AERĀRĬUM (τὸ δημόσιον), the public treasury at Rome, and hence the
public money itself. After the banishment of the kings the temple
of Saturn was employed as the place for keeping the public money,
and it continued to be so used till the later times of the empire.
Besides the public money and the accounts connected with it, various
other things were preserved in the treasury; of these the most
important were:--1. The standards of the legions. 2. The various
laws passed from time to time, engraven on brazen tables. 3. The
decrees of the senate, which were entered there in books kept for the
purpose, though the original documents were preserved in the temple
of Ceres under the custody of the aediles. 4. Various other public
documents, the reports and despatches of all generals and governors
of provinces, the names of all foreign ambassadors that came to Rome,
&c. Under the republic the aerarium was divided into two parts: the
_common_ treasury, in which were deposited the regular taxes, and
from which were taken the sums of money needed for the ordinary
expenditure of the state; and the _sacred_ treasury (_aerarium
sanctum_ or _sanctius_), which was never touched except in cases of
extreme peril. Both of these treasuries were in the temple of Saturn,
but in distinct parts of the temple. The produce of a tax of five
per cent. (_vicesima_) upon the value of every manumitted slave,
called _aurum vicesimarium_, was paid into the sacred treasury, as
well as a portion of the immense wealth obtained by the Romans in
their conquests in the East. Under Augustus the provinces and the
administration of the government were divided between the senate,
as the representative of the old Roman people, and the Caesar: all
the property of the former continued to be called _aerarium_, and
that of the latter received the name of _fiscus_. Augustus also
established a third treasury, to provide for the pay and support of
the army, and this received the name of _aerarium militare_. He also
imposed several new taxes to be paid into this aerarium. In the time
of the republic, the entire management of the revenues of the state
belonged to the senate; and under the superintendence and control of
the senate the quaestors had the charge of the aerarium. In B.C. 28,
Augustus deprived the quaestors of the charge of the treasury and
gave it to two praefects, whom he allowed the senate to choose from
among the praetors at the end of their year of office. Various other
changes were made with respect to the charge of the aerarium, but it
was eventually entrusted, in the reign of Trajan, to praefects, who
appear to have held their office for two years.
AES (χαλκός), properly signifies a compound of copper and tin,
corresponding to what we call _bronze_. It is incorrect to translate
it _brass_, which is a combination of copper and zinc, since all the
specimens of ancient objects, formed of the material called aes,
are found upon analysis to contain no zinc. The employment of aes
was very general among the ancients; money, vases, and utensils of
all sorts, being made of it. All the most ancient coins in Rome and
the old Italian states were made of aes, and hence money in general
was called by this name. For the same reason we have _aes alienum_,
meaning debt, and _aera_ in the plural, pay to the soldiers. The
Romans had no other coinage except bronze or copper (_aes_), till
B.C. 269, five years before the first Punic war, when silver was
first coined; gold was not coined till sixty-two years after silver.
The first coinage of aes is usually attributed to Servius Tullius,
who is said to have stamped the money with the image of cattle
(_pecus_), whence it is called _pecunia_. According to some accounts,
it was coined from the commencement of the city, and we know that
the old Italian states possessed a bronze or copper coinage from the
earliest times. The first coinage was the _as_ [AS], which originally
was a pound weight; but as in course of time the weight of the _as_
was reduced not only in Rome, but in the other Italian states, and
this reduction in weight was not uniform in the different states,
it became usual in all bargains to pay the asses according to their
weight, and not according to their nominal value. The _aes grave_ was
not the old heavy coins as distinguished from the lighter modern; but
it signified any number of copper coins reckoned according to the old
style, by weight. There was, therefore, no occasion for the state
to suppress the circulation of the old copper coins, since in all
bargains the asses were not reckoned by tale, but by weight.--Bronze
or copper (χαλκός) was very little used by the Greeks for money in
early times. Silver was originally the universal currency, and copper
appears to have been seldom coined till after the time of Alexander
the Great. The copper coin was called _Chalcous_ (χαλκούς). The
smallest silver coin at Athens was the quarter-obol, and the chalcous
was the half of that, or the eighth of an obol. In later times, the
obol was coined of copper as well as silver.
AES CIRCUMFORĀNĔUM, money borrowed from the Roman bankers
(_argentarii_), who had shops in porticoes round the forum.
AES ĔQUESTRE, AES HORDĔĀRĬUM, and AES MĪLĬTĀRE, were the ancient
terms for the pay of the Roman soldiers, before the regular
_stipendium_ was introduced. The _aes equestre_ was the sum of
money given for the purchase of the horse of an eques; the _aes
hordearium_, the sum paid yearly for its keep, in other words the
pay of an eques; and the _aes militare_, the pay of a foot soldier.
None of this money seems to have been taken from the public treasury,
but to have been paid by certain private persons, to whom this duty
was assigned by the state. The _aes hordearium_, which amounted to
2000 asses, had to be paid by single women (_viduae_, i.e. both
maidens and widows) and orphans (_orbi_), provided they possessed a
certain amount of property. The _aes equestre_, which amounted to
10,000 asses, was probably also paid by the same class of persons.
The _aes militare_, the amount of which is not expressly mentioned,
had to be paid by the _tribuni aerarii_, and if not paid, the foot
soldiers had a right of distress against them. It is generally
assumed that these _tribuni aerarii_ were magistrates connected with
the treasury, and that they were the assistants of the quaestors;
but there are good reasons for believing that the _tribuni aerarii_
were private persons, who were liable to the payment of the _aes
militare_, and upon whose property a distress might be levied, if
the money were not paid. They were probably persons whose property
was rated at a certain sum in the census, and we may conjecture that
they obtained the name of _tribuni aerarii_ because they levied the
_tributum_, which was imposed for the purpose of paying the army,
and then paid it to the soldiers. These _tribuni aerarii_ were no
longer needed when the state took into its own hands the payment of
the troops; but they were revived in B.C. 70, as a distinct class in
the commonwealth, by the Lex Aurelia, which gave the judicia to the
senators, equites and tribuni aerarii.
AES UXŌRĬUM, was a tax paid by men who reached old age without having
married. It was first imposed by the censors in B.C. 403. [LEX JULIA
ET PAPIA POPPAEA.]
AESYMNĒTES (αἰσυμνήτης), a person who was sometimes invested with
unlimited power in the Greek states. His power partook in some degree
of the nature both of kingly and tyrannical authority; since he was
appointed legally, and did not usurp the government, but at the same
time was not bound by any laws in his public administration. The
office was not hereditary, nor was it held for life; but it only
continued for a limited time, or till some object was accomplished.
Thus we read that the inhabitants of Mytilene appointed Pittacus
aesymnetes, in order to prevent the return of Alcaeus and the other
exiles. Dionysius compares it with the dictatorship of Rome. In some
states, such as Cyme and Chalcedon, it was the title borne by the
regular magistrates.