<blockquote>'..The world has not yet learned how to maintain peace with anything like the success of the early Roman emperors..
..
The Roman failure to make an adequate industrial development, and the presence in the city of a large number of slaves, left continuing unemployment.
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The Augustan boom, as was said earlier, was partly the result of a heavy spending program. This had been made possible primarily by the spoils collected in Egypt. But eventually the money ran out. In his later years Augustus spent far less on public buildings and popular entertainments than in his earlier ones. The wars just referred to had proved a heavy financial drain. Large sums of money went back to the provinces to pay for luxuries imported by the rich. With the exhaustion of mines the flow of gold and silver to the mints was checked. Coinage, according to Professor Frank's estimate, fell to about 5 percent of its former rate. This was deflation with a vengeance. Interest rose and prices fell. The next emperor, Tiberius, by rigid economy succeeded eventually in balancing the budget without increasing taxes; in some cases he was able to reduce them. When his representative in Egypt turned in more money than was due from the regular imperial taxes, the emperor sent back word that he wished his sheep sheared but not shaved. A sternly conscientious man — in spite of scandalous stories circulated by his enemies — Tiberius risked unpopularity in the capital by cutting out the expensive public shows that his predecessor had thought necessary to keep the people in a good humor.
His thrifty attitude is indicated by an incident related by Tacitus. The aristocracy believed the old families ought to be subsidized, if necessary, in order to maintain a proper governing class. A spendthrift senator brought his four young sons to the Senate and delivered a public plea to the emperor to make them a grant of money. The senators were sympathetic; it wasn't their money that was to be given away. Tiberius took a more responsible view. "If every poor man is to come to this chamber," he replied, "and ask for money for his children, there will be no satisfying the claimants, and the public exchequer will be emptied."
However, in view of the generous mood of the Senate he weakened and made each boy a grant of 10 thousand dollars. The affair gives a clue to the unpopularity of Tiberius in Rome as contrasted with the popularity which his efficient administration won him in the provinces. The ungraciousness of his words spoiled the effect of his generosity. Tacitus thought them an indication of the emperor's "sour temper." The tactful Augustus might have refused to make the gift, without arousing resentment. It used to be said of two American presidents that Benjamin Harrison could make an enemy by the way he said yes, while William McKinley could make a friend by the way he said no.'
- Henry Joseph Haskell,
Boom and Depression in Ancient Rome, October 06, 2011 (
The New Deal in Old Rome[/url)</blockquote>