increased in number and violence. In the capital, Alexandria, the populace
was bribed to peace by bounties and spectacles, but it was watched by a
large military force, was allowed no voice in the government, and became
in the end a violent mob. Agriculture and industry decayed through lack of
incentive; moral disintegration spread; and order was not restored until
Octavius brought Egypt under Roman rule (30 B.C.).
Rome had its socialist interlude under Diocletian [Diocletian, Emperor of
Rome (r. 284-305)]. Faced with increasing poverty and restlessness among
the masses, and with imminent danger of barbarian invasion, he issued in
A.D. 301 an Edictum de pretiis, which denounced monopolists for keeping
goods from the market to raise prices, and set maximum prices and wages
for all important articles and services. Extensive public works were
undertaken to put the unemployed to work, and food was distributed gratis,
or at reduced prices, to the poor. The government–which already owned
most mines, quarries, and salt deposits–brought nearly all major industries
and guilds under detailed control. “In every large town,” we are told, “the
state became a powerful employer,… standing head and shoulders above
the private industrialists, who were in any case crushed by taxation.”
When businessmen predicted ruin, Diocletian explained that the barbarians
were at the gate, and that individual liberty had to be shelved until
collective liberty could be made secure. The socialism of Diocletian was a
war economy, made possible by fear of foreign attack. Other factors equal,
internal liberty varies inversely as external danger.
The task of controlling men in economic detail proved too much for
Diocletian’s expanding, expensive, and corrupt bureaucracy. To support this
officialdom–the army, the court, public works, and the dole–taxation rose to
such heights that men lost incentive to work or earn, and an erosive contest
began between lawyers finding devices to evade taxes and lawyers
formulating laws to prevent evasion. Thousands of Romans, to escape the
taxgatherer, fled over the frontiers to seek refuge among the barbarians.
Seeking to check this elusive mobility, and to facilitate regulation and
