﻿THE AGE OF PETRONIUS ARBITER. 85 



the successors of Augustus, it is to be observed, that, as Augustus was not the first who 

 received this distinction, — Cicero ha^■ing been honored with this appellation, — so he 

 was not the last. Suetonius relates that the soldiers, after proclaiming Nero emperor, 

 heaped all kinds of titles upon him, and that he declined that of "pater patriae." 

 C£ Suet. Xer. 8: " Discessitque jam vesperi, ex immensis, quibus cumulabatur honori- 

 bus, tantum patris patriae nomine recusato propter aetatem." This proves clearly two 

 things, that the people did not hesitate to confer this title upon another person besides 

 Augustus, and that Nero did not accept it. 



The evidence in the case is this, then. Of the first five emperors, from Augustus 

 to Nero, Tiberius and Nero declined the title of " pater patriae " ; we have no evidence 

 that Caligula and Claudius ever received it ; but we have the most undoubted testi- 

 mony that Octavianus received and accepted both titles, that of Augustus as well as 

 " pater patriae." "WTiile the composition of the work, as has already been remarked, 

 cannot, therefore, be placed earlier than the year 2 B. C. (752 U. C), all the evidence 

 we have is in favor of the supposition that Augustus is the emperor referred to, and 

 that the work, although later than the year 2 B. C. (752 U. C), belongs still to his 

 reign. 



14. C. 65. 10 : " Et puto, cum vicesimariis magnam mantissam habet." There were 

 two kinds of " -sicesima," or tax of one twentieth, or five per cent, the " ^-icesima manu- 

 missionimi" or " aurum \-icesimarium," and the " vicesima hereditatum " ; that is, that, 

 in cases of manumission and of inheritance, one twentieth of the value of the slave or 

 the inheritance had to be paid into the pviblic treasury. The " vicesima manumissio- 

 mun" referred to in the above passage, the subject of our inquuy, was the older of the 

 two, and was established, in a very unusual manner and at a pretty early period, by the 

 Lex Manlia of the consul Cn. Manlius, 357 B. C. (397 U. C). C£ Liv. 7. 16: " Ab 

 altero consule nihil memorabile gestum, nisi quod legem novo exemplo ad Sutrium in 

 castris tributim de vicesima eorum, qui manumitterentur, tulit. Patres, quia ea lege 

 hand parvum vectigal inopi aerario additum esset, auctores fueriuit." The revenue thus 

 raised was kept in the " aerarium sanctius," to indicate that this part of the public 

 resources was to be used in extreme cases only. Cf Liv. 27. 10: " Cetera expedientibus, 

 quae ad bellum opus erant, consulibus, aurum vicesimarium, quod in sanctiore aeraiio 

 ad viltimos casus servabatur, promi placuit." This tax continued ever after to be col- 

 lected, and was at all times one of the most productive and most important among the 

 internal, that is, Italian revenues. Cf Cic. ad Attic. 2. 16 (Billerbeck 1. 42): "Prae- 

 terea si uUa res est, quae bonorum animos, quos jam Addeo esse commotos, vehementius 

 possit "incendere, haec certe est [an agrarian law proposed by Caesar, 59 B. C. (695 



VOL. VI. NEW SERIES. 12 



