rdt thinks that they arose from
barbarians quartered in the Roman empire.[814] Heisterbergk[815] thinks
that there are three possible sources, between which he does not
decide,--impoverished freemen, emancipated slaves, barbarian prisoners.
Wallon[816] ascribes the colonate to the administration. As society
degenerated it became harder and harder to get the revenue, and the
state adopted administrative measures to get the property of any one who
had any. This system impoverished everybody. To carry it out it was
necessary to immobilize everybody, to force each one to accept the
conditions of his birth as a status from which he could not escape. What
made the colonate, then, was misery.[817] Emancipated slaves and
impoverished peasants met in the class of colons, in state servitude.
The proprietors were only farmers for the state. The tribute was the due
of the state. Laborers were enrolled in the census and held for the
state. The interest of the _fiscus_ held the colon to the soil.[818] The
words "colon" and "slave" are used interchangeably in the _codex
Justinianus_.

+298. Depopulation.+ The depopulation of Italy under the empire is amply
proved. Vespasian moved population from Umbria and the Sabine territory
to the plain of Rome.[819] Marcus Aurelius established the Marcomanni in
Italy.[820] Pertinax offered land in Italy and the provinces to any one
who would cultivate it.[821] Aurelian tried to get land occupied.[822]
He sent barbarians to settle in Tuscany.[823] As time went on more and
more land was abandoned and greater efforts were made to secure
settlers. Valentinian settled German prisoners in the valley of the
Po.[824] In the time of Honorius, in Campania five hundred thousand
arpents were discharged from the _fiscus_ as deserted and waste. In the
third century, if the colon ran away from land which no one would take
he was pursued by all the agencies of the law and brought back like a
criminal.[825] The colons ran away because the _curiales_, their
masters, put on them the taxes which the state levied first on the
_curiales_.[826] What was wanted was men. The Roman imperial system had
made men scarce by making life hard. Pliny said that the _latifundia_
destroyed Italy. The saying has been often quoted in modern times as if
it had some unquestionable authority. It is a case of the common error
of confusing cause and consequence. The _latifundia_ were a consequence
and a symptom. Heisterbergk[827] thinks th