Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/361

 TJie Ro7nan Evipire to tJie Triuniph of C/iristiaiiity 303 to the dust. Thus ended the long struggle of democracy which we have followed through so many centuries of the career of man in the ancient world. As far back as the days of Marcus Aurelius, it had proved Oppressive difficult for the Roman government to raise enough by taxation to maintain itself. The situation in the reign of Diocletian was far worse. The business of the State was now in the hands of a vast number of local officials graded into many ranks and classes. This multitude and the huge army had all to be paid and supported. It required a great deal of money also to main- tain the luxurious court of the Emperor surrounded by his innum- erable palace officials and servants, and to supply " bread and circuses " for the populace of the towns (p. 294). All sorts of taxes and exactions were consequently devised by ingenious officials to make up the necessary revenue. When the scarcity of coin made it impossible to collect the Bad methods ,, n ■ 1 • • 1 of collection land tax m money, the dencit was taken m gram or produce from the granary of the delinquent tax payer. As this collection of produce increased, the tax tended to become a mere share in the yield of the lands, and thus the Roman Empire sank to a primitive system of taxation already thousands of years old in the Orient (p. 29). The crushing burden of this great land tax, the Emperor's chief source of income, was much increased by the bad way in which it was collected. The government made a group of the richer citizens in each of the towns permanently responsible for the whole amount due each year from all the landowners within their district. It was their business to collect the taxes and make up any deficiency, it mattered not from what cause. This responsibility, together with the weight of the taxes J^esulting themselves, ruined so many landowners that the government was forced to decree that no one should desert his estates in order to escape the exactions. Only the very rich could stand the drain on their resources and even wealthy families were im- poverished. The middle class sank into poverty and despair and im- poverishment