manufacturer, the diligent mechanic, and even the most obscure
retailer of a sequestered village, were obliged to admit the
officers of the revenue into the partnership of their gain; and
the sovereign of the Roman empire, who tolerated the profession,
consented to share the infamous salary, of public prostitutes. ^!
As this general tax upon industry was collected every fourth
year, it was styled the Lustral Contribution: and the historian
Zosimus ^189 laments that the approach of the fatal period was
announced by the tears and terrors of the citizens, who were
often compelled by the impending scourge to embrace the most
abhorred and unnatural methods of procuring the sum at which
their property had been assessed. The testimony of Zosimus
cannot indeed be justified from the charge of passion and
prejudice; but, from the nature of this tribute it seems
reasonable to conclude, that it was arbitrary in the
distribution, and extremely rigorous in the mode of collecting.
The secret wealth of commerce, and the precarious profits of art
or labor, are susceptible only of a discretionary valuation,
which is seldom disadvantageous to the interest of the treasury;
and as the person of the trader supplies the want of a visible
and permanent security, the payment of the imposition, which, in
the case of a land tax, may be obtained by the seizure of
property, can rarely be extorted by any other means than those of
corporal punishments. The cruel treatment of the insolvent
debtors of the state, is attested, and was perhaps mitigated by a
very humane edict of Constantine, who, disclaiming the use of
racks and of scourges, allots a spacious and airy prison for the
place of their confinement. ^190

[Footnote 188: See Cod. Theod. l. xiii. tit. i. and iv.]