agricultural population, they refer only to civil taxation, not to religious dues (see The

Temple). But, even so, we have not exhausted the list of contributions demanded of a

Jew. For, every town and community levied its own taxes for the maintenance of

synagogue, elementary schools, public baths, the support of the poor, the maintenance

of public roads, city walls, and gates, and other general requirements. It must, however,

be admitted that the Jewish authorities distributed this burden of civic taxation both

easily and kindly, and that they applied the revenues derived from it for the public

welfare in a manner scarcely yet attained in the most civilized countries. The Rabbinical

arrangements for public education, health, and charity were, in every respect, far in

advance of modern legislation, although here also they took care themselves not to take

the grievous burdens which they laid upon others, by expressly exempting from civic

taxes all those who devoted themselves to the study of the law.

But the Roman taxation, which bore upon Israel with such crushing weight, was quite of

its own kind--systematic, cruel, relentless, and utterly regardless. In general, the

provinces of the Roman Empire, and what of Palestine belonged to them, were subject to

two great taxes --poll-tax (or rather income -tax) and ground-tax. All property and income

that fell not under the ground-tax was subject to poll-tax; which amounted, for Syria and

Cilicia, to one per cent. The "poll-tax" was really twofold, consisting of income -tax and

head-money, the latter, of course, the same in all cases, and levied on all persons (bond

or free) up to the age of sixty-five--women being liable from the age of twelve and men

from that of fourteen. Landed property was subject to a tax of one-tenth of all grain, and

one-fifth of the wine and fruit grown, partly paid in product and partly commuted into

Besides these, there was tax and duty on all imports and exports, levied on the great

public highways and in the seaports. Then there was bridge-money and road-money,

and duty on all that was bought and sold in the towns. These, which may be called the

regular taxes, were irrespective of any forced contributions, and of the support which

had to be furnished to the Roman procurator and his household and court at Caesarea.

To avoid all possible loss to the treasury, the proconsul of Syria, Quirinus (Cyrenius),

had taken a regular census to show the number of the population and their means. This

was a terrible crime in the eyes of the Rabbis, who remembers that, if numbering the

people had been reckoned such great sin of old, the evil must be an hundredfold

increased, if done by heathens and for their own purposes. Another offence lay in the

thought, that tribute, hitherto only given to Jehovah, was now to be paid to a heathen

emperor. "Is it lawful to pay tribute unto Caesar?" was a sore question, which many an

Israelite put to himself as he placed the emperor's poll-tax beside the half-shekel of the

sanctuary, and the tithe of his field, vineyard, and orchard, claimed by the tax-gatherer,

along with that which he had hitherto only given unto the Lord. Even the purpose with

which this inquiry was brought before Christ--to entrap Him in a political

denunciation--shows, how much it was agitated among patriotic Jews; and it cost rivers

of blood before it was not answered, but silenced.

The Romans had a peculiar way of levying these taxes --not directly, but indirectly --

which kept the treasury quite safe, whatever harm it might inflict on the taxpayer, while

at the same time it threw upon him the whole cost of the collection. Senators and

magistrates were prohibited from engaging in business or trade; but the highest order,

the equestrian, was largely composed of great capitalists. These Roman knights formed

joint-stock companies, which bought at public auction the revenues of a province at a

fixed price, generally for five years. The board had its chairman, or magister, and its

offices at Rome. These were the real Publicani, or publicans, who often underlet certain

of the taxes. The Publicani, or those who held from them, employed either slaves or

some of the lower classes in the country as tax-gatherers --the publicans of the New

Testament. Similarly, all other imposts were farmed and collected; some of them being

very onerous, and amounting to an ad valorem duty of two and a half, of five, and in

articles of luxury even of twelve and a half per cent. Harbour-dues were higher than

ordinary tolls, and smuggling or a false declaration was punished by confiscation of the