Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/305

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 287 stantine and his successors preferred a simple and ('HAP. • • • X II direct mode of taxation, more congenial to the spirit of an arbitrary government . The name and use of the ' indictions'", which serve The general to ascertain the chronolosfv of the middle ages, was de- !" *"|^' *"" rived from the regular practice of the Roman tributes. The emperor subscribed with his own hand, and in purple ink, the solemn edict, or indiction, which was fixed up in the principal city of each diocese, during two months previous to the first day of September. And, by a very easy connection of ideas, the word ' in- diction' was transferred to the measure of tribute which it prescribed, and to the annual term which it allowed for the payment. This general estimate of the supplies was proportioned to the real and imaginary wants of the state ; but as often as the expense exceeded the revenue, or the revenue fell short of the computation, an additional tax, under the name of ' superindiction,' was imposed on the people ; and the most valuable attribute of sovereignty was communicated to the pre- torian prefects, who, on some occasions, were permitted to provide for the unforeseen and extraordinary exi- gencies of the public service. The execution of these laws (which it would be tedious to pursue in their minute and intricate detail) consisted of two distinct operations ; the resolving the general imposition into its constituent parts, which were assessed on the pro- vinces, the cities, and the individuals of the Roman world ; and the collecting the separate contributions of the individuals, the cities, and the provinces, till the accumulated sums were poured into the imperial trea- some degree of perplexity. ' The cycle of iniictions, which maybe traced as high as the reign of Constantius, or perhaps of his father Constantine, is still employed by the papal court : but the commencement of their year has been very reasonably altered to the first of January. See I'Art de verifier les Dates, p. xi. ; and Dictionnaire Raison. de la Di])lomatique, torn. ii. p. 25; two accurate treatises, which come from the workshop of the Benedictines. •* The first twenty-eight titles of the eleventh book of the Theodosian. Code are filled with the circumstantial regulations on the important subject of tributes ; but they suppose a clearer knowledge of fundamental principles than it is at present in our power to attain.
 * ' Mr. Hume (Essays, vol. i. p. 389.) has seen this important truth with