which had been exempted under the Principate. It was paid in coin. The annona which was paid in kind was universal, and was a much heavier burden; no land was exempt; the Imperial estates and the domains of ecclesiastical communities had to pay it as well as the lands of private persons.
Originally the annona65 was an exceptional tax imposed on certain provinces in emergencies, especially to supply Rome with corn in case of a famine, or to feed the army in case of a war. The amount of this extraordinary burden, and its distribution among the communities which were affected by it, were fixed by a special order of the Emperor, known as an indiction. During the civil wars of the third century indictions became frequent. The scarcity of the precious metals and the depreciation of the coinage led to a change in the method of paying the soldiers. They no longer received their wages in coin. Money donations were bestowed on them from time to time, but their regular salary consisted in allowances of food. This practice was systematically organised by Diocletian. The supply of provisions,— consisting of corn, oil, wine, salt, pork, mutton — necessary to feed a soldier for a year, was calculated, and was called an annona.66 In the course of the fourth century the principle was extended and civil officials received salaries in kind.
This new method of paying the army was the chief consideration which determined the special character of Diocletian’s reform in taxation. He made the annona a regular instead of an extraordinary tax, and he imposed, as was perfectly fair, on all parts of the Empire. But he did not fix it at a permanent amount. It was still imposed by an indiction; only an indiction was declared every year. Thus it could be constantly modified and varied, according to the needs of the government or the circumstances of the provinces; and it was intended that it should be revised from time to time by a new land survey.67
The valuation of the land was the basis of the new system. All the territory of the Empire was surveyed, and landed property was taxed not according to its mere acreage but with reference to its value in producing corn or wine or oil. Thus there was a unit (iugum) of arable land, and the number of acres in the unit might vary in different places according to the fertility of the soil; there were units for vineyards and for olives; and the tax was calculated on these units.68 The unit was supposed to represent the portion of land which one able-bodied peasant (caput) could cultivate and live on. Thus a property of a hundred iuga meant a property of a hundred labourers or capita, human heads.69
Apart from Imperial estates, the greater part of the soil of the Empire belonged to large proprietors (possessores). In country districts they were generally of the senatorial class; in the neighbourhood of the towns they were probably more often simple curials, members of the local municipal senate. Their lands were parcelled out among tenants who paid a rent to the proprietor and defrayed the land tax. The tenants were known as coloni and, as we shall see later, were practically serfs. Their names and descriptions were entered in the public registers of the land tax, and hence they were called adscriptitii.70 As a rule, the proprietor would reserve some part of his estate as a domain for himself, to be cultivated by slaves, and for the tax on the iuga of this domain he would, of course, be directly liable.
Besides the large proprietors there were also small peasants who owned and cultivated their own land, and were distinguished from the serfs on the great estates by the name of plebeians. The tax which they paid was known as the capitatio plebeia. The meaning of this term has been much debated, but there seems little doubt that it is simply the land tax, assessed on the free peasant proprietors on the same principles as it was assessed on large estates.71
The Imperial domains and the private estates of the Emperors, let on leases whether perpetual or temporary, and their cultivators, were liable to the universal annona or capitation, and it was the same with lands held by monastic communities. As to the amount of the land taxes we have hardly any information.72
The ground-tax proper, or tribute, which was a trifle compared with the annona, seems to have been always paid in money, except in Africa and Egypt, which were the granaries of Rome and Constantinople. It was fixed on the basis of the same survey and was entered in the same book as the annona, but, as we have seen, it was not paid in the privileged territories which had always been exempt. As the currency gradually became established, after Constantine’s reforms, the annona too was under certain conditions commuted into a money-payment, and this practice gradually became more frequent.73
In the town territories the body of the decurions or magistrates of the town were responsible for the total sum of the taxes to which the estates and farms of the district were liable. The general control of the taxation in each province was entirely in the hands of the provincial governor, but the collection was carried out by officials appointed by the decurions of each town.74 These collectors handed over their receipts to the compulsor, who represented the provincial governor, and he brought pressure to bear upon those who had not paid.75
Heavy taxes fell upon all classes of the population when a new Emperor came to the throne and on each fifth anniversary of his accession. On these occasions it was the custom to distribute a donation to the army, and a large sum of gold and silver was required.76 The senators contributed an offertory (aurum oblaticium).77 The decurions of every town had to scrape together gold which was presented originally in the form of crowns (aurum coronarium). Finally a tax was imposed on all profits arising from trade, whether on a large or a petty scale. This burden, which was known as Five-yearly Contribution (lustralis collatio) or Chrysargyron (“Gold and Silver”) fell upon prostitutes as well as upon merchants and shopkeepers, and was felt as particularly oppressive. It is said that parents sometimes sold their children into slavery or devoted their daughters to infamy to enable them to pay it.78
The chief immunity which senators enjoyed was exemption from the urban rates. Besides the aurum oblaticium, and the obligation of the wealthier of their class to fill the office of consul or of praetor, they were liable to a special property tax paid in specie. It was commonly known as the follis79 and was scaled in three grades (1 lb., 1/2 lb., and 1/4 lb. of gold according to the size of the property. Very poor senators paid seven solidi80 (£4, 8s. 6d.).
The senators, however, were far from being overtaxed. Most of them were affluent, some of them were very rich, and proportionally to their means they paid far less than any other class. In Italy the income of the richest was sometimes as high as £180,000, in addition to the natural products of their estates which would fetch in the market £60,000. Such revenues were exceptional, but as a rule the senatorial landed proprietors, who had often estates in Africa and Spain as well as in Italy, varied from £60,000 to £40,000.81
Besides the yield of all these taxes, which ultimately fell on agricultural labour, the Emperor derived a large revenue from custom duties,82 mines, state factories, and extensive Imperial estates. We have no figures for conjecturing the amount of their yield.
The central treasury, which represented the fisc of the early Empire, was presided over by the Count of the Sacred Largess.83 All the senatorial taxes, the aurum oblaticium, the collatio lustralis, the custom duties, the yield of the mines and of the public factories, that portion of the land-tax which represented the old tributum, the land-tax which was paid by the colons on the Imperial domains,84 all flowed into this treasury. The Count of the Largess administered the mint, the customs, and the mines.
Besides the central treasury, at the Imperial residence in each half of the Empire, there were the chests (arcae) of the Praetorian Prefects. These ministers, though they had lost their old military functions, were paymasters of the forces. They were responsible not only for regulating the amount but also for the distribution of the annona. As much of the annona collected in each province as was required for the soldiers stationed there was handed
