The cat-and-mouse game intensified as the centuries wore on. The Roman government constantly tried to fight back, introducing a more professional bureaucracy and implementing fixed tax quotas for provinces to reduce the systemic abuse by tax farmers. In certain periods, they even resorted to harsh penalties, including the outright confiscation of property. However, enforcement remained uneven, especially in distant provinces where central oversight was weak.This long article gives a fascinating account of ancient Roman taxation, and efforts to evade it, until the imperial bureacracy "collapsed under it's own weight." It includes an account of the recently published papyrus covering a pre-Bar Kokhba Revolt tax-fraud and forgery case, on which more here.
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