The poor live on the wealth of the rich and that is the reason why that wealth is sacred.

Do not touch it, to do so would be an uncalled for evil.

You will get no great profit by taking from the rich, for they are very few in number; on the contrary you will strip yourself of all your resources and plunge the country into misery.
Whereas if you ask a little from each inhabitant without regard to his wealth, you will collect enough for the public necessities and you will have no need to enquire into each citizen's resources, a thing that would be regarded by all as a most vexatious measure.

By taxing all equally and easily you will spare the poor, for you Will leave them the wealth of the rich.

And how could you possibly proportion taxes to wealth?
Yesterday I had two hundred oxen, to-day I have sixty, to-morrow I shall have a hundred.