That same year, repeated
demands on the part of the people, who denounced the excessive greed of the
revenue
collectors, made Nero doubt
whether he should not order the repeal of all indirect taxes, and so confer
a most splendid boon on the human race. But this sudden impulse was checked
by the senators, who, having first heartily praised the grandeur of his
conception, pointed out "that the dissolution of the empire must ensue if
the revenues which supported the State were to be diminished; for as soon as
the customs were swept away, there would follow a demand for the abolition
of the direct taxes. Many companies for the collection of the indirect taxes
had been formed by consuls and tribunes, when the freedom of the Roman
people was still in its vigour, and arrangements were subsequently made to
insure an exact correspondence between the amount of income and the
necessary disbursements. Certainly some restraint, they admitted, must be
put on the cupidity of the revenue collectors, that they might not by new
oppressions bring into odium what for so many years had been endured without
a complaint."
