* This journey is very fully discussed in Jowrn. of Hell. Stud. 1881, p. 48 ff. oe
+ Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 26, Hpist. ix. 33. 10.
+ Pliny, Hist. viii. 8. 6.
§ It was called diacsiopues, dieoeiev, Lk 314 (addressed to the soldiers on duty at an Imperial estate, probably near Jericho, who in later times would have been called stationarti, see Domaszewski, loc. cit.); CID iii. 12336, 14191 ; Pap. Oxyrynch. ii. 240, 284, 285.
|| CLL iii, 14191 Thrace). nl z
4 Ulpian, Dig. iii. 2. 4. 2; xxu. 2. 43. 1 and 9; Cod. iv. 56. 35 Tertullian, de Fuga in Persecut. 13; see also Marquardt, Privatl. p. 471, n. 5. : q :
%* See, e.g., Ro 1218, 1 Ti 32, Tit 18, 1 P 49, He 132; Clem. Rom, ad Cor. i. 10-12. 35.
(Appia in Phrygia), 12336 (Skaptopara in
394 ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN NT)
ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN NT)
because ordinary society lacked them and cared not for them. On the contrary, hospitality was in all probability generally and regularly practised in pagan society. Nor was hospitality recom- mended merely on the general ground that it is a good thing: the advice and exhortations in early Christian literature are always given with a clear reference to the actual position and failings and interests of the people concerned, The reason for recommending it lies in the needs of the Christian travellers: they ought not to be left to the corrupt and nauseous surroundings of the inns kept by per- sons of the worst class in existing society. Gaius of Corinth, that meeting-place of nations, was re- membered by Paul as the host of himself and of the whole Church (Ro 16?%),
The reference in Lk 10® opens up the question of the expense of inns. The Samaritan there pays two denarii, about two franes, for the expense incurred at an inn for two persons for one night ; he can hardly have intended this to cover part of any future expense, as the wounded person needed further care ; for he promised to pay any expenditure beyond that amount, and it is not clear that there was any surplus after paying the night’s expenses. The pay of a private in the Roman legions during the 1st cent. was a little over half a denarius per day, of a pretorian apparently two denarii; but the soldiers were dis- contented and mutinied, claiming a full denarius of daily pay (Tacitus, Annals, i. 17 and 26). Per- haps the action of the Samaritan was only a liberal payment of the bill already incurred, with a pro- mise to pay any further expenses.
iv. CUSTOMS, ROAD-TAXES OR TOLLS, AND FRONTIER DuTIES. — Among the incidents of travel, custom-house examinations did not fail. Personal effects were free from duty; but mer- chandise of every kind was liable to a duty, sometimes by tariff, generally ad valorem, at the frontier of each of the provinces. Duties collected from travellers to pay for the maintenance of roads may be summed up along with the customs duties : there is not enough of evidence about them, but their existence seems certain.
Attempts to defraud the customs officers were numerous and varied: mille artibus circumscribi- mur, says the advocate of the customs officials in Quintilian, Declam. 341. The result necessarily was greater strictness on the part of the officers : the law gave them the right of searching the luggage and the person of all travellers (except that personal search of matrons was forbidden) :* they sometimes disturbed and turned over _per- sonal luggage in the search for contraband articles. |
Officials, soldiers, and certain distinguished per- sons, by special favour of the Emperor, travelled duty-free, and safe from such troublesome ex- almination (dré\ea),
The customs duties (portoria) formed a most important item in the revenues of the Roman State, and their regular and complete exaction was a matter of the utmost moment.+ They were levied at the frontier stations in the nearest cities, which all bore the title portus, \uhv, whether they were maritime towns or frontier towns on the great land roads. Hence, ¢.g., Derbe, which was a frontier town of the province Galatia, is called \ujv by Stephanus Byzantinus.§
* See the case of the lady who hid 400 pearls in her bosom, Quintilian, Declam. 359.
t References in Friedliinder, p. 46, n. 1.
{ ‘The frontier duties (portoria) formed the principal part of the State revenue’ (Rostowzew, ‘ Gesch. der Staatspacht in der rom. Kaiserzeit,’ Philol. Suppl. ix. p. 409).
§ See DERBE, Vol. i. p, 595; GaLattA, ii. p. 879; Lycaonta, iii. p. 175». This important fact about Derbe remains entirely disregarded by writers on the subject; and Aigy is commonly altered to Aiuvy.
Only in the case of the province Achaia was there an exception perhaps made. Dessau (Hermes, xix. p. 532) expresses the opinion that the Romans exacted no customs duties in that province during the Imperial period, and thinks that Athens col- lected customs in the harbour of Pirseus for its own benefit at that time, according to an inscrip- tion of Pireeus (published in Philologus, 1870, vol. xxix. p. 694). If he is right, there were no customs duties in the great harbour of Corinth (except in so far as that city was permitted to charge for its own advantage); and this freedom would greatly encourage the passage of intercourse through the city.