We know, again from the Gospels, the hatred of the Jews of the first century for the Roman tax collectors. By the time of Ausonius [sec. IV] that hatred was universal. But now I must ask a great concession of my readers: to pity the poor tax man, whose life was far more miserable than the lives of those who suffered his exactions. The tax man, or curialis, was born that way: Can you imagine the dawning horror on realizing that you were born into a class of worms who were expected to spend their entire adult life spans collecting taxes from their immediate neighbors – and that there was no way out?

But this was only the beginning of the horror. Whatever the curiales were unable to collect they had to make good out of their own resources! Who were these wretches, and how were they assigned their doom?

***

E agora fiquei com vontade de ler os outros livros da série Hinges of History. E esse também, que não faz parte da série mas tem cara de ser bom.

Vejam bem, não são tratados de História; são introduções, pontos de partida pra quem não sabe nada do assunto e quer saber mais. A narrativa é deliciosa, as curiosidades são muitas, a ironia é tanta. A-DO-RO.