Note 634 — Chapter II · THE ROMAN EMPIRE UNDER ANASTASIUS: THE INHERITANCE OF JUSTINIAN

According to an old Biblical commentator, it was called the penalizing gold, “the price of sorrow,” as we might say (aurum poenosum or pannosum, the gold of rags, levied even on beggars); see Valesius ad Evagr. loc. cit.; Quaest. Vet. et Nov. Test. 75, ad calc. St. August, (in Migne, iii, 2269). He also is thinking of a poll-tax, didrachma, less than two shillings a head. The Theodosian Code in twenty-one Constitutions is clear and precise as to the incidence of the chrysargyron, and nothing can be interjected extraneous to the definitions there constituted. The quadriennial contribution of Edessa was 140 lb. of gold (£5,600); Joshua Stylites (Wright), Camb. 1882, 31.