107: Horat. l. ii. Sat. v. Potron. c. 116, &c. Plin. l. ii.
Epist. 20.]

[Footnote 108: Cicero in Philip. ii. c. 16.]

[Footnote 109: See his epistles. Every such will gave him an occasion of
displaying his reverence to the dead, and his justice to the living. He
reconciled both in his behavior to a son who had been disinherited by
his mother, (v.l.)]

In the first and golden years of the reign of Nero, that prince, from a
desire of popularity, and perhaps from a blind impulse of benevolence,
conceived a wish of abolishing the oppression of the customs and excise.
The wisest senators applauded his magnanimity: but they diverted him
from the execution of a design which would have dissolved the strength
and resources of the republic. [110] Had it indeed been possible to
realize this dream of fancy, such princes as Trajan and the Antonines
would surely have embraced with ardor the glorious opportunity of
conferring so signal an obligation on mankind. Satisfied, however, with
alleviating the public burden, they attempted not to remove it. The
mildness and precision of their laws ascertained the rule and measure
of taxation, and protected the subject of every rank against arbitrary
interpretations, antiquated claims, and the insolent vexation of the
farmers of the revenue. [111] For it is somewhat singular, that, in
every age, the best and wisest of the Roman governors persevered in this
pernicious method of collecting the principal branches at least of the
excise and customs. [112]

[Footnote 110: Tacit. Annal. xiii. 50. Esprit des Loix, l. xii. c. 19.]

[Footnote 111: See Pliny's Panegyric, the Augustan History, and Burman
de Vectigal. passim.]

[Footnote 112: The tributes (properly so called) were not farmed; since
the good princes often remitted many millions of arrears.]

The sentiments, and, indeed, the situation, of Caracalla were very
different from those of the Antonines. Inattentive, or rather averse,
to the welfare of his people, he found himself under the necessity of
gratifying the insatiate avarice which he had excited in the army.
Of the several impositions introduced by Augustus, the twentieth on
inheritances and legacies was the most fruitful, as well as the most
comprehensive. As its influence was not confined to Rome or Italy, the
produce continually increased with the gradual extension of the Roman
City. The new citizens, though charged, on equal terms, [113] with the
payment of new taxes, which