[852] Cod. Theod., IX, xxxv, and Godefroy. This was the regular method of scourging, but illegal as a means of enforcing payment of taxes; ibid., XI, vii, 7. The Egyptians were particularly obstinate, and even proud to show the weals they had suffered sooner than pay; Ammianus, xxii, 6, 16.
[853] Cod. Theod., XI, xxviii, 10, 14; cf. vii, 20.
[854] Evagrius, iii, 39. He pretended to have made a sad mistake, and spread a report that he would promptly reimpose it were he not without documentary evidence to enable the books to be reopened. Enticed by this ruse the knavish collectors brought in the accounts they had kept back and a second conflagration was made with them.
[855] Under Arcadius the traffic was barefaced by Eutropius, and probably little less so in the succeeding reign by Chrysaphius:
Vestibulo pretiis distinguit regula gentes.
Tot Galatae, tot Pontus, eat, tot Lydia nummis.
Si Lyciam tenuisse velis, tot millia ponas, etc.
Claudian, In Eutropium, i, 202.
Afterwards it was more underhand; see Novel. viii.
[856] As Bury well observes; Gibbon, v, p. 533.