xxviii.leg.2, published the 24th of March, A.D.395, by the emperor Honorius, only two months after the death of his father, Theodosius.

He speaks of 528,042 Roman jugera, which I have reduced to the English measure.

The jugerum contained 28,800 square Roman feet.] Either from design or from accident, the mode of assessment seemed to unite the substance of a land tax with the forms of a capitation.

[178] The returns which were sent of every province or district, expressed the number of tributary subjects, and the amount of the public impositions.
The latter of these sums was divided by the former; and the estimate, that such a province contained so many capita, or heads of tribute; and that each head was rated at such a price, was universally received, not only in the popular, but even in the legal computation.

The value of a tributary head must have varied, according to many accidental, or at least fluctuating circumstances; but some knowledge has been preserved of a very curious fact, the more important, since it relates to one of the richest provinces of the Roman empire, and which now flourishes as the most splendid of the European kingdoms.