Seneca - College of Stoic Philosophers

CHAPTER VIISENECA IN POWERThe two following years (56 and 57) were quietand uneventful. Peace reigned throughout theEmpire, while in Rome the Senate, to which apart of its former authority had been restored,was occupied in legislative work, especially inconnection with the administration of therevenue, which was transferred from the quaestors,to whom it had been entrusted by Claudius,to prefects who had served as praetors, andwere men of longer experience. The decayingcolonies of Capua and Nuceria were assistedby the introduction of new drafts of veteransand by subsidies. The Roman import dutyon slaves was remitted ;but this, observesTacitus, was found to be a boon rather in appearancethan in reality to the importer, sincehe had already succeeded in transferring thetax to the consumer by adding it to his price.^The provincial cities in Italy and elsewherein the Empire enjoyed at this time analmost complete system of self-government. Their*Ann. xiii. 31 : 'Quia, cum venditor pendere juberetur, inpartem pretii emptoribus accrescebat/