PUBLĬCĀNI, farmers of the public revenues of the Roman state
(_vectigalia_). Their name is formed from _publicum_, which signifies
all that belongs to the state, and is sometimes used by Roman writers
as synonymous with _vectigal_. The revenues which Rome derived from
conquered countries, consisting chiefly of tolls, tithes, harbour
duties, the scriptura, or the tax which was paid for the use of the
public pasture lands, and the duties paid for the use of mines and
salt-works (_salinae_), were let out, or, as the Romans expressed it,
were sold by the censors in Rome itself to the highest bidder. This
sale generally took place in the month of Quinctilis, and was made
for a lustrum. The terms on which the revenues were let, were fixed
by the censors in the so-called _leges censoriae_. The people or the
senate, however, sometimes modified the terms fixed by the censors,
in order to raise the credit of the publicani; and in some cases
even the tribunes of the people interfered in this branch of the
administration. The tithes raised in the province of Sicily alone,
with the exception of those of wine, oil, and garden produce, were
not sold at Rome, but in the districts of Sicily itself, according
to a practice established by Hiero. The persons who undertook the
farming of the public revenue of course belonged to the wealthiest
Romans, and during the latter period of the republic they belonged
almost exclusively to the equestrian order. Their wealth and
consequent influence may be seen from the fact, that as early as the
second Punic war, after the battle of Cannae, when the aerarium was
entirely exhausted, the publicani advanced large sums of money to the
state, on condition of repayment after the end of the war. The words
equites and publicani are sometimes used as synonymous. The publicani
had to give security to the state for the sum at which they bought
one or more branches of the revenue in a province; but as for this
reason the property of even the wealthiest individual must have been
inadequate, a number of equites generally united together, and formed
a company (_socii_, _societas_, or _corpus_), which was recognised
by the state, and by which they were enabled to carry on their
undertakings upon a large scale. Such companies appear as early as
the second Punic war. The shares which each partner of such a company
took in the business were called _partes_, and if they were small,
_particulae_. The responsible person in each company, and the one who
contracted with the state, was called _manceps_ [MANCEPS]; but there
was also a _magister_ to manage the business of each society, who
resided at Rome, and kept an extensive correspondence with the agents
in the provinces. He seems to have held his office only for one
year; his representative in the provinces was called _sub magistro_,
who had to travel about, and superintend the actual business of
collecting the revenues. Nobody but a Roman citizen was allowed to
become a member of a company of publicani; freedmen and slaves were
excluded. No Roman magistrate, however, or governor of a province,
was allowed to take any share whatever in a company of publicani,
a regulation which was chiefly intended as a protection against
the oppression of the provincials. The collection of the taxes in
the provinces was performed by an inferior class of men, who were
said _operas publicanis dare_, or _esse in operis societatis_. They
were engaged by the publicani, and consisted of freemen as well as
slaves, Romans as well as provincials. The separate branches of the
public revenue in the provinces (_decumae_, _portoria_, _scriptura_,
and the revenues from the mines and salt-works) were mostly leased
to separate companies of publicani; whence they were distinguished
by names derived from that particular branch which they had taken in
farm; _e.g._ _decumani_, _pecuarii_ or _scripturarii_, _salinarii_ or
_mancipes salinarum_, &c. [DECUMAE; PORTORIUM; SALINAS; SCRIPTURA.]
The _portitores_ were not publicani properly so called, but only
their servants engaged in examining the goods imported or exported,
and levying the custom-duties upon them. They belonged to the same
class as the publicans of the New Testament.