The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (collected till 1923) and Outlines of Political History c7.39

c7.39

Apart from the statements made in the *Arthaśāstra* we gather some notion as to the sort of lives led by the people under the rule of Chandragupta and his successors from independent sources. Justin, a Roman writer (*Epitoma Pompei Trogi*, 15, 4,) dealing with the period when Chandragupta was reigning triumphantly after his campaign against Seleukos, says that the Hindu monarch after his victory ‘had forfeited by his tyranny all title to the name of liberator, for, having ascended the throne, he oppressed with servitude the very people whom he had emancipated from foreign thraldom.’ Three centuries later Strabo (xv. 1, 40) asserts that Chandragupta forced all farmers, great and small, to hand over to the Government Treasury three-quarters of the produce of the land, keeping only one-quarter for the maintenance of themselves and their families; and that Chandragupta assumed, as a general principle that he was the absolute owner of the soil of all the lands that came under his rule.