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16And when Marcus Lepidus and Lucius Plancus became consuls, tablets were again set up, not involving the death of any one this time, but defrauding the living of their property. 2For the triumvirs found themselves in need of more money, inasmuch as they already owed large sums to large numbers of soldiers, were spending large sums on undertakings then being carried out by them, and expected to spend far more still on the wars in prospect; they therefore proceeded to collect funds. 3Now the reintroduction of the taxes which had been formerly abrogated, or the establishment of new ones, and the institution of the joint contributions, which they levied in large numbers both on the land and on the slaves, caused the people some little distress, it is true; 4but that those who were in the slightest degree still prosperous, not only senators or knights, but even freedmen, men and women alike, should be listed on the tablets and mulcted of another “tithe” of their wealth irritated everybody exceedingly. 5For it was in name only that a tenth of each one’s property was exacted; in reality not so much as a tenth was left. For since they were not ordered to contribute a stated amount according to the value of their possessions, but had the duty of assessing the value of their own goods, they were as a result liable to be accused of not having made a fair assessment and to lose in addition what they had left.
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