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appears, was felt to be a most oppressive tax.^[1] Doubtless the demand was large in proportion to the lapse of time since the last exaction, and weighed upon those taxed, like a sudden claim for accumulated arrears. When the time for payment arrived, a wail went up from all the small traders whose traffic barely sufficed to keep them in the necessaries of life. To procure the money, parents frequently, it is said, had to sell their sons into servitude and their daughters for prostitution.^[2] There were limited exemptions in favour of ministers of the orthodox faith and retired veterans, who might engage in petty trade; of artists selling their own works; and of farmers who sold only their own produce.^[3] The most popular and, perhaps, the boldest measure of Anastasius, was the abrogation of this tax.^[4] Fortifying himself with the acquies-*

↑ According to an old Biblical commentator, it was called the penalizing gold, "the price of sorrow," as we might say (aurum poenosum or pannosum, the gold of rags, levied even on beggars); see Valesius ad Evagr. loc. cit.; Quaest. Vet. et Nov. Test. 75, ad calc. St. August, (in Migne, iii, 2269). He also is thinking of a poll-tax, didrachma, less than two shillings a head. The Theodosian Code in twenty-one Constitutions is clear and precise as to the incidence of the chrysargyron, and nothing can be interjected extraneous to the definitions there constituted. The quadriennial contribution of Edessa was 140 lb. of gold (£5,600); Joshua Stylites (Wright), Camb. 1882, 31.
↑ Zosimus, ii, 38. He is severe on Constantine for inflicting it, but there must have been something like it before; see Godefroy ad Cod. Theod., XIII, i, 1.
↑ Cod. Theod., XVI, ii, 8, 14, 15; XIII, i, 11, etc.; VII, xx, 3, 9, etc. (also some Court officers; XI, xii, 3); XIII, iv; i, 10.
↑ It is the signal action of Anastasius respecting it which has caused so much notice to be taken of the impost; see esp. Procopius, Gaz. Panegyric., 13. One Timotheus of Gaza is said to have aimed a tragedy at the harshness of it; Cedrenus; Suidas, sb. Timoth. By Code, XI, i, 1, it seems that traces of it remained permanently. Evagrius alludes vaguely to some compensating financial measures of Anastasius; iii, 42; cf. Jn. Malala, p. 394.

[1] According to an old Biblical commentator, it was called the penalizing gold, "the price of sorrow," as we might say (aurum poenosum or pannosum, the gold of rags, levied even on beggars); see Valesius ad Evagr. loc. cit.; Quaest. Vet. et Nov. Test. 75, ad calc. St. August, (in Migne, iii, 2269). He also is thinking of a poll-tax, didrachma, less than two shillings a head. The Theodosian Code in twenty-one Constitutions is clear and precise as to the incidence of the chrysargyron, and nothing can be interjected extraneous to the definitions there constituted. The quadriennial contribution of Edessa was 140 lb. of gold (£5,600); Joshua Stylites (Wright), Camb. 1882, 31.

[2] Zosimus, ii, 38. He is severe on Constantine for inflicting it, but there must have been something like it before; see Godefroy ad Cod. Theod., XIII, i, 1.

[3] Cod. Theod., XVI, ii, 8, 14, 15; XIII, i, 11, etc.; VII, xx, 3, 9, etc. (also some Court officers; XI, xii, 3); XIII, iv; i, 10.

[4] It is the signal action of Anastasius respecting it which has caused so much notice to be taken of the impost; see esp. Procopius, Gaz. Panegyric., 13. One Timotheus of Gaza is said to have aimed a tragedy at the harshness of it; Cedrenus; Suidas, sb. Timoth. By Code, XI, i, 1, it seems that traces of it remained permanently. Evagrius alludes vaguely to some compensating financial measures of Anastasius; iii, 42; cf. Jn. Malala, p. 394.

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