of anarchy were re-established all the more readily,
that this tax fell essentially on luxuries imported
from the east. To these new or revived sources
of ordinary income were added the sums which accrued
by extraordinary means, especially in consequence
of the civil war, to the victor—the booty
collected in Gaul; the stock of cash in the capital;
the treasures taken from the Italian and Spanish temples;
the sums raised in the shape of forced loan, compulsory
present, or fine, from the dependent communities and
dynasts, and the pecuniary penalties imposed in a similar
way by judicial sentence, or simply by sending an
order to pay, on individual wealthy Romans; and above
all things the proceeds from the estate of defeated
opponents. How productive these sources of income
were, we may learn from the fact, that the fine of
the African capitalists who sat in the opposition-senate
alone amounted to 100,000,000 sesterces (1,000,000
pounds) and the price paid by the purchasers of the
property of Pompeius to 70,000,000 sesterces (700,000
pounds). This course was necessary, because the
power of the beaten nobility rested in great measure
on their colossal wealth and could only be effectually
broken by imposing on them the defrayment of the costs
of the war. But the odium of the confiscations
was in some measure mitigated by the fact that Caesar
directed their proceeds solely to the benefit of the
state, and, instead of overlooking after the manner
of Sulla any act of fraud in his favourites, exacted
the purchase-money with rigour even from his most
faithful adherents, e. g. from Marcus Antonius.
The Budget of Expenditure
In the expenditure a diminution was in the first place
obtained by the considerable restriction of the largesses
of grain. The distribution of corn to the poor
of the capital which was retained, as well as the
kindred supply of oil newly introduced by Caesar for
the Roman baths, were at least in great part charged
once for all on the contributions in kind from Sardinia
and especially from Africa, and were thereby wholly
or for the most part kept separate from the exchequer.
On the other hand the regular expenditure for the
military system was increased partly by the augmentation
of the standing army, partly by the raising of the
pay of the legionary from 480 sesterces (5 pounds)
to 900 (9 pounds) annually. Both steps were in
fact indispensable. There was a total want of
any real defence for the frontiers, and an indispensable
preliminary to it was a considerable increase of the
army. The doubling of the pay was doubtless
employed by Caesar to attach his soldiers firmly to
him,(42) but was not introduced as a permanent innovation
on that account. The former pay of 1 1/3 sesterces
(3 1/4 pence) per day had been fixed in very ancient
times, when money had an altogether different value
from that which it had in the Rome of Caesar’s
day; it could only have been retained down to a period
when the common day-labourer in the capital earned