C. Julius Caesar, Commentaries on the Civil War
William Duncan, Ed.

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Meanwhile the money demanded of the province was levied with great rigour, and various pretences were devised, to serve as a ground to new exactions. Slaves and freemen were subject to a capitation tax. Imposts were laid upon pillars and doors of houses. Corn, soldiers, mariners, arms, engines, carriages, in a word, every thing that had a name, furnished a sufficient handle for extorting money. Governors were appointed not only over towns, but over villages and castles; and he that acted with the greatest rigour and cruelty, was accounted the worthiest man and best citizen. The province swarmed with lictors, overseers, and collectors, who, besides the sums imposed by public authority exacted money likewise on their own account, colouring their iniquitous demands with a pretence that they had been expelled their country and native homes, and were in extreme want of every thing. Add to all these calamities, immoderate usury, an evil almost inseparable from war; for so great sums are then exacted, beyond what a country is able to furnish, they are obliged to apply for a delay, which at any price is still accounted a favour. Thus the debts of the province increased considerably during these two years. Nor were the Roman citizens the only sufferers on this occasion; for certain sums were demanded of every state and corporation, as a loan upon the senate's decree; and the farmers of the revenue were ordered to advance the next year's tribute, in like manner as when they first entered upon office.