with associates on a different staff, or the general public, unless under restrictions which were almost prohibitive. Within the same category were ruled the masters or owners of freight-*ships,[1] chartered to convey the annones and tributes, of which the Alexandrian corn-fleet[2] constituted the main section. Those addicted to this vocation in the public interest were necessarily men of some private means, as they were obliged to build and maintain the vessels at their own expense; but they were rewarded by liberal allowances, and were almost exempt in respect of the laws affecting the persons and property of ordinary citizens. The lot of this class of the community appears to have been tolerable, and was even, perhaps, desirable,[3] but that of the Decurions, the members of the local senates, was absolutely unbearable.[4] In relation to their fellow townsmen their duties do not seem to have been onerous, but as collectors of the revenue they were
- [Footnote: cf. IX, xl, 2; Cod., XI, ix, 2. Scarcely less stringent were the rules by
which even the private guilds or colleges were governed. All the trades were incorporated in such associations under an official charter; Cod. Theod., XIV, ii-viii. But the note of personal liberty had already been sounded, and the more coercive restrictions were omitted from the later Code; cf. Choisy, L'art de batir chez les Byzantins, Paris, 1883, p. 200, etc. (Mommsen's pioneer work on guilds is well known).]
- ↑ Cod. Theod., XIII, v, vi, ix; Cod., X, ii, etc. (and Godefroy).
- ↑ Procopius, De Aedfiic., v, 1.
- ↑ Although their property was held in lien by the state as security for the maintenance of ships, it appears that they could grow rich through the facilities they enjoyed for private commerce and possess an independent fortune; Cod. Theod., XIII, vi; cf. Pand., L, iv, 5. Hence some joined voluntarily.
- ↑ Cod. Theod., XII, i. This title, the longest of all (192 laws), provides us with a plummet with which we may sound the depths of their misery, and exemplifies their eagerness to escape to any other mode of existence as well as the stringency with which they were reclaimed.
