A History of Rome to 565 A. D Part 28

*The higher orders of rank.* The development of an oriental court life with its elaborate ceremonial demanding a fixed order of precedence among those present at imperial audiences, and the increase in the number and importance of the public officials, which necessitated a cla.s.sification of the various official posts from the point of view of rank, led to the establishment of new and more exclusive rank cla.s.ses within the circle of the _clarissimi_. There were in the ascending order the _spectabiles_, or Respectables, and the _ill.u.s.tres_, or Ill.u.s.trious. The ill.u.s.triate was conferred solely upon the great ministers of state. Under Justinian, in the sixth century, there was established the still higher order of the _gloriosi_ (the Glorious). The official positions, to which these t.i.tles of rank were attached, were called dignities (_dignitates_), and the great demand for admission to these rank cla.s.ses, which ent.i.tled their members to valuable privileges, caused the conferment of many honorary dignities, i. e., t.i.tles of official posts with their appropriate rank but without the duties of office.

*The patricians and counts.* The other t.i.tles of n.o.bility were those of patrician and count. The former, created by Constantine I in imitation of the older patrician order, was granted solely to the highest dignitaries, although it was not attached to any definite official post. It was Constantine also who revived the _comitiva_, which had been used irregularly of the chief a.s.sociates of the princeps until the death of Severus Alexander, and put it to a new use. The term count became a t.i.tle of honor definitely attached to certain offices, but also capable of being conferred as a favor or a reward of merit. Like the other t.i.tles of rank the patriciate and the _comitiva_ brought with them not only precedence but also valuable immunities.

Nothing ill.u.s.trates more clearly the importance of official positions than the division of the people of the empire as a whole into two cla.s.ses-the _honestiores_ (more honorable) and the _humiliores_ (more humble or plebeians). The former cla.s.s, which included the imperial senators, the soldiers and the veterans, were exempt from execution except with the emperor's consent, from penal servitude, and, with some limitations, from torture in the course of judicial investigations.

*The Senate.* The Senate at Rome was not abolished but continued to function both as a munic.i.p.al council and as the mouthpiece of the senatorial order. After the founding of Constantinople a similar Senate was established there for the eastern part of the empire. At first all _clarissimi_ had a right to partic.i.p.ate in the meetings of the Senate, and their sons were expected to fill the quaestors.h.i.+p. However, after the middle of the fifth century only those having the rank of _ill.u.s.tris_ were admitted to the senate chamber, and the active Senate became a gathering of the highest officials and ex-officials of the state. In addition to their functions as munic.i.p.al councils, the Senates made recommendations for the quaestors.h.i.+p and praetors.h.i.+p, discussed with the imperial officials the taxes which affected the senatorial order and even partic.i.p.ated to a certain extent in drafting imperial legislation.

*The senators and the munic.i.p.alities.* The most important privilege enjoyed by the senators was their exemption from the control of the officials of the munic.i.p.alities within whose territories their estates were situated. As we shall see, this was one of the chief reasons for the extension of their power in the provinces.

V. THE SYSTEM OF TAXATION AND THE RUIN OF THE MUNIc.i.p.aLITIES

*The system of taxation.* The debas.e.m.e.nt of the Roman coinage in the course of the third century resulted in a thorough disorganization of the public finances, for the taxes and disburs.e.m.e.nts fixed in terms of money had no longer their previous value. Diocletian completely reorganized the financial system by introducing a general scheme of taxation and remuneration in produce in place of coin, and by establis.h.i.+ng a new method of a.s.sessment. This latter consisted in the division of the land, cattle and agricultural labor into units of equal tax value. The unit of taxation for land was the _iugum_, which differed in size for arable land, vineyards and orchards, as well as for soils of varying fertility. A fixed number of cattle likewise const.i.tuted a _iugum_, a.s.sessed at the same value as a _iugum_ of land. The unit of labor, regarded as the equivalent of the _iugum_ was the _caput_, which was defined as one man or two women engaged in agricultural occupations. Thus the workers were taxed in addition to the land they tilled.

*The indiction.* The amount of the land tax to be raised each year was announced in an annual proclamation called an indiction (_indictio_), and a revaluation of the tax units was made periodically. The term indiction was also used of the period between two rea.s.sessments, which occurred at first every five, but after 312 A. D. every fifteen, years. The indictions thus furnished the basis for a new system of chronology. From the taxes raised in kind the soldiers and those in the civil service received their pay in the form of an allowance (_annona_), which might under certain conditions be commuted for its monetary equivalent.

*Special taxes.* In addition to the land tax raised in the form of produce on the basis of the _iuga_ and _capita_, there were certain other taxes payable in money. The chief of these were: the _chrysargyrum_, a tax levied on all trades; the _aurum coronarium_, a nominally voluntary but really compulsory contribution paid by the munic.i.p.al senators every five years to enable the emperor to distribute largesses to his officials and troops; the _aurum oblaticium_, a similar payment made by the senatorial order of the empire; and the _collatio glebalis_ or _follis senatoria_, a special tax imposed upon senators by Constantine I.

*Munera.* Besides the taxes, the government laid upon its subjects the burden of performing certain public services without compensation. The most burdensome of these charges (_munera_) were the upkeep of the public post, and the furnis.h.i.+ng of quarters (_hospitium_) and rendering other services in connection with the movement of troops, officials and supplies. So heavy was the burden of the post that it denuded of draught animals the districts it traversed and had to be abandoned in the sixth century. It was in connection with the exaction of these charges, the collection of the revenue in kind, and in the administration of justice that the imperial officials found opportunity to practice extortions which weighed more heavily upon the taxpayers than the taxes themselves.

*The curiales.* The cla.s.s which suffered most directly from the established fiscal system was that of the _curiales_, as the members of the munic.i.p.al senatorial orders were now called. In the course of the third century the status of _curialis_ had become hereditary, and was an obligation upon all who possessed a definite property qualification, fixed at twenty-five _iugera_ of land in the fourth century. Since the local senates had become agents of the _fiscus_ in collecting the revenues from their munic.i.p.al territories, the _curiales_, through the munic.i.p.al officers or committees of the local council, had to apportion the quotas of the munic.i.p.al burden among the landholders, to collect them, and be responsible for the payment of the total amount to the public officers.

They were also responsible for the maintenance of the public post and the performance of other services resting upon the munic.i.p.alities. Inevitably the _curiales_ sought to protect themselves by s.h.i.+fting the burden of taxation as much as possible upon the lower cla.s.ses in the munic.i.p.al territory who regarded them as oppressors. "Every _curialis_ is a tyrant"

(_quot curiales, tot tyranni_), says a fourth century writer.

The exactions of the imperial officers proved more than the _curiales_ could meet, and they sought to withdraw from their order and its obligations. But the government required responsible landholders and so they were forbidden to dispose of their properties or to leave their place of residence without special permission. And when they tried to find exemption by entering the imperial senatorial order, the military or civil service, or the clergy, these avenues of escape were likewise closed. Only those who had filled all the munic.i.p.al offices might become _clarissimi_ and immune from the curial obligations, and only clergy of the rank of bishops were excused, while the lower orders had to supply a subst.i.tute or surrender two-thirds of their property before they could leave the _curia_. Valentinian I attempted to aid the _curiales_ by appointing officials known as _defensores __civitatium_ or _plebis_-"defenders of the cities" or "of the plebs"-whose duty it was to check unjust exactions and protect the common people against officials and judges. These _defensores_ were at first persons of influence, chosen by the munic.i.p.alities and approved by the emperor. They were empowered to try certain cases themselves, and had the right to address themselves directly to the emperor without reference to the provincial governor. However, the _defensores_ accomplished little, and in the fifth century their office had become an additional obligatory service resting upon the _curiales_.

By 429 A. D. hardly a _curialis_ with adequate property qualifications could be found in any city, and by the sixth century the cla.s.s of munic.i.p.al landholders had practically disappeared.

*The hereditary corporations.* We have seen how, in the course of the third century, the professional corporations were burdened with the duty of performing certain public services in the interest of the communities to which they belonged. The first step taken by the state to insure the performance of these services was to make this duty a charge which rested permanently upon the property of the members of the corporations (_corporati_), no matter into whose possession it pa.s.sed. But men as well as money were needed for the performance of these charges, and consequently, in order to prevent a decline in the numbers of the _corporati_, the state made members.h.i.+p in these a.s.sociations an hereditary obligation. This was really an extension of the principle that a man was bound to perform certain services in the community in which he was enrolled (his _origo_). Finally, the emperors exercised the right of conscription, and attached to the various corporations which were in need of recruits persons who were engaged in less needed occupations.

The burden of their charges led the _corporati_, like the _curiales_, to seek refuge in some other profession. They tried to secure enrollment in the army, among the _officiales_, or to become _coloni_ of the emperor or senatorial landholders. But all these havens of refuge were closed by imperial edicts, and when discovered the truant _corporatus_ was dragged back to his a.s.sociation. Only those who attained the highest office within their corporation were legally freed from their obligations.

Although the corporations probably retained their former organization and officers, their active heads were now called _patroni_, and these directed the public services of their colleges. In Rome and Constantinople the colleges were under the supervision of the city prefects, in the munic.i.p.alities under that of the local magistrates and provincial governors. The professional colleges are the only ones which survived during the late empire. The religious and funerary a.s.sociations vanished with the spread of Christianity and the general impoverishment of the lower cla.s.ses.

*The coloni.* Among the agricultural cla.s.ses the forces which had developed in the course of the princ.i.p.ate were still at work. In the fourth century the attachment of the tenant farmers and peasant laborers to the soil was extended to the whole empire. The status of the _coloni_ became hereditary, like that of the _corporati_. Their condition was half way between that of freedmen and that of slaves, for while they were bound to the estate upon which they resided and pa.s.sed with it from one owner to another, they were not absolutely under the power of the owner and could not be disposed of by him apart from the land. They had also other rights which slaves lacked, yet as time went on their condition tended to approximate more and more closely to servitude. "Slaves of the soil," they were called in the sixth century. As this status of serfdom was. .h.i.therto unknown in Roman law, a great many imperial enactments had to be issued defining the rights and duties of the _coloni_.

*The growth of private domains.* The development of vast private estates at the expense of the public and imperial domains was another prominent characteristic of the times. This was the result of the failure of the state to check the spread of waste lands, in spite of its attempt to develop the system of hereditary leaseholds to small farmers. To maintain the level of production the government opened the way for the great proprietors to take over all deserted lands under various forms of heritable lease or in freehold tenure. The system of attaching waste lands to those of the neighboring landholders and making the latter responsible for their cultivation was an added cause of the growth of large estates.

The result of this development was that the state tenants became _coloni_ of the great landlords, and the latter were responsible for the taxes and other obligations of their _coloni_ to the state. The weight of these obligations rested as before upon the _coloni_, and led to their continued flight and a further increase in waste land. Like the _curiales_ and _corporati_, the _coloni_ tried to exchange their status by entering the public service or attaining admission to some other social cla.s.s. But, in like manner also, they found themselves excluded from all other occupations and cla.s.ses. Only the fugitive _colonus_ who had managed to remain undetected for thirty years (in the case of women twenty years) could escape being handed back to the land which he had deserted.

*The power of the landed n.o.bility.* The immunities of the senatorial order and the power of the high officials tended to give an almost feudal character to the position of the great landed proprietors. These had inherited the judicial powers of the procurators on the imperial estates and transferred this authority to their own domains. Over their slaves and _coloni_ they exercised the powers of police and jurisdiction. As they were not subject to the munic.i.p.al authorities, and, during the greater part of the fourth century, were also exempt from the jurisdiction of the provincial governors they a.s.sumed a very independent position, and did not hesitate to defy the munic.i.p.al magistrates and even the minor agents of the imperial government. Their power made their protection extremely valuable, and led to a new type of patronage. Individuals and village communities, desirous of escaping from the exactions to which they were subject in their munic.i.p.al districts, placed themselves under the patronage of some senatorial landholder and became his tenants. And he did not hesitate to afford them an illegal protection against the local authorities. Complaints by the latter to higher officials secured little redress for they were themselves proprietors and sided with those of their own cla.s.s. The power of the state was thus nullified by its chief servants and the landed aristocracy became the heirs of the empire.

*Resume.* The transformation which society underwent during the empire may be aptly described as the transition from a regime of individual initiative to a regime of status, that is, from one in which the position of an individual in society was mainly determined by his own volition to one in which this was fixed by the accident of his birth. The population of the empire was divided into a number of sharply defined castes, each of which was compelled to play a definite role in the life of the state. The sons of senators, soldiers, _curiales_, _corporati_, and _coloni_ had to follow in their fathers' walks of life, and each sought to escape from the tasks to which he was born. In the eyes of the government _collegiati_, _curiales_, and _coloni_ existed solely to pay taxes for the support of the bureaucracy and the army. The consequence was the attempted flight of the population to the army, civil service, the church or the wilderness.

Private industry languished, commerce declined, the fields lay untilled; a general feeling of hopelessness paralyzed all initiative. And when the barbarians began to occupy the provinces they encountered no national resistance; rather were they looked upon as deliverers from the burdensome yoke of Rome.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE GERMANIC OCCUPATION OF ITALY AND THE WESTERN PROVINCES: 395493 A. D.

I. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PERIOD

*The part.i.tion of the empire.* With the death of Theodosius the Great the empire pa.s.sed to his sons, Arcadius a youth of eighteen, whom he had left in Constantinople, and Honorius a boy of eleven, whom he had designated as the Augustus for the West. However, in the East the government was really in the hands of Rufinus, the pretorian prefect of Illyric.u.m, while an even greater influence was exercised in the West by Stilicho, the Vandal master of the soldiers, whom Theodosius had selected as regent for the young Honorius. The rivalry of these two ambitious men, and the attempt of Stilicho to secure for Honorius the restoration of eastern Illyric.u.m, which had been attached by Gratian to the sphere of the eastern emperor, were the immediate causes of the complete and formal division of the empire into an eastern and a western half, a condition which had been foreshadowed by the division of the imperial power throughout the greater part of the fourth century.

The fiction of imperial unity was still preserved by the nomination of one consul in Rome and one in Constantinople, by the a.s.sociation of the statues of both Augusti in each part of the empire, and by the issuance of imperial enactments under their joint names. Nevertheless, there was a complete separation of administrative authority, the edicts issued by one emperor required the sanction of the other before attaining validity within his territory, and upon the death of one Augustus the actual government of the whole empire did not pa.s.s into the hands of the survivor. The empire had really split into two independent states.

*The Germanic invasions.* In addition to the part.i.tion of the empire, the period between 395 and 493 is marked by the complete breakdown of the Roman resistance to barbarian invasions, and the penetration and occupation of the western provinces and Italy itself by peoples of Germanic stock. The position of Roman and barbarian is reversed; the latter become the rulers, the former their subjects, and the power pa.s.ses from the Roman officials to the Germanic kings. Finally, a barbarian soldier seats himself upon the throne of the western emperor, and a Germanic kingdom is established in Italy.

*The military dictators.* During this period of disintegration, the real power in the western empire was in the hands of a series of military dictators, who with the office of master of the soldiers secured the position of commander-in-chief of the imperial armies. Beside them the emperors exercised only nominal authority. But as these dictators were either barbarians themselves, or depended upon barbarian troops for their support, they were continually intrigued against and opposed by the Roman or civilian element, headed by the civil officers of the court. Yet the fall of one "kingmaker" was always followed by the rise of another, for by their aid alone could the Romans offer any effective resistance to the flood of barbarian invasion.

*The empire maintained in the East.* But while the western empire was thus absorbed by the Germanic invaders, the empire in the East was able to offer a successful resistance both to foreign invasions and the ambitions of its own barbarian generals. This is in part accounted for by the greater solidarity and vigor of the h.e.l.lenic civilization of the eastern provinces, and the military strength of the population, particularly in Asia Minor, and in part by the success of the bureaucracy in holding the generals in check, a task which was facilitated by the division of the supreme military authority among several masters of the soldiers. The strength of the eastern empire caused the West to look to it for support and the western emperors upon several occasions were nominated, and at other times given the sanction of legitimacy, by those in the East.

II. THE VISIGOTHIC MIGRATIONS

*The revolt of Alaric, 395 A. D.* Seizing the opportunity created by the death of Theodosius and the absence of the army of the East which he had led into Italy, Alaric, a prince of the Visigothic _foederati_, began to ravage Thrace and Macedonia with a band of his own people, aided by other tribes from across the Danube. He was opposed by Stilicho who was leading back the troops of the eastern emperor and intended to occupy eastern Illyric.u.m. However, the latter was ordered by Arcadius to send the army of the East to Constantinople and complied. This gave Alaric free access to southern Greece which he systematically plundered. However, Stilicho again intervened. He transported an army by sea to the Peloponnesus, and maneuvered Alaric into a precarious situation, but came to terms with him, possibly because of a revolt which had broken out in Africa. Stilicho was declared an enemy by Arcadius, while Alaric, after devastating Epirus, settled there with his Goths, and extorted the t.i.tle of _magister militum_ from the eastern court.

*The death of Stilicho, 408 A. D.* In 401 A. D., when Stilicho was occupied with an inroad of Vandals and Alans into Raetia, Alaric invaded Italy. However, Stilicho forced him to withdraw, and foiled a second attempt at invasion in 403 A. D. But Alaric did not long remain inactive.

He now held the t.i.tle of master of the soldiers from Honorius and had agreed to help Stilicho to accomplish his designs upon Illyric.u.m. But when the western empire was embarra.s.sed by new invasions and the appearance of a usurper in Gaul, he made his way into Noric.u.m and demanded an indemnity and employment for his troops. By the advice of Stilicho his demands, which included a payment of 4000 pounds of gold, were complied with.

Shortly afterwards, Stilicho fell a victim to a plot hatched by the court officials who were jealous of his influence (408 A. D.).

*The Visigoths in Italy.* The death of Stilicho removed the only capable defender of Italy and, when Honorius refused to carry out the agreement with Alaric, the latter crossed the Alps. Honorius shut himself up in Ravenna, and the Goths marched on Rome, which ransomed itself at a heavy price. As Honorius still refused to make him master of the soldiers and to give him lands and supplies for his men, Alaric returned to Rome and set up a new emperor, named Attalus. Yet Honorius, supported by troops from the eastern empire, remained obdurate, and a disagreement between Alaric and Attalus led to the latter's deposition. Rome was then occupied by the Goths who plundered it for three days (410 A. D.). Alaric's next move was to march to south Italy with the intention of crossing to Sicily and Africa. But his flotilla was destroyed by a storm, and while retracing his steps northwards he suddenly took sick and died.

*The Goths in Gaul and Spain.* Alaric's successor was his brother-in-law, Ataulf, who led the Visigoths into Gaul (412 A. D.), where he at first allied himself with a usurper, Jovinus, but soon deserted him to take service with the Romans. However, when Honorius failed to furnish him supplies, he seized Narbonne and other towns in southern Gaul and married the emperor's sister, Placidia, whom the Goths had carried off captive from Rome. He again attempted to come to terms with the Romans, but failed, and Constantius, the Roman master of the soldiers, who had succeeded to the position and influence of Stilicho, forced him to abandon Gaul. Ataulf and the Goths crossed the Pyrenees into Spain, where he died in 415 A. D. His successor Wallia, being hard pressed by famine and failing in an attempt to invade Africa, came to terms with the Romans. He surrendered Placidia and in the name of the emperor attacked the Vandals and Alans who had occupied parts of Spain. Alarmed by his success Constantius recalled the Goths to Gaul, where they were settled in southern Aquitania (418 A. D.).

*The Visigothic kingdom in Gaul.* The status of the Goths in Gaul was that of _foederati_, bound to render military aid to Rome, but governed by their own kings. The latter, however, had no authority over the Roman population among whom the Goths were settled. This condition was unsatisfactory to the Gothic rulers who sought to establish an independent Gothic kingdom. Theodoric I, the successor of Wallia, forced the Romans to acknowledge his complete sovereignty over Aquitania, but failed in his attempt to conquer Narbonese Gaul. However, he joined forces with the Romans against Attila the Hun and was largely responsible for checking the latter at the battle of the Mauriac plain (451 A. D.) in which he lost his life. For a time the Goths remained on friendly terms with the imperial authority but under Euric, who became king in 466 A. D., the anti-Roman faction was in the ascendant and they embarked upon a policy of expansion.

In 475 Euric, after a protracted struggle, gained possession of the district of Auvergne, and the Roman emperor acknowledged his sovereignty over the country between the Atlantic and the Rhone, the Loire and the Pyrenees, besides some territory in Spain. Two years later the district between the Rhone and the Alps, south of the Durance, was added to the Visigothic kingdom.

III. THE VANDALS

*The invasions of 406 A. D.* In 405 A. D. an invading horde of Vandals and Alans, who had descended upon Italy, was utterly defeated by Stilicho. But in the following year fresh swarms of the same peoples, united with the Suevi, crossed the Rhine near Mainz and plundered Gaul as far as the Pyrenees. For a short time they were held in check by the usurper Constantine, who held sway in Gaul and Spain. However, when he was involved in a struggle with a rival, Gerontius, they found an opportunity to make their way into Spain (409 A. D.).

*The occupation of Spain.* The united peoples speedily made themselves masters of the whole Iberian peninsula. But in spite of their successes over the Roman troops, the lack of supplies forced them to come to terms with the empire. In 411 they became Roman _foederati_ and were granted lands for settlement. Under this agreement the Asdingian Vandals and the Suevi occupied the northwest of Spain, the Alans the center, and the Silingian Vandals the south. However, the Roman government had only made peace with the Vandals and their allies under pressure, and seized the first opportunity to rid themselves of these unwelcome guests. In 416 Constantius authorized the Visigoths under Wallia to attack them in the name of the emperor. Wallia was so successful that he utterly annihilated the Silingian Vandals, and so weakened the Alans that they united themselves with the Asdingian Vandals, who escaped destruction only through the recall of the Visigoths to Gaul. However, the Vandals quickly recovered from their defeats, waged successful war upon the Suevi, who had reached an agreement with the Romans, and occupied the whole of southern Spain.

*The Vandal kingdom in Africa.* In 429 A. D. the Vandals under the leaders.h.i.+p of their king Gaiseric crossed into Africa, attracted by the richness of its soil and its strategic importance as one of the granaries of the Roman world. Their invasion was facilitated by the existence of a state of war between Count Bonifacius, the military governor of Africa, and the western emperor. The number of the invaders was estimated at 80,000, of whom probably 15,000 or 20,000 were fighting men.

In spite of the reconciliation between Bonifacius and the imperial government and their united opposition, Gaiseric was able to overrun the open country although he failed to capture the chief cities. In 435 A. D.