CHAP. IX.

TAXATION.

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Gaul by exacting twenty-five pieces of gold 1 forthe annual tribute of every head. The humanepolicy of his successor reduced the capitation toseven pieces. A moderate proportion betweenthese opposite extremes of extravagant oppres-sion and of transient indulgence may thereforebe fixed at sixteen pieces of gold, or about £9sterling, the common standard, perhaps, of theimpositions of Gaul.”

Though this task was imposed according tothe number of inhabitants, it seems only to havecomprehended the heads of families, and didnot include the slaves or feudal tenants, which,as the land was chiefly cultivated by them, musthave formed a great majority of the inhabitantsof each province. The exactions of Constantineupon the province of Gaul have been estimatedby Gibbon, who adopted his data from the Abb6du Bos, at “seven millions sterling, which werereduced to two millions by the humanity orthe wisdom of Julian.”

1 The aureus, or piece of gold, as calculated by Graves,and sanctioned by Gibbon, was equal in value to the fifthpart of a pound of silver. The pound of gold, which hadbeen originally coined into forty pieces, was, in the time ofConstantine and his successors, formed into seventy-twopieces. The Roman pound of gold contained 5256 grains;the English pound contains 5760 grains. If the Romanpound of gold be estimated to be worth forty pounds of ourmoney, the aureus may be taken as somewhat more thaneleven shillings.—See Gibbon, cap. xxvii. p. !19.