Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/310

 Q92 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP. L It is o])vioiis, that, as long as the immutable con- '__ stitution of human nature produces and maintains so unequal a division of property, the most numerous part of the community would be deprived of their subsist- ence, by the equal assessment of a tax from which the sovereign would derive a very trifling revenue. Such indeed might be the theory of the Roman capitation; but in the practice, this unjust equality was no longer felt, as the tribute was collected on the principle of a real, not of a j^^^^'^onal imposition. Several indigent citizens contributed to compose a single head, or share of taxation ; while the wealthy provincial, in proportion to his fortune, alone represented several of those ima- ginary beings. In a poetical request, addressed to one of- the last and most deserving of the Roman princes who reigned in Gaul, Sidonius Apollinaris per- sonifies his tribute under the figure of a triple monster, the Geryon of the Grecian fables, and entreats the new- Hercules that he would most graciously be pleased to save his life by cutting off three of his heads". The fortune of Sidonius far exceeded the customary wealth of a poet ; but if he had pursued the allusion, he must have painted many of the Gallic nobles with the hun- dred heads of the deadly hydra, spreading over the face of the country, and devouring the substance of an hundred families. II. The diflSculty of allowing an annual sum of about nine pounds sterling, even for the average of the capitation of Gaul, may be rendered more evident by the comparison of the present state of the same country, as it is now governed by the absolute monarch of an industrious, wealthy, and affectionate people. The taxes of France cannot be magnified, either by fear or by flattery, beyond the annual amount of eighteen millions sterUng, which ought perhaps to be " Geryones nos esse puta, monstrumque tributum, Hie capita, ut vivam, tu mihi tolle tria. Sidon. Apollinar. Carm. xi. i. The reputalion of father Sirmond led me to expect more satisfaction than 1 have found in his note (p. 144.) on this remarkable passage. The vords suo vel iiiorum nomine, betray the perplexity of the commentator.