﻿THE AGE OF PETRONIUS AEBITER. 87 



itself. Tacitus says, in his account of the administration of Tiberius (Annal. 4. 6) : 

 " At frumenta et pecuniae vectigales cetera publicorum fructuum societatibus equitum 

 Romanorum [that is, ' jDublicauorum '] agitabantur." But, xxnquestionably, the ten- 

 dency of the imperial administration was to transfer the collection of taxes from the 

 "publicani" to imperial officers; and the change was gradually so far carried out, that 

 at last the collection of the revenues arismg from customs and a few mines and salt- 

 works was the only remnant of the fomier system of letting and farming the public 

 revenues. At which time and under which emperor this change took place in the case 

 of the " vicesima manumissionum," I am unable to say. A few inscriptions which refer 

 to collectors of the " vicesima," after the change had been made, are too obscure and 

 too uncertain with regard to their age to aid us in answering this question.* So much 

 is probable, from this passage of Petronius, and from the cu'cumstance that '• vicesima- 

 rius" is formed analogously to " scripturarius," a farmer of the revenues arising from 

 the pastures, that the book was written before the collection of the tax " vicesima " 

 was transferred from the " publicani " to imperial officials. Unfortunately, inscriptions 

 mentioning "publicani" are rare. Gruter and Orelli mention one only. If we had 

 more, we might possibly from them obtain some light. As it is, the above passage of 

 Petronius is at least of a negative value, inasmuch as it contains nothing which would 

 be an objection to the adoption of quite an early period as the time m which this book 

 belongs. 



15. C. 68. 4: "Interea medium Aeneas jam classe tenebat"; the commencement of 

 Vii-g. ^n. 5. See also some other quotations, c. 112. 2, fi.-om JEn. 4. 38 and 39; 

 c. 111. 11, from ^n. 4. 34. Virgil was bom the 15th of October, 70 B. C. (684 

 U. C), — the same year in which Cicero, as asdile elect, delivered some of his orations 

 against Verres, — at Andes, near INIantua, and died, while engaged in the completion 

 of his ^neid, the 22d of September, 19 B. C. (735 U. C), in his fifty-first year. It is 

 the generally received opinion that the .^neid was not published until after the poet's 

 death, but was, upon its publication, immediately greeted with great applause. 



* Orelli Inscript. Lat. 1470 : " D. P. D. M. || Urbanus || XX Libert." 

 Ibid. 3338 : " Barnaeus Soc. Salama 



Socior. Sabbioni Soc. 

 Vicens Liber. Sibi Et Vicens 

 Libertis. Vicens. Libertae 

 Fratrib. Suis V. Fee. Ser 



Vix. An. XXV Servo 

 D. M." 



