﻿86 THE AGE OF PETRONIUS ARBITER. 



U. C), and favored by Pompey], et eo magis, quod portoriis Italiae sublatis, agro Cam- 

 pano di-viso, quod vectigal superest domesticum praeter vicesimam 1 " 



The question whether this tax was paid by the master or the slave is discussed at 

 large by P. BuiToann in his dissertation De Yectigalibus Populi Eomani (c. 10, p. 155 

 and foil.) ; and is for good reasons decided that it was paid by the slave. Passages 



like the following — Arrian. 2. 1 : ' Orav ow arpe-^t] rt? eTrl o-TpaTrjyov avTOv SovKov, ovBep 

 eTroirjcre ' ti ; e<7Tpe-^e top avTov SovXov • aWo ovSev ; vai, Kai, eiKoiTTrjv avTov Bovvai o^eiXei • 

 3. 26 : o BoOXo'i €v9vi ev^erat a^eOrjvai, e\ev6epo<;, Bia Tt BoKelre ; on rot? etKoaTQ3vai<s eiri- 

 dv/xel hovvai dpjvpiov ; ov, aW ore (jsavTa^erai, k. t. X. ; Petron. 58. 2 : " Tu autem, 

 inquit, etiam tu rides, cepa purrhiata [al. pica cirrata, cepa cirrata] ? O Saturnalia ! 

 Rogo, mensis December est 1 Quando vicesimam numerasti 1 " — render it certain that 

 the duty of paying lay with the slave. The many instances when the master paid the 

 tax were prompted by the liberality of the latter. The same feeling which led a gen- 

 erous master to manumit a favorite slave would also induce him, provided he had the 

 means, to pay in his stead the tax required by law. Cf Petron. 71. 1, 2: "Ad sum- 

 mam omnes illos in testamento meo manumitto. Philargyro etiam fundum lego et 

 contubernalem suam. Carrioni quoque insulam et vicesimam et lectum stratum." The 

 above passage (c. 65. 10), — "Scissa lautam novemdialem servo misello faciebat, quern 

 mortuiun manumiserat; et puto, cum ncesimariis magnam mantissam habet," — if right- 

 ly interpreted, does not conflict with this view. The owner, whatever be his name, — 

 Scissa or Scilla or Stilla or Sylla, — had manumitted his slave after the latter's death, 

 probably deeming this act a cheap mark of affection and regard. But the collectors 

 of the " vicesima" took a different ^'iew, and, the manumitted being beyond their 

 reach, they claimed the payment of the tax of the master. 



The collection of this tax, " vicesima," like all other taxes, instead of being con- 

 ducted directly by the state through its own officers, was, from the earliest times, 

 committed to " j)ublicani," farmers of the public revenue, who were, probably, called 

 " -Ndcesimarii." The earliest emperors, while endeavoring to check and prevent the 

 great and shameful* abuses which had gradually crept into this mode of collecting the 

 revenue, the natural and inevitable offspring of the system, did not alter the system 



* Tacit. Annal. 13. 50, 51 : " Eodem anno [59 A. D.] crebris populi flagitationibus immodestiam publi- 



canorum arguentis, dubitavit Nero, an cuncta vectigalia omitti juberet Ergo edixit Princeps, ut leges 



cujusque publici occultae ad id tempus proscriberentur ; omissas petitiones non ultra annum resumerent ; 

 Romae praetor, per provincias, qui pro praetore aut consule essent, jura adversus publicanos extra ordinem 

 redderent." The Digests (39, tit. 4, " De Publicanis et Yectigalibus et Commissis ") are full of provisions 

 against the abuses of the " publicani." 



