their property had been assessed."[1] From the nature of this tax, it may be inferred that it was arbitrary in its distribution, while, from the rigorous mode of its collection, it could hardly fail to be both unequal and oppressive in its operation. The income tax of our own time has been frequently denounced for its inquisitorial character and the irregularity of the burden imposed on different sections of the people; and if it be difficult now to ascertain, in various branches of trade, the actual amount of a trader's gains, it must have been far more so in ancient days, when the precarious profits of art or labour were capable of only a discretionary valuation.
The laws affecting shipping.
Constans and Julian.
A.D. 527.
It is certain, however, that laws pressing heavily
on the merchant were now greatly modified in favour
of those who followed maritime pursuits—a remarkable
fact, as contrasted with the former legislation of
Rome and the contempt in which seafaring persons
had been previously held. The emperors Valentinian,
Theodosius, and Arcadius exempted the ship-owners
and the sailors who navigated their vessels, from the
payment of taxes, on the ground that the merchant
was enriched by foreign trade, while the mariners
had all the trouble and risk. The fifth title of the
thirteenth book of the Theodosian code referred
exclusively to their interests; while the ninth law
under that head, enacted by the emperors Constans
and Julian, further shelters them from personal
injuries and protects them "from all costs of violent
proceedings, as well as extortions, ordinary and
extraordinary." Nearly two hundred years afterwards
the Emperor Justinian considered it politic to
- ↑ Gibbon, ch. xvii.
