Aerarium militare
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The aerarium militare was the military treasury of Imperial Rome. It was instituted by Augustus, the first Roman emperor, as a "permanent revenue source"[1] for pensions (praemia) for veterans of the Imperial Roman army. The treasury derived its funding from new taxes, an inheritance tax and a sales tax, and regularized the ad hoc provisions for veterans that under the Republic often had involved socially disruptive confiscation of property.
The praefecti aerarii militaris (singular praefectus) were the three prefects who oversaw the treasury.
Benefits
The Imperial biographer and historian
Augustus included the aerarium militare among the accomplishments in his
A soldier earned a one-time praemium or
When the treasury experienced a shortfall, the emperor might avoid paying pensions by arbitrarily extending the length of military service, in a form of
Funding
The aerarium militare was part of an Augustan fiscal initiative that was at first greeted with hostility.
The other source of tax revenue for the military treasury—a sales tax of 1 percent on goods sold at auction (centesima rerum venalium)—is less attested.[14]
Administration
The military treasury was located on the
The treasury was administered by three prefects (praefecti aerarii militaris), who were former praetors at first chosen by lot for a term of three years.[17] Later they were appointed by the emperor. Their precise duties are unclear, though they were not charged with collecting the taxes. They may have served mainly to provide financial management and security.[17] Each senatorial prefect was assigned two lictors and other staff, but the later imperially-appointed prefects had no lictors.[18] (The lictor was an honorary bodyguard who was part of the civil service of Rome.) The change to appointment by the emperor may have been made as early as the reign of Claudius.[18] The younger Pliny was a prefect of the military treasury[17] appointed by Domitian.
See also
- Donativum, a cash "gift" from a new emperor to secure the loyalty of troops
- Economics of the Roman army
References
- ^ Cassius Dio 55.24.9; Swan, The Augustan Succession, p. 174. Dio, however, seems to have mistakenly thought that regular army pay (the stipendium) also came from this fund.
- ^ Suetonius, Augustus 49.2; Cassius Dio 54.25.6; Phang, Roman Military Service, p. 163.
- H.H. Scullard, From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome from 133 BC to AD 68 (Routledge, 2007, 5th ed.), pp. 221–222.
- ^ Phang, Roman Military Service, p. 164; Swan, The Augustan Succession, p. 173.
- ^ a b Swan, The Augustan Succession, p. 173.
- ^ a b Millar, Rome, the Greek World, and the East, p. 98.
- ^ a b Phang, Roman Military Service, p. 163.
- ^ Phang, Roman Military Service, p. 164.
- ^ Swan, The Augustan Succession, p. 174.
- ^ Res Gestae 17.2; Phang, Roman Military Service, p. 163.
- ^ J.S. Richardson, Augustan Rome 44 BC to AD 14: The Restoration of the Republic and the Establishment of the Empire (Edinburgh University Press, 2012), p. 172.
- ^ Swan, The Augustan Succession, pp. 174, 176.
- ^ Swan, The Augustan Succession, pp. 177–178.
- ^ Swan, The Augustan Succession, p. 178.
- ^ Swan, The Augustan Succession, p. 175; Millar, Rome, the Greek World, and the East, pp. 99–100.
- ^ Millar, Rome, the Greek World, and the East, p. 100.
- ^ a b c Swan, The Augustan Succession, p. 175.
- ^ a b Swan, The Augustan Succession, p. 176.
Bibliography
- Phang, Sara Elise. Roman Military Service: Ideologies of Discipline in the Late Republic and Early Principate Cambridge University Press, 2008.
- Millar, Fergus. Rome, the Greek World, and the East: Government, Society and Culture in the Roman Empire. University of North Carolina Press, 2004.
- Swan, Peter Michael. The Augustan Succession: An Historical Commentary on Cassius Dio's Roman History Books 55–56 (9 B.C–A.D. 14). Oxford University Press, 2004.
Further reading
- Corbeille, Mireille. L'aerarium saturni et l'aerarium militare. Administration et prosopographie sénatoriale. Publications de l'École française de Rome, 1974.