Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/186

 canon were named Susceptors, and their usual place of custom was at the mansions or mutations of the public posts. Scales and measures were regularly kept at these stations, and on stated occasions a Susceptor was in attendance accompanied by a tabularius, a clerk who was in charge of the censual register which showed the liability of each person in the municipality. The tabularius gave a receipt couched in precise terms to each tributary for the amount of his payment or consignment, particulars of which he also entered in a book kept permanently for the purpose. The system of adaeratio, or commutation of species for money, was extensively adopted to obviate difficulties of delivery in kind; and this was especially the case with respect to clothing or horses for the army, or when transit was arduous by reason of distance or rough country. The transport of the annones and tributes to their destination was a work of some magnitude, and was under the special supervision of the Vicar of the diocese. Inland the bastagarii, the appointed branch