Page:The history of Rome. Translated with the author's sanction and additions.djvu/100

80 performed the service by the district concerned in it, or by the person who could not or would not serve himself. The victims needed for the public service of the gods were procured by a tax on actions at law; the defeated party in an ordinary process paid down to the state a cattle-fine (sacramentum) proportioned to the value of the subject of dispute. There is no mention of any standing presents to the king on the part of the burgesses, but the non-burgesses settled in Rome (ærarii) appear to have paid to him a tax for protection. Besides this, there flowed into the royal coffers the port-duties (P. 50), as well as the income from the domain-lands—in particular, the pasture-tribute (scriptura) from the cattle driven out upon the common pasture, and the quotas of produce (vectigalia), which the lessees of the lands of the state had to pay instead of rent. To this was added the produce of cattle fines and confiscations, and the gains of war. In cases of need, in fine, a contribution (tributum) was imposed, which was looked upon, however, as a forced loan, and was repaid when the times improved; whether it fell upon all settlers whether burgesses or not, or upon burgesses alone, cannot be determined; the latter supposition is, however, the more probable.

The king managed the finances. The property of the state, however, was not identified with the private property of the king (which, judging from the statements regarding the extensive landed possessions of the last Roman royal house, the Tarquins, must, as a rule, have been considerable). The lands won by arms, in particular, appear to have been constantly regarded as property of the state. Whether and how far the king was restricted by use and wont in the administration of the public property, can no longer be ascertained; only we may infer from the subsequent course of procedure, that the burgesses can never have been consulted regarding it; whereas it was probably the custom to consult the senate in the imposition of the tributum, and in the distribution of the lands won in war.

The burgesses, however, do not merely come into view as furnishing contributions and rendering service; they also bore a part in the public government. For this purpose, all the members of the community (with the exception of the women, and the children still incapable of bearing arms), in other words, the "spearmen," as in addressing them they were designated, assembled at the seat of justice, where the