icials of the state. In addition to
their functions as municipal councils, the Senates made recommendations
for the quaestorship and praetorship, discussed with the imperial
officials the taxes which affected the senatorial order and even
participated to a certain extent in drafting imperial legislation.

*The senators and the municipalities.* The most important privilege
enjoyed by the senators was their exemption from the control of the
officials of the municipalities within whose territories their estates
were situated. As we shall see, this was one of the chief reasons for the
extension of their power in the provinces.

V. THE SYSTEM OF TAXATION AND THE RUIN OF THE MUNICIPALITIES

*The system of taxation.* The debasement of the Roman coinage in the
course of the third century resulted in a thorough disorganization of the
public finances, for the taxes and disbursements fixed in terms of money
had no longer their previous value. Diocletian completely reorganized the
financial system by introducing a general scheme of taxation and
remuneration in produce in place of coin, and by establishing a new method
of assessment. This latter consisted in the division of the land, cattle
and agricultural labor into units of equal tax value. The unit of taxation
for land was the _iugum_, which differed in size for arable land,
vineyards and orchards, as well as for soils of varying fertility. A fixed
number of cattle likewise constituted a _iugum_, assessed at the same
value as a _iugum_ of land. The unit of labor, regarded as the equivalent
of the _iugum_ was the _caput_, which was defined as one man or two women
engaged in agricultural occupations. Thus the workers were taxed in
addition to the land they tilled.

*The indiction.* The amount of the land tax to be raised each year was
announced in an annual proclamation called an indiction (_indictio_), and
a revaluation of the tax units was made periodically. The term indiction
was also used of the period between two reassessments, which occurred at
first every five, but after 312 A. D. every fifteen, years. The indictions
thus furnished the basis for a new system of chronology. From the taxes
raised in kind the soldiers and those in the civil service received their
pay in the form of an allowance (_annona_), which might under certain
conditions be commuted for its monetary equivalent.

*Special taxes.* In addition to the land tax raised in the form of produce
on