Aerarium
Aerarium, from aes ("bronze, money") + -ārium ("place for"), was the name given in Ancient Rome to the public treasury,[1] and in a secondary sense to the public finances.[2]
Aerarium populi Romani
The main aerarium, that of the Roman people, was the aerarium Saturni located below the Temple of Saturn at the foot of the Capitoline hill.[1] The Roman state stored here financial and non-financial state documents – including Roman laws and senatus consulta – along with the public treasury. Laws did not become valid until they were deposited there.[1] It also held the standards of the Roman legions; during the Roman Republic, the urban quaestors managed it under the supervision and control of the Senate.[4] By the classical republican period, the Senate had exclusive authority to disburse funds from it.[5]
Caesar replaced quaestorian administration with the administration of two aediles.[6] In 28 BC, Augustus transferred the aerarium to two praefecti aerarii, chosen annually by the Senate from ex-praetors. In AD 23, these were replaced by two praetors (praetores aerarii or ad aerarium), selected by lot during their term of office. Claudius in 44 restored the quaestors, but had them nominated by the emperor for three years. In 56, Nero substituted two ex-praetors selected under the same conditions.[2]
By the time of the late republic, the provincial governors had their own provincial treasuries, called a fiscus (initially referring to a "money bag").
The extent to which records were centralised in the aerarium may be exaggerated. The various reforms done at previous times may imply negligent management, falsification, or loss of records. Even in the Republican period, Cicero lamented the extent to which the public records were managed[8] and in later periods, the extent to which the public records were really used for reference is controversial: scholars, eg Mommsen, have argued that the sources of law in the later empire were not based on state records but rather those of private individuals, law schools, and provincial administrators.[9]
Aerarium sanctius
In addition to the common treasury, supported by the general taxes and charged with the ordinary expenditure, there was a special reserve fund, also in the Temple of Saturn, the aerarium sanctum (or sanctius). This fund probably originally consisted of the
Aerarium militare
Besides creating the fiscus, Augustus also established in AD 6 a military treasury (aerarium militare) as a fund for veterans' retirement benefits. It was first endowed by 170 million sesterces of the emperor's own funds, supported by new taxes, a five per cent inheritance tax and a one per cent sales tax on auctions. Its administration was in the hands of three praefecti aerarii militaris. At first these were appointed by lot, but afterwards by the emperor, from ex-praetors, for three years.[11]
Tribuni aerarii
The tribuni aerarii ("tribunes of the treasury") have been the subject of much discussion. They are supposed by some to be identical with the curatores tribuum, and to have been the officials who, under the
According to
Publicum
Prior to the
On a number of occasions it is recorded that various patricians incurred the anger of the plebs by paying the spoils from war into the publicum rather than the aerarium, for example
References
Citations
- ^ a b c Burton 2012, para 1.
- ^ a b c d e f public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Aerarium". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 259. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Crawford 1974, pp. 460–61.
- ^ a b Burton 2012, para 2.
- ^ a b Crawford 2006.
- ^ Burton 2012, para 3.
- ^ Crawford 2006, citing, Cic. Verr., 2.3.197.
- ^ Thomas 2012, citing Cicero, Leg 3.20.46.
- ^ Thomas 2012.
- OCLC 71251297.
Caesar took a special fund... in case there was a repeat of the Gallic attack on Rome in 390 BC. Caesar announced that there was no longer any need of this since he had permanently dealt with the threat... he made no mention of any of this in the Commentaries
- ^ Burton 2012, para 4.
- Ab urbe condita, 2.42
- ^ Barthold Georg Niebuhr, Roman History, II, p.25
- ^ Albert Schwegler, Römische Geschichte, II, 286
Sources
- Burton, Graham Paul (2012). "aerarium". In Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Antony; Eidinow, Esther (eds.). The Oxford classical dictionary (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. OCLC 959667246.
- Crawford, Michael Hewson (1974). Roman Republican Coinage. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-5210-7492-6.
- Crawford, Michael Hewson (2006). "Aerarium". Brill's New Pauly. . Retrieved 2022-12-12.
- Thomas, Rosalind (2012). "records and record-keeping, attitudes to". In Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Antony; Eidinow, Esther (eds.). The Oxford classical dictionary (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. OCLC 959667246.
External links
- Aerarium (article in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities)