Chapter 42

[1750]extraneos et alienos; that is, belonging to someone else.[1751]et miramur si nos barbari capiunt, cum fratres nostros faciamus esse captivos?[1752]I think de Coulanges is too severe on the rhetoric of Salvian (pp 141-3). After all, the Codes do not give one a favourable picture of the later colonate, and the Empire did fall in the West.[1753]This arrangement was especially frequent in the East. See on Libaniuspp 400-1, and cod ThXI24de patrociniis vicorum, cf cod JustXI54. But so far as individuals were concerned it was widespread.[1754]Seeck cites cod ThIII1 § 2 [337],XI1 § 26 [399], 3 §§ 1-5 [319-391], and for the legal tricks used to defeat the ruleXI3 § 3.[1755]de gub DeiV§ 18quae enim sunt non modo urbes sed etiam municipia atque vici ubi non quot curiales fuerint tot tyranni sunt?[1756]Fromadscribere, to record the liability of the lord, hiscolonicame to be calledadscripticii. WeberAgrargeschichtep 258.[1757]Cod ThXI1 § 26 [399] refers especially to Gaul. He isservus terraein fact, as WeberAgrargeschichtep 258 remarks.[1758]In Esmein’sMélanges[1886] there is an excellent essay on some of the letters of Sidonius discussed here, forestalling a number of my conclusions.[1759]See SeeckII175 foll.[1760]SidonepistI10.[1761]See Dill,Roman Society in the last century of the Western Empire, p 179.[1762]SeeepistII2, 9, 14,IV24,VIII4.[1763]epistVII12 § 3.[1764]quia sic habenas Galliarum moderarere ut possessor exhaustus tributario iugo relevaretur.[1765]Instances inepistIII1,VI10.[1766]epistIII5.[1767]suffragio vestro.[1768]epistVI10.[1769]domesticis fidei, already, it seems, a stereotyped phrase. See Ducange.[1770]debitum glaebae canonem.[1771]epistVI12.[1772]See Dill, bookIVch 3.[1773]aggeres publici, cfepistII9 § 2,IV24 § 2. It is an official expression, used by jurists.[1774]No doubt some were castles, more or less defensible. Theburgusof Leontius by the Garonne was such, cfcarmXXII121-5.[1775]epistI6,VII15,VIII8.[1776]epistII14.[1777]epistIV9 § 1,VII14 § 11.libertimentionedVII16. See Dill p 178.[1778]epistVIII4 § 1.[1779]epistII2. Cf Dill pp 168-72.[1780]InepistIII9 is a curious case of a farmer who owned slaves and in his slack simplicity let them be enticed away to Britain.[1781]Dill p 220, citingepistIV24. See Esmein pp 377-83 for the legal points of the case.[1782]centesima, that is 1%per mensem, I suppose.[1783]epistIX6. See Dill pp 174-5.[1784]epistV19.[1785]sub condicione concedo, si stupratorem pro domino iam patronus originali solvas inquilinatu.[1786]mox cliens factus e tributario plebeiam potius incipiat habere personam quam colonariam.[1787]He calls his solutioncompositio seu satisfactio. Esmein pp 364 foll shews thatcompositiowas now a regular expression for the practice of avoiding the strict Roman Law, under barbarian and ecclesiastical influences.[1788]See Index,inquilini, and de Coulanges pp 65, 74, 85.[1789]See de Coulanges pp 100-1.[1790]See this question fully discussed by Esmein pp 370-5. Also the doubts of de Coulanges pp 101, 104.[1791]For this point see Seeck,Schatzungsordnungpp 314-5.[1792]Cod ThV18 [10]si quis colonus originalis vel inquilinus... etc. And below,originarius[419]. Cod JustXI48 § 13inquilinos colonosve, quorum quantum ad originem pertinet vindicandam indiscreta eademque paene videtur esse condicio, licet sit discrimen in nomine, ... etc, and § 14causam originis et proprietatis. The limiting wordpaenemay refer to difference in mode of payment of taxes. These laws, retained in cod Just, date from 400.[1793]Seeck just cited. Weber,Agrargeschichtep 257.[1794]E MeyerKl Schrp 185 takes the words of AristotlePolI2 § 5 ὁ γὰρ βοῦς ἀντ’ οἰκέτου τοῖς πένησίν ἐστιν as proving that even in Ar’s time the small farmer had to do without a slave. I think they prove that if he could not afford a slave he must do with an ox only. For the additional protection of the ox seeIndex. Cf Maine,Early Law and Custompp 249-51.[1795]E MeyerKl Schriftenp 179 will only use the wordslavesof a part of these, but the distinction does not matter here.[1796]See DigXXXII§ 99 (Paulus), andXXXIII7passim, especially § 25¹.[1797]That religious scruple was opposed to keeping members of the same race-unit in slavery is most probable. Thistrans Tiberimrule is known from GelliusXX1 § 47, referring to debt-slaves. Greeks however, even when abhorring the enslavement of Greek by Greek in principle, did not discontinue the practice. E MeyerKl Schrp 202 compares the medieval scruple in reference to brother Christians. See also his remarks p 177. For Hebrew law and custom seeEncyclopaedia Biblica(1903) volIVand Hastings’Dictionary of the Bible(1902) volIV, articlesSlavery.[1798]Different also from the position of a food-producer class in a great territorial state, being based on local conditions.[1799]Illustrated with great clearness in the provisions of the Gortyn laws.[1800]VarroRRI17 § 2 onobaerariiorobaerati.[1801]The relative importance of land and the means of cultivation [especially oxen] in early times, the power thus gained by chiefs granting cattle to tenants, and the connexion of these phenomena with legends of debt-slavery, are instructively discussed in Maine’sEarly history of Institutions, lectureVI.[1802]Mr G G Coulton kindly reminds me of an analogy observable in the history of Art. It is progressive on simple lines up to a certain point. Then it begins to ramify, and differences of taste become more acute. Hence an anarchy of taste, driving men to yearn (like Ruskin, Morris, etc.) for the old simplicity. So the peasant up to a point is useful and noble. But fresh currents of civilization alter his position. Then men yearn for the old simplicity, only defective through being essentially simple.[1803]Mr Zimmern,The Greek Commonwealthpp 265 foll, has some interesting remarks on craftsmen as wage-earners, and points out their preference for serving the state rather than private employers. The latter plan would have put them almost in the position of slaves.[1804]When food was provided, we must reckon it as part of his wage.[1805]A vast number of Greek records of manumission refer to such cases.[1806]See Francotte,L’Industrie dans la Grèce anciennebookIIchap 5,La concurrence servile. I cannot follow E MeyerKl Schrpp 198-201. And the oft-cited passage of Timaeus (AthenVI264 d), where free Phocians object to slaves taking their employment, refers solely to domestic and personal attendance.[1807]Of this there is abundant American evidence from writers on Slavery. The hired slave sometimes got a higher wage than the hired freeman.[1808]See Whitaker’s Almanack, and the exposure of an impudent agency for the purpose in theTimes15 Sept 1914.[1809]Compare Wendell Phillips ‘Before this there had been among us scattered and single abolitionists, earnest and able men; sometimes, like Wythe of Virginia, in high places. The Quakers and Covenanters had never intermitted their testimony against slavery. But Garrison was the first man to begin amovementdesigned to annihilate slavery.’ Speech at G’s funeral 1879.[1810]Prof Bury,Idea of Progressp 275, points out that Guizot noted that Christianity did not in its early stages aim at any improvement of social conditions.[1811]The conclusions reached in this paragraph are in agreement with E MeyerKl Schrpp 151-2, 155, 205, 209. But he seems to put the decline of the slave-gang system rather earlier than I venture to do.[1812]We must bear in mind that a tenant was naturally unwilling to work for a margin of profit not to be retained by himself. Hence the tendency to find means of constraining him to do so.[1813]coloniorquasi coloni, cf DigXV3 § 16,XXXIII8 § 23³, orXXXIII7 §§ 12³, 18⁴, 20¹, and numerous other references.[1814]The compulsory tenure of municipal offices is commonly cited as illustrating the pressure even on men of means. It began in the second century. See DigL1 § 38⁶, 2 § 1 [Ulpian], 4 § 14⁶ [Callistratus citing Hadrian], and many other passages. Notable isL4 § 4¹honores qui indicuntur[Ulpian].[1815]This topic is the subject of Churchill Babington’s Hulsean dissertation, Cambridge 1846. I learn that a pamphlet by Brecht,Sklaverei und Christentum, takes a less favourable view, but have not seen it. The survival of the colonate and its heavy burdens in the early Middle Age are treated by de Coulanges, particularly in connexion with the estates of the Church.[1816]The slow progress of emancipation is referred to by E MeyerKl Schrp 178, of course from a very different point of view. He mentions that slavery was not completely forbidden in Prussia till 1857, and is against its abolition in German colonies. Seeley in hisLife of Steinpoints out that the armies of Frederic the Great were mainly recruited from serfs.[1817]The Turk and his Rayahs furnishes a very striking illustration.[1818]E Meyer,Kl Schrp 188.[1819]Since writing this section I have found in Prof Bury’sIdea of Progresspp 269-70 a passage which seems to justify the objection here raised, though it occurs in a different connexion.[1820]It is perhaps hardly necessary to refer to the great economic disturbance caused by the Black Death in fourteenth century England.[1821]John Spargo,Bolshevism, the enemy of political and industrial Democracy. London, J Murray 1919. I think I may accept the author’s evidence on the points here referred to, confirmed as it is by other observers. See his remarks pp 69, 156, 275, 278, in particular. That the same sharp distinction between peasant and wage-earner is drawn by the Socialists in other countries also, and is to them a stumbling-block, is clearly to be seen in King and Okey’sItaly today. Seeappendix.[1822]A remarkable article in theTimesof 10 May 1920 describes the influences tending in the opposite direction in the United States, particularly the workman’s prospect of proprietorship.[1823]For the survival of the colonate in the West see de Coulanges pp 145-86.[1824]See Krumbacher’s history of Byzantine Literature in Iwan Müller’s Handbuch, and Oder’s article in Pauly-Wissowa.[1825]VarroRRI17 §§ 3, 4.[1826]In theJournal of Hellenic Studies1910 and 1912. There the views of Zachariä are discussed.[1827]The truth seems to be that serfage had never become so widespread in the East as in the West, as Mr Bouchier,Syria as a Roman Provincep 181, points out.[1828]VolIIpp 418-421.[1829]Sir W. Herringham,A Physician in France, pp 167-8 on Peasantry as a strength to the State.

[1750]extraneos et alienos; that is, belonging to someone else.

[1751]et miramur si nos barbari capiunt, cum fratres nostros faciamus esse captivos?

[1752]I think de Coulanges is too severe on the rhetoric of Salvian (pp 141-3). After all, the Codes do not give one a favourable picture of the later colonate, and the Empire did fall in the West.

[1753]This arrangement was especially frequent in the East. See on Libaniuspp 400-1, and cod ThXI24de patrociniis vicorum, cf cod JustXI54. But so far as individuals were concerned it was widespread.

[1754]Seeck cites cod ThIII1 § 2 [337],XI1 § 26 [399], 3 §§ 1-5 [319-391], and for the legal tricks used to defeat the ruleXI3 § 3.

[1755]de gub DeiV§ 18quae enim sunt non modo urbes sed etiam municipia atque vici ubi non quot curiales fuerint tot tyranni sunt?

[1756]Fromadscribere, to record the liability of the lord, hiscolonicame to be calledadscripticii. WeberAgrargeschichtep 258.

[1757]Cod ThXI1 § 26 [399] refers especially to Gaul. He isservus terraein fact, as WeberAgrargeschichtep 258 remarks.

[1758]In Esmein’sMélanges[1886] there is an excellent essay on some of the letters of Sidonius discussed here, forestalling a number of my conclusions.

[1759]See SeeckII175 foll.

[1760]SidonepistI10.

[1761]See Dill,Roman Society in the last century of the Western Empire, p 179.

[1762]SeeepistII2, 9, 14,IV24,VIII4.

[1763]epistVII12 § 3.

[1764]quia sic habenas Galliarum moderarere ut possessor exhaustus tributario iugo relevaretur.

[1765]Instances inepistIII1,VI10.

[1766]epistIII5.

[1767]suffragio vestro.

[1768]epistVI10.

[1769]domesticis fidei, already, it seems, a stereotyped phrase. See Ducange.

[1770]debitum glaebae canonem.

[1771]epistVI12.

[1772]See Dill, bookIVch 3.

[1773]aggeres publici, cfepistII9 § 2,IV24 § 2. It is an official expression, used by jurists.

[1774]No doubt some were castles, more or less defensible. Theburgusof Leontius by the Garonne was such, cfcarmXXII121-5.

[1775]epistI6,VII15,VIII8.

[1776]epistII14.

[1777]epistIV9 § 1,VII14 § 11.libertimentionedVII16. See Dill p 178.

[1778]epistVIII4 § 1.

[1779]epistII2. Cf Dill pp 168-72.

[1780]InepistIII9 is a curious case of a farmer who owned slaves and in his slack simplicity let them be enticed away to Britain.

[1781]Dill p 220, citingepistIV24. See Esmein pp 377-83 for the legal points of the case.

[1782]centesima, that is 1%per mensem, I suppose.

[1783]epistIX6. See Dill pp 174-5.

[1784]epistV19.

[1785]sub condicione concedo, si stupratorem pro domino iam patronus originali solvas inquilinatu.

[1786]mox cliens factus e tributario plebeiam potius incipiat habere personam quam colonariam.

[1787]He calls his solutioncompositio seu satisfactio. Esmein pp 364 foll shews thatcompositiowas now a regular expression for the practice of avoiding the strict Roman Law, under barbarian and ecclesiastical influences.

[1788]See Index,inquilini, and de Coulanges pp 65, 74, 85.

[1789]See de Coulanges pp 100-1.

[1790]See this question fully discussed by Esmein pp 370-5. Also the doubts of de Coulanges pp 101, 104.

[1791]For this point see Seeck,Schatzungsordnungpp 314-5.

[1792]Cod ThV18 [10]si quis colonus originalis vel inquilinus... etc. And below,originarius[419]. Cod JustXI48 § 13inquilinos colonosve, quorum quantum ad originem pertinet vindicandam indiscreta eademque paene videtur esse condicio, licet sit discrimen in nomine, ... etc, and § 14causam originis et proprietatis. The limiting wordpaenemay refer to difference in mode of payment of taxes. These laws, retained in cod Just, date from 400.

[1793]Seeck just cited. Weber,Agrargeschichtep 257.

[1794]E MeyerKl Schrp 185 takes the words of AristotlePolI2 § 5 ὁ γὰρ βοῦς ἀντ’ οἰκέτου τοῖς πένησίν ἐστιν as proving that even in Ar’s time the small farmer had to do without a slave. I think they prove that if he could not afford a slave he must do with an ox only. For the additional protection of the ox seeIndex. Cf Maine,Early Law and Custompp 249-51.

[1795]E MeyerKl Schriftenp 179 will only use the wordslavesof a part of these, but the distinction does not matter here.

[1796]See DigXXXII§ 99 (Paulus), andXXXIII7passim, especially § 25¹.

[1797]That religious scruple was opposed to keeping members of the same race-unit in slavery is most probable. Thistrans Tiberimrule is known from GelliusXX1 § 47, referring to debt-slaves. Greeks however, even when abhorring the enslavement of Greek by Greek in principle, did not discontinue the practice. E MeyerKl Schrp 202 compares the medieval scruple in reference to brother Christians. See also his remarks p 177. For Hebrew law and custom seeEncyclopaedia Biblica(1903) volIVand Hastings’Dictionary of the Bible(1902) volIV, articlesSlavery.

[1798]Different also from the position of a food-producer class in a great territorial state, being based on local conditions.

[1799]Illustrated with great clearness in the provisions of the Gortyn laws.

[1800]VarroRRI17 § 2 onobaerariiorobaerati.

[1801]The relative importance of land and the means of cultivation [especially oxen] in early times, the power thus gained by chiefs granting cattle to tenants, and the connexion of these phenomena with legends of debt-slavery, are instructively discussed in Maine’sEarly history of Institutions, lectureVI.

[1802]Mr G G Coulton kindly reminds me of an analogy observable in the history of Art. It is progressive on simple lines up to a certain point. Then it begins to ramify, and differences of taste become more acute. Hence an anarchy of taste, driving men to yearn (like Ruskin, Morris, etc.) for the old simplicity. So the peasant up to a point is useful and noble. But fresh currents of civilization alter his position. Then men yearn for the old simplicity, only defective through being essentially simple.

[1803]Mr Zimmern,The Greek Commonwealthpp 265 foll, has some interesting remarks on craftsmen as wage-earners, and points out their preference for serving the state rather than private employers. The latter plan would have put them almost in the position of slaves.

[1804]When food was provided, we must reckon it as part of his wage.

[1805]A vast number of Greek records of manumission refer to such cases.

[1806]See Francotte,L’Industrie dans la Grèce anciennebookIIchap 5,La concurrence servile. I cannot follow E MeyerKl Schrpp 198-201. And the oft-cited passage of Timaeus (AthenVI264 d), where free Phocians object to slaves taking their employment, refers solely to domestic and personal attendance.

[1807]Of this there is abundant American evidence from writers on Slavery. The hired slave sometimes got a higher wage than the hired freeman.

[1808]See Whitaker’s Almanack, and the exposure of an impudent agency for the purpose in theTimes15 Sept 1914.

[1809]Compare Wendell Phillips ‘Before this there had been among us scattered and single abolitionists, earnest and able men; sometimes, like Wythe of Virginia, in high places. The Quakers and Covenanters had never intermitted their testimony against slavery. But Garrison was the first man to begin amovementdesigned to annihilate slavery.’ Speech at G’s funeral 1879.

[1810]Prof Bury,Idea of Progressp 275, points out that Guizot noted that Christianity did not in its early stages aim at any improvement of social conditions.

[1811]The conclusions reached in this paragraph are in agreement with E MeyerKl Schrpp 151-2, 155, 205, 209. But he seems to put the decline of the slave-gang system rather earlier than I venture to do.

[1812]We must bear in mind that a tenant was naturally unwilling to work for a margin of profit not to be retained by himself. Hence the tendency to find means of constraining him to do so.

[1813]coloniorquasi coloni, cf DigXV3 § 16,XXXIII8 § 23³, orXXXIII7 §§ 12³, 18⁴, 20¹, and numerous other references.

[1814]The compulsory tenure of municipal offices is commonly cited as illustrating the pressure even on men of means. It began in the second century. See DigL1 § 38⁶, 2 § 1 [Ulpian], 4 § 14⁶ [Callistratus citing Hadrian], and many other passages. Notable isL4 § 4¹honores qui indicuntur[Ulpian].

[1815]This topic is the subject of Churchill Babington’s Hulsean dissertation, Cambridge 1846. I learn that a pamphlet by Brecht,Sklaverei und Christentum, takes a less favourable view, but have not seen it. The survival of the colonate and its heavy burdens in the early Middle Age are treated by de Coulanges, particularly in connexion with the estates of the Church.

[1816]The slow progress of emancipation is referred to by E MeyerKl Schrp 178, of course from a very different point of view. He mentions that slavery was not completely forbidden in Prussia till 1857, and is against its abolition in German colonies. Seeley in hisLife of Steinpoints out that the armies of Frederic the Great were mainly recruited from serfs.

[1817]The Turk and his Rayahs furnishes a very striking illustration.

[1818]E Meyer,Kl Schrp 188.

[1819]Since writing this section I have found in Prof Bury’sIdea of Progresspp 269-70 a passage which seems to justify the objection here raised, though it occurs in a different connexion.

[1820]It is perhaps hardly necessary to refer to the great economic disturbance caused by the Black Death in fourteenth century England.

[1821]John Spargo,Bolshevism, the enemy of political and industrial Democracy. London, J Murray 1919. I think I may accept the author’s evidence on the points here referred to, confirmed as it is by other observers. See his remarks pp 69, 156, 275, 278, in particular. That the same sharp distinction between peasant and wage-earner is drawn by the Socialists in other countries also, and is to them a stumbling-block, is clearly to be seen in King and Okey’sItaly today. Seeappendix.

[1822]A remarkable article in theTimesof 10 May 1920 describes the influences tending in the opposite direction in the United States, particularly the workman’s prospect of proprietorship.

[1823]For the survival of the colonate in the West see de Coulanges pp 145-86.

[1824]See Krumbacher’s history of Byzantine Literature in Iwan Müller’s Handbuch, and Oder’s article in Pauly-Wissowa.

[1825]VarroRRI17 §§ 3, 4.

[1826]In theJournal of Hellenic Studies1910 and 1912. There the views of Zachariä are discussed.

[1827]The truth seems to be that serfage had never become so widespread in the East as in the West, as Mr Bouchier,Syria as a Roman Provincep 181, points out.

[1828]VolIIpp 418-421.

[1829]Sir W. Herringham,A Physician in France, pp 167-8 on Peasantry as a strength to the State.

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