Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/188

 *stantinople or Alexandria, the two cities endowed with a free victualling market, or were widely dispersed to various centres to supply rations for the troops. Besides the ordinary officials engaged in exaction there were several of higher rank to supervise their proceedings: Discussors, the Greek logothetes, who made expeditions into the provinces from time to time to scrutinize and audit the accounts; surveyors of taxes, Senators preferably, whose duties were defined by the term protostasia, to whom the Susceptors were immediately responsible; and lastly Compulsors, officers of the central bureaucracy, Agentes-in-rebus, palatines attached to the treasury, even Protectors, who were sent on special missions to stimulate the Rectors when the taxes of a province were coming in badly.

As to the revenue of the Roman Empire at this or at any previous period, the historian can pronounce no definitive word, but it concerns us to note here one important fact, viz., that Anastasius during the twenty-seven years of