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 proceedings. The precincts were crowded with his apparitors, officers upon whom devolved the duty of executing the judgements of the court. With the aid of his assessor, a legal expert well versed in the text of the law, the Rector elaborated his judgment, a written copy of which he was bound to deliver to each litigant. But if his decision were asked in cases which seemed too trivial for his personal attention, he was empowered to hand them over to a class of petty judges called pedanei judices. From the provincial court an appeal lay to the Vicar of the Diocese, or even to the Emperor himself, but appellants were severely mulcted if convicted of merely contentious litigation. At certain seasons the Rector went on circuit throughout his province to judge causes and to inspect abuses.

I. The permanent existence of any community in a state of political cohesion depends on its possession of the means to defray the expenses of government; and, therefore, the first duty of every primary ruler or administrative body in chief is to collect a revenue for the maintenance of a national treasury. The Roman or Byzantine system of raising money or its equivalent, by means of imposts laid on the subjects of the Empire, included every conceivable device of taxing the individual for the benefit of the state. The public were