The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-04-19
Tax-Collection i'm Old Times.

man nplr n4u TO SufIefln the last TWO
or three centuries of itsexistence, was
incredible. Ammianus Marcellinus says:
"Thatmanamong them (the tax-payers)
would blush for himself who could not
show the marks Of stripes received for
Guiding the payment of taxes" But a
more terrible picture has never been
drawn of the murderous strife between
the hungry treasury, and the worn-out
people, who could suffer and die but not
pay, than that left us by Lactantius.
$50 numerous" he says, "were the re-
ceivers i'll comparison with the payers,
and so enormous the weight of taxation,
that the labOrer broke down, the plains
became deserts, and woods grew where
the pillow had been. 1t were impossible
to enumerate the officials who were rain
ed on every province and tOwn-Nagis-
ti, RGtiOnales, clerks to the prefecture.
COndemnatiOns, prescriptions and ex-
actions were all they knew, exactions, not
frequent, but perpetual, and accOmpan-
led by intolerable Outrages. But the
public distress, the universal mourning
rose to the highest point when the scOurge
of census Cncluding assessment came,
and it's takers, scattering themselves in
every direction, produced general con-
fusion, that always Lactantius' wOrds)
can only lken to the misery Of a hostile
invasion or of a town abandoned to the
soldiery. The fields were measured to
the very clods, the trees were counted,
each grapevine numbered. Cattle were
registered as we'll us men. The cracko of
the lash, and cry Of the tortured filed
the air. The faithful slave wastOrtured
for evidence against his master, the wife
to depose against her husband, the son
against his father. For lack of evidence,
the torture was applied to eXtOrt ones
own testimony against One's self. Meth
er old age nor sickness was exempted !;
the sick and the intirm were alike sum-
moned. In taking ages, they added to
the years of children, and subtracted
from those of the elderly. Grief and
CONSERVATION filled the land. Not sat
istied with the returns Of the first EMU
meratOrs, they sent a succession of 9TH
ers, who each swelled the valuation-as
a proof of zealand so the imposts went
on increasing"
What was now taefreason of this? It
was not the tyranny of the Emperors OF
of the magistrates. The faultlay to the
whole social system of the ancients.
Slavery was the social evil that under
mined the society of Antiquity.
In the first centuries of the Roman re-
public we find in Latium and all over
Italy a numerous class of small cultiva-
tors, but in the same proportion as the
republic increased its territory and at
the same time the number of slaves
prisoners of wary by its continual wars,
in the same proportion the number of
small farmers decreased. They could
not compete with slave-labOr, so they
had to sell their properties to the owners
of large estates who supplied t~heirplace
with slaves. A greatpart of these small
proprietors repaired to the large cities
and gradually sank down to become that
worthless and lazy part of ancient soci-
ETY., that was always crying for "panem
ct Circenses," and almost entirely sub
sisted on gratis distributions of victuaIs
part remained in the country as tenants
of those who had bought their proper
ties and, little by little, this class of ten
ants became, in most respects, identified
with the slaves. Though nOminally free
born, the tenant was, ash were, a slave
of the soil, transferable with the land,
and under severe penalties prohibited
from deserving from his patrons estate.
In one respect, his condition was even
worse than that of the slave, since he,
being a freeman, could not be enfran-
chised. Under these circumstances it
is not to be wondered at, that this class
Of tenants died out rapidlyor fled away,
and that the land became a desert.
In fact, upon the introduction of enor-
nous numbers of slaves followed very
fast a terrible decrease of population.
As early as the time of Augustus, the
magnitude of the evil had called forth
laws, by which every thing, even moral
ity, was sacrificed in order to keep ND
the population. BY the Julian law an
unmarried man was not permitted to in
herit of a stranger, except he had ga
concubine, for the sake of a family
Sensible men saw where the danger lay
-Plinius says, for instance "Latifun-
dia perdidere Italiamn-itwas the large
estates that ruined Italy-but how to
obviate itq Pertinax and Aurelian tried
to encourage emigration by exemptine
from taxes, during ten years, all who
should occupy deserted lands in Italy Oh
in the provinces, as well as securing
them the right Of property therein. Pro.
bus, Maximian and Constantius Chlorus
transported Franks and other Germans
into the solitudes of Gaul, and yet the
population kept on falling off both il
town and country. At the beginning O.
the fifth century, for instance, there
were in Campania the Happy" the mos
fertile province of the Empire, three
hundred and thirty thousand acreslyint
untitled.
Many citizens became unable to pa,
taxes which, therefore, were squeezed
ont Of the rest, for the treasury held TIN
curiales and municipal magistrates an
swerable for any deficiency. The un
IEnrHunn4o nr1rialnc 4In lncA -urhn In d.