n, the taxes in the provinces which he has already cited, they
will amount, considering the augmentations made by Augustus, to nearly
that sum. There remain also the provinces of Italy, of Rhaetia, of
Noricum, Pannonia, and Greece, &c., &c. Let us pay attention, besides,
to the prodigious expenditure of some emperors, (Suet. Vesp. 16;) we
shall see that such a revenue could not be sufficient. The authors of
the Universal History, part xii., assign forty millions sterling as the
sum to about which the public revenue might amount.--G. from W.]

Notwithstanding the seeming probability of both these conclusions,
the latter of them at least is positively disowned by the language
and conduct of Augustus. It is not easy to determine whether, on this
occasion, he acted as the common father of the Roman world, or as the
oppressor of liberty; whether he wished to relieve the provinces, or
to impoverish the senate and the equestrian order. But no sooner had
he assumed the reins of government, than he frequently intimated the
insufficiency of the tributes, and the necessity of throwing an
equitable proportion of the public burden upon Rome and Italy. [961] In
the prosecution of this unpopular design, he advanced, however, by
cautious and well-weighed steps. The introduction of customs was
followed by the establishment of an excise, and the scheme of taxation
was completed by an artful assessment on the real and personal property
of the Roman citizens, who had been exempted from any kind of
contribution above a century and a half.

[Footnote 961: It is not astonishing that Augustus held
this language. The senate declared also under Nero, that the state could
not exist without the imposts as well augmented as founded by Augustus.
Tac. Ann. xiii. 50. After the abolition of the different tributes paid
by Italy, an abolition which took place A. U. 646, 694, and 695, the
state derived no revenues from that great country, but the twentieth
part of the manumissions, (vicesima manumissionum,) and Ciero laments
this in many places, particularly in his epistles to ii. 15.--G. from
W.]

I. In a great empire like that of Rome, a natural balance of money must
have gradually established itself. It has been already observed, that as
the wealth of the provinces was attracted to the capital by the strong
hand of conquest and power, so a considerable part of it was restored to
the industrious provinces by the gentle influence of commerce and arts.