Publicani

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Publicani , or Germanized publications , were generally those in ancient Rome who took on government contracts. In the narrower sense, the public business was characterized by the fact that the interested party bought an order, i.e. made advance payments to carry out the order. In most cases, several audiences joined together to form a society, a societas publicanorum .

It is unusual in German to designate the Publicani as Publikaner ; rather, it refers to the Cathars or groups of the 12th century close to them.

background

The system of private-sector activity on behalf of the state, the heyday of which can be set from the second century BC to the first century AD, gave the Roman state the opportunity to act far-reaching without having to adjust the city-state administrative structures accordingly: the risk and organizational effort lay entirely with private individuals. As a procedure of indirect state rule, the public system is therefore embedded in the procedure of indirect rule typical of the early days of the great Roman state in relation to the subject areas.

If early examples of public activity relate to Roman building projects, the public went down in history not least because they had the right to collect taxes in some Roman territories (so-called tax leases ). Under favorable conditions, this lease offered excellent returns, which means that the invested capital could sometimes be recovered many times over. While the Roman state benefited from funds in the short term and relatively risk-free, the public were able to reap large profits in the medium term. Since the senators in the late republic were no longer allowed to carry out trade and shipping (especially according to the Lex Claudia de nave senatorum of 218 BC), the Roman practice of state leasing favored the economic rise of the equites (knights), their members who were active in the public domain were sometimes referred to as their own stand ( ordo publicanorum ). The economic rise resulted not only from the withheld, sometimes excessive, portion of the taxes to be collected, but also from the associated opportunity to be economically active, e.g. B. as a grain dealer and moneylender.

Excesses of the system in the province of Asia

The publications of the Roman province of Asia , for example, also organized the trade in slaves from Asia Minor who were sold to Italy as serfs of their sovereigns. Because of their ruthlessness, they were hated by the local population and merchants. According to ancient sources, King Mithridates of Pontus had 80,000 Publicani and other Italians killed in the province of Asia in the First Mithridatic War in the Vespers of Ephesus - this undoubtedly exaggerated number illustrates the shock this news triggered in Rome - and promised the cities that would joined a rebellion against the Romans that he supported, five years of tax exemption. Since the time of Sulla there have been attempts to collect the taxes of the cities in the provinces of Asia Minor directly from the provincial administrations. After the end of the Mithridatic Wars, however, the predatory administrative practice revived. Lucius Licinius Lucullus tried to reform it with little success. It was only Quintus Tullius Cicero who succeeded as governor of the province of Asia around 60 BC. B.C. to contain some devastating excesses of the system, especially over-taxation.

Advantages and disadvantages of the system

The system of publicity in the area of ​​tax and duty collection enabled the Roman Republic, which was still organized like a city-state, to hold onto its old administrative system for a while in a phase of rapid expansion and initially to set up a tight financial administration that spanned large parts of the eastern Mediterranean to avoid. In modern categories one would speak of the outsourcing of important core tasks of a state administration. However, the public system also had major disadvantages, which ultimately meant that it had to be overcome or changed:

Outperformance
The competition between different bidders could easily lead to an excessive increase, that is, to expenses that could subsequently no longer be covered
Lack of sustainability
Since the tax collection law was only valid for a certain period of time ( lustrum ) in a certain area, the beneficiaries were not particularly interested in conserving local resources beyond the period
Lack of flexibility
Since the public had made advance payments with large amounts of money at their own risk, it was necessary for them to collect taxes or charges regardless of whether the local conditions allowed this tax burden at all (e.g. in the case of bad harvests , that of rainfall dependent agriculture of the province of Asia were not uncommon, or in successful attacks by pirates on ships)
Lack of government control
Since the public system functioned instead of state structures, the problem of the lack of abuse control by the state arose
Dynamic of the system
The behavior of the public as omnipotent "rulers" on site led to numerous conflicts with the local population, for the costs of which the Roman state often had to pay.

Similar systems

The Roman system of tax tenants spread in the Middle Ages through the Italian city-states in many Romanic countries and also in the Rhineland. In France it existed with comparable advantages and disadvantages until the French Revolution . Since the 16th century, tax collection in the Ottoman Empire was often carried out in tax lease ( iltizam , later malikâne ) by a tax farmer ( mültezim ).

See also

literature

General
  • Géza Alföldy : Roman social history . 4th edition. Steiner, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-515-09841-0 (EA Wiesbaden 1984).
  • Géza Alföldy: The Roman Society. Structure and character . In the S. (Ed.): The Roman Society. Selected contributions (Heidelberg ancient historical contributions and epigraphic studies; 1). Steiner, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-515-04610-0 , pp. 41-68.
  • Jochen Bleicken : Constitutional and social history of the Roman Empire Vol. 1 ( UTB for science). 4th edition Schöningh, Paderborn 1995, ISBN 3-8252-0838-9 .
  • Peter Brunt : Social Conflicts in the Roman Republic . Hogarth Books, London 1986, ISBN 0-7012-0730-2 (EA London 1971).
  • Karl Christ : Basic questions of Roman social history . In: Werner Eck , Hartmut Galsterer , Hartmut Wolff (Hrsg.): Studies on social history. Festschrift Friedrich Vittinghoff (Kölner Historische Abhandlungen; 28). Böhlau, Cologne 1980, ISBN 3-41201180-0 , pp. 197–228.
  • Werner Dahlheim : violence and domination. The provincial system of rule of the Roman Republic . DeGruyter, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-11-006973-3 .
  • Francesco De Martino : Storia economia di Roma antica . La Nuova Italia, Florence 1980 (2 vol.)
    • German: Economic history of ancient Rome . 3rd edition Beck, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-406-30619-5 .
  • Walter Eder (Ed.): State and statehood in the Roman republic. Files from a symposium, 12.-15. July 1988 FUB . Steiner, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-515-05539-8 .
  • Walter Hörberg: The Roman provincial administration in Sicily and its principles until the end of the republic . Dissertation University of Erlangen 1966.
  • Keith Hopkins: Sociological Studies in Roman History . CUP, Cambridge 1981/83.
  1. Conqueros and slaves . 1981.
  2. Reath and renewal . 1983, ISBN 0-521-24991-0 .
  • Helmuth Schneider : Economy and Politics. Studies on the history of the late Roman Republic (Erlanger studies; 3). Palm & Enke, Erlangen 1974 (also dissertation University of Marburg 1973)
  • Helmuth Schneider (Hrsg.): Social and economic history of the Roman Empire ( ways of research ; 552). Scientific book club, Darmstadt 1981, ISBN 3-534-07806-3 .
  • Helmuth Schneider (Ed.): On the social and economic history of the late Roman Republic (ways of research; 413). Scientific book club, Darmstadt 1976, ISBN 3-534-06388-0 .
Especially for the "Publicani"
  • Ernst Badian: Publicans and sinners. Private enterprise in the service of the Roman Republic . University Press, Ithaca 1983, ISBN 0-8014-9241-6 .
    • German: tax collectors and sinners. Entrepreneur in the service of the Roman Republic . Scientific book club, Darmstadt 1997, ISBN 3-534-13143-6 .
  • Maria Rosa Cimma: Ricerche sulle società di publicani . Giuffrè, Milan 1981.
  • Konrad Dietrich: The legal basis of the cooperatives of the Roman state tenants . Klinkicht publishing house, Meissen 1898/99. (also annual report of the Princely and State School St. Afra )
  1. The legal nature of the societates publicanorum . 1898.
  2. Continuation and end . 1899.
  • Ulrike Malmendier : Societas publicanorum. State economic activities in the hands of private entrepreneurs (research on Roman law; 49). Böhlau, Cologne 2002, ISBN 3-412-12201-7 (also dissertation, University of Bonn 2001).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Lichtenberger: ECONOMY - The Roman tax system - The tax collection. In: imperium-romanum.com. Retrieved February 5, 2018 : “In the provinces of the Republican era, taxes were collected by publicani (tax farmers). Most of them were men from the equestrian order who had come together to form a societas publicanorum (leasing company). "
  2. ^ Michael Rostovtzeff: Social and economic history of the Hellenistic world. Volume 2, Darmstadt 1998, pp. 618 f., 645.
  3. ^ Charles Adams: For Good and Evil: The Impact of Taxes on the Course of Civilization. Rowman & Littlefield 1993, p. 91 f.
  4. ↑ Plutarch : Life of Lucullus 4.1.