Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/248

 176 General History of Europe His birthday was on the twenty-fifth of December. All were obliged as good citizens to join in the official sacrifices to the head of the State as a god. With the incoming of this oriental attitude toward the emperor, the long struggle for democracy, which we have followed through so many centuries of the history of early man, ended for a time in the triumph of absolute monarchy in the form of an oriental despotism. 278. Crushing Weight of Taxation. The wars that Diocletian had to wage with the new Persia under the Sassanids kept him busy in the East, and he resided most of his time not in Rome but' in Nicomedia in Asia Minor. Following some earlier exam- ples, Diocletian appointed another emperor to rule jointly with him and give especial attention to the West. It was not his intention to divide the Empire, but there was a tendency from this time on for the eastern and western portions of the Roman Empire to drift apart. There were over a hundred provinces, and the financial burden necessary to support all the innumerable officials high and low, to keep up the luxurious court of the emperor with its multitude of courtiers, and to satisfy the clamors of the army demanded a con- stant increase of taxes. It was now customary to oblige a group of wealthy men in each city to become personally responsible for the payment of the entire taxes of their district. If there was a deficit they had to make it up. As one goes over the laws of the time it seems as if a great part of them had to do directly or indirectly with wringing more and more money out of the taxpayers. 279. Disappearance of Liberty and Free Citizenship. The penalty for wealth seemed to be ruin, and there was little encour- agement to keep on in business. As Rome had formerly lost her prosperous farming class, so now she seemed to be losing her en- terprising and successful business men. Diocletian met this by forbidding men to give up their business or trade, and laws were passed requiring sons to follow the profession or trade of their fathers. Even wages and the prices of goods were as far as pos- sible fixed by the State.