then held him responsible when a New-Zealand outlaw stole a sheep or burnt out a missionary.
[775]. “Sequens hyems saluberrimis consiliis absumpta: namque, ut homines dispersi ac rudes, eoque in bella faciles, quieti et otio per voluptates adsuescerent, hortari privatim, adiuvare publice, ut templa, fora, domus exstruerent, laudando promtos et castigando segnes: ita honoris aemulatio pro necessitate erat. Iam vero principum filios liberalibus artibus erudire, et ingenia Britannorum studiis Gallorum anteferre, ut qui modo linguam Romanam abnuebant, eloquentiam concupiscerent. Inde etiam habitus nostri honor et frequens toga: paullatimque discessum ad delinimenta vitiorum, porticus et balnea et conviviorum elegantiam: idque apud imperitos humanitas vocabatur, cum pars servitutis esset.” Tac. Agric. xxi. “Quaedam civitates Cogidumno regi donatae ... vetere ac iam pridem recepta populi Romani consuetudine, ut haberet instrumenta servitutis et reges.” Agric. xiv.