Commodus, the first emperor of the red horseman, emptied the state treasury on bread and circuses for the citizens, in an attempt to purchase their favor. Subsequent emperors were unable to refill it, and new taxes were devised, which were ever increased. Farmers who could no longer afford to farm left their lands and crowded into Rome, where bread was given to the people as welfare, to secure their favor for whatever emperor happened to be on the throne at the time. (The First Four Seals:96-300 AD, pg. 26).
“Most of the small farmers gave up the struggle to keep their little bit of land, for the taxes had become unbearable … The once sturdy farmer lost his independence in an eager scramble for a place in the waiting line of city poor, to whom the government distributed free bread, wine, and meat. Rome was filled with the unemployed who were supported by the State with money which had been raised by taxing more heavily the few remaining farmers. The same situation was, in the main, to be found in all the leading cities.”
James Robinson and James Breasted, History of Europe: Ancient and Medieval, pp. 260, 261.
“The time [of the city poor] which should have been spent in breadwinning was worse than wasted among the cheering multitudes at the chariot races, bloody games, and barbarous spectacles.”
James Breasted, Ancient Times: A History of the Early World, pg. 670.
“An empty treasury required economy and retrenchment, while a greedy soldiery and a demoralised people clamoured for shows and a donative. … He [Caracallus] endeavoured to secure the affections of the soldiers by combining excessive rewards for service with very remiss discipline, thus doubly injuring the Empire. The vigor of the army melted away under his lax rule; and the resources of the State were exhausted by his ruinous profuseness, which led him to devise new and ingenious modes of increasing taxation.”
George Rawlinson, Ancient History: From the Earliest Times to the Fall of the Western Empire, pp. 502, 504.
The unceasing civil wars ruined business, as we saw, and inflation grew apace. (The First Four Seals: 96-300 AD, pg. 26).
“At the same time the financial and business life of the cities was also declining. The country communities no longer possessed a numerous purchasing population. Hence the country market for the goods manufactured in the cities was so seriously reduced that city industries could no longer dispose of their products. They rapidly declined. The industrial classes were thrown out of work and went to increase the multitudes of the city poor.”
James Breasted, Ancient Times: A History of the Early World, p. 670.
“Romans in the 1st and 2nd centuries counted coins, rather than weighing them—an indication that the coin was valued on its face, not for its metal content. This tendency toward fiat money led eventually to the debasement of Roman coinage, with consequences in the later Empire.”
“Roman Empire: Currency and Banking,” Wikipedia.
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