his reign saved about half a million sterling per annum, so that at his death he left a surplus in the treasury of nearly £13,000,000.[1]
II. The political position of the Roman Empire in respect of its foreign relations presents a remarkable contrast to anything we are accustomed to conceive of in the case of a modern state. Having absorbed into its own system everything of civilization which lay within reach of its arms, there was henceforth no field in which statesmanship could exert itself by methods of negotiation or diplomacy in relation to the dwellers beyond its borders. Encompassed by barbarians, to live by definite treaty on peaceful terms with its neighbours became outside the range of policy or foresight; and its position is only comparable to that of some great bulwark founded to resist the convulsions of nature, which may leave it unassailed for an indefinite period, or attack it without a moment's warning with irresistible violence. The vast territories stretching from the Rhine and the Danube to the frontiers of China, nearly a quarter of the circumference of
- ↑ 320,000 lb. of gold; Procopius, Anecdot., 19. In the time of Pompey it was thought a considerable achievement when that general raised the income of the Republic to the trifling sum, according to modern ideas, of £3,500,000; Plutarch, Pompey, 45. On the other hand we have the statement of Vespasian, a century later, that he needed close on £400,000,000 to keep the Empire on its legs, a sum almost equal to the requirements of modern Europe, but the scope of his remark is not plain; Suetonius, Vespas., 16. Antoninus Pius, again, with the finances of the whole Empire under his hand during his reign of twenty-three years saved £22,000,000, nearly the same amount per annum as Anastasius for a similar extent of territory; Dion Cass., lxxiii, 8. Such small savings by the most thrifty emperors do not argue a large income. In our own best years a surplus may reach about five per cent. of the receipts. This gives us grounds for a guess that the revenue of Rome after Augustus was something like £20,000,000.
