refore
generally quartered on the frontiers. There they had their _stativa_, or
stations, which were strong intrenched camps, many of them fitted even
for a winter residence. The communication between these camps, the
colonies, and the municipal towns was formed by great roads, which they
called military ways. The two principal of these ran in almost straight
lines, the whole length of England, from north to south. Two others
intersected them from east to west. The remains show them to have been
in their perfection noble works, in all respects worthy the Roman
military prudence and the majesty of the Empire. The Anglo-Saxons called
them streets.[24] Of all the Roman works, they respected and kept up
these alone. They regarded them, with a sort of sacred reverence,
granting them a peculiar protection and great immunities. Those who
travelled on them were privileged from arrests in all civil suits.

As the general character of the Roman government was hard and austere,
it was particularly so in what regarded the revenue. This revenue was
either fixed or occasional. The fixed consisted, first, of an annual tax
on persons and lands, but in what proportion to the fortunes of the one
or the value of the other I have not been able to ascertain. Next was
the imposition called _decuma_, which consisted of a tenth, and often a
greater portion of the corn of the province, which was generally
delivered in kind. Of all other products a fifth was paid. After this
tenth had been exacted on the corn, they were obliged to sell another
tenth, or a more considerable part, to the praetor, at a price estimated
by himself. Even what remained was still subject to be bought up in the
some manner, and at the pleasure of the same magistrate, who,
independent of these taxes and purchases, received for the use of his
household a large portion of the corn of the province. The most valuable
of the pasture grounds were also reserved to the public, and a
considerable revenue was thence derived, which they called _scriptura_.
The state made a monopoly of almost the whole produce of the land, which
paid several taxes, and was further enhanced by passing through several
hands before it came to popular consumption.

The third great branch of the Roman revenue was the _portorium_, which
did not differ from those impositions which we now call customs and
duties of export and import.

This was the ordinary revenue; besides which there were occasional
impo