Ancient and Mediaeval Europe. 
69 
the nature of fees granted for services. Taken as a whole, the 
Greek fee system was, like Greek civilization, far in advance of 
any other produced by the nations of antiquity, and may even 
be compared with those of the nineteenth century. 
ROME. 
The financial, problem which confronted Rome and her people, 
after she had become mistress of the Mediterranean, was far 
different from that which the Greeks had met and partially 
solved. The coffers of Rome were filled to overflowing with the 
tributes and plunder of conquered nations. She was not there¬ 
fore compelled to devise schemes for making her offices self- 
supporting. Thousands of captives were each year brought 
home to be used by the state as slaves, many of them as clerks, 
recorders, and copyists in the public offices. 1 The state was 
thus enabled to furnish its services to its citizens for nothing, 
and as a result the fee system was comparatively unknown un¬ 
til long after Rome had reached its zenith. 2 A noteworthy ex¬ 
ception is in the Roman temples. 3 Many of these required the 
attendance of numerous priests and vestal virgins. The volun¬ 
tary contributions which were at first made by worshippers, 
becoming gradually compulsory and fixed by custom, were at 
last collected in the form of admission fees from all who wished 
to enter. For permission to approach the altar, a special fee 
was charged; and a permit to sacrifice required a third pay¬ 
ment into the temple-chest, or treasury. At the time of the 
great festivals and religious ceremonies many of the temples 
obtained large revenues from these sources. 
In civil cases 4 a fee corresponding to the Greek prytania 
originated very early in the history of Rome, and was called sac - 
ramentum 5 but later it was regularly known under its Greek desig¬ 
nation. The etymology of the word, sacramentum, shows that it 
was originally a pledge presented to the temple or, at least, en- 
1 Mommsen, Romisches Staatsrecht, I, 239. 
2 Seyffert, Diet. Class. Ant ., p. 55. 
3 Mommsen, II, 62-65. 
4 Wagner, Finanzwissenschaft. II, 52. 
6 Mommsen, II, 65. 
