ulated, that
the sums expended in erecting those buildings would soon be required
at their hands. About that time the avarice of Galerius, or perhaps
the exigencies of the state, had induced him to make a very strict and
rigorous inquisition into the property of his subjects, for the purpose
of a general taxation, both on their lands and on their persons. A very
minute survey appears to have been taken of their real estates; and
wherever there was the slightest suspicion of concealment, torture was
very freely employed to obtain a sincere declaration of their personal
wealth. [21] The privileges which had exalted Italy above the rank of the
provinces were no longer regarded: [211] and the officers of the revenue
already began to number the Roman people, and to settle the proportion
of the new taxes. Even when the spirit of freedom had been utterly
extinguished, the tamest subjects have sometimes ventured to resist
an unprecedented invasion of their property; but on this occasion the
injury was aggravated by the insult, and the sense of private interest
was quickened by that of national honor. The conquest of Macedonia, as
we have already observed, had delivered the Roman people from the weight
of personal taxes.

Though they had experienced every form of despotism, they had now
enjoyed that exemption near five hundred years; nor could they patiently
brook the insolence of an Illyrian peasant, who, from his distant
residence in Asia, presumed to number Rome among the tributary cities
of his empire. The rising fury of the people was encouraged by the
authority, or at least the connivance, of the senate; and the feeble
remains of the Praetorian guards, who had reason to apprehend their
own dissolution, embraced so honorable a pretence, and declared their
readiness to draw their swords in the service of their oppressed
country. It was the wish, and it soon became the hope, of every citizen,
that after expelling from Italy their foreign tyrants, they should
elect a prince who, by the place of his residence, and by his maxims
of government, might once more deserve the title of Roman emperor. The
name, as well as the situation, of Maxentius determined in his favor the
popular enthusiasm.

[Footnote 20: See Gruter. Inscrip. p. 178. The six princes are all
mentioned, Diocletian and Maximian as the senior Augusti, and fathers
of the emperors. They jointly dedicate, for the use of their own Romans,
this magnificent edifice. The