Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/480

 taxes 456 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, monarch; and tlieir edicts, inscribed with their joint ^^^^' names, were received in all the provinces, as promul- gated by their mutual councils and authority. Not- withstanding these precautions, the political union of the Roman world was gradually dissolved, and a prin- ciple of division was introduced, which, in the course of a few years, occasioned the perpetual separation of the eastern and western empires. Increase of The system of Diocletian was accompanied with another very material disadvantage, which cannot even at present be totally overlooked ; a more expensive es- tablishment, and consequently an increase of taxes, and the oppression of the people. Instead of a modest fa- mily of slaves and freedmen, such as had contented the simple greatness of Augustus and Trajan, three or four magnificent courts were established in the various parts of the empire, and as many Roman kings contended with each other, and with the Persian monarch, for the vain superiority of pomp and luxury. The number of ministers, of magistrates, of officers, and of servants, who filled the different departments of the state, was multiplied beyond the example of former times ; and, (if we may borrow the warm expression of a contempo- rary,) " when the proportion of those who received, exceeded the proportion of those who contributed, the provinces were oppressed by the weight of tributes™." From this period to the extinction of the empire, it would be easy to deduce an uninterrupted series of clamours and complaints. According to his religion and situation, each writer chooses either Diocletian, or Constantine, or Valens, or Theodosius, for the object of his invectives ; but they unanimously agree in repre- senting the burden of the pubhc impositions, and par- ticularly the land-tax and capitation, as the intolerable and increasing grievance of their own times. From such a concurrence, an impartial historian, who is obliged to extract truth from satire, as well as from panegyric, will be inclined to divide the blame among "> Lactam, de M. P. c. 7.